Module 23: IPv4 Address

Structure
Networking Essentials 3.0
Module Objectives
Module Title: IPv4 Address Structure
Module Objective: Calculate an IPv4 subnetting scheme to efficiently segment a network.

Topic Title Topic Objective

Describe the structure of an IPv4 address include the network portion,

IPv4 Address Structure
the host portion, and the subnet mask.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
23.1 IPv4 Address Structure

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3
IPv4 Address Structure
Network and Host Portions
• An IPv4 address is a 32-bit hierarchical address that makes up a network and host portions.
• When determining the network portion versus the host portion, you must look at the 32-bit stream, as
shown in the figure.

• The bits within the network portion of the address must be identical for all devices that reside in the same
network.
• The bits within the address's host portion must be unique to identify a specific host within a network.
• If two hosts have the same bit pattern in the specified network portion of the 32-bit stream, those two
hosts will reside in the same network.
• But how do hosts know which portion of the 32-bits identifies the network and which identifies the host?
• That is the role of the subnet mask.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask

As shown in the figure, assigning an IPv4 address to a host requires the

IPv4 Configuration on a
following:
Windows Computer
• IPv4 address - The unique IPv4 address of the host.
• Subnet mask- Used to identify the network/host portion of the IPv4
address.
Note: A default gateway IPv4 address is required to reach remote
networks, and DNS server IPv4 addresses are needed to translate domain
names to IPv4 addresses.

• The IPv4 subnet mask differentiates the network portion from the host
portion of an IPv4 address.

• When assigning an IPv4 address to a device, the subnet mask

determines the device's network address.

• The network address represents all the devices on the same network.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5
IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask (Cont.)
• The next figure displays the 32-bit subnet mask in dotted decimal and binary formats.

Subnet Mask

• Notice how the subnet mask is a consecutive sequence of 1 bits followed by a consecutive
sequence of 0 bits.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6
IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask (Cont.)
• The subnet mask is compared to the IPv4 address bit for bit, from left to right, as shown in the figure,
which identifies the network and host portions of an IPv4 address.

Associating an IPv4 Address with its Subnet Mask

• Note that the subnet mask does not contain the network or host portion of an IPv4 address. It just
tells the computer where to look for the part of the IPv4 address that is the network portion and
which part is the host portion.
• The process used to identify the network and host portions is called ANDing.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
IPv4 Address Structure
The Prefix Length
• Expressing network and host addresses with the dotted decimal subnet mask address can become
cumbersome.

• Fortunately, there is an alternative method of identifying a subnet mask; a technique called the prefix
length.

• The prefix length is the number of bits set to 1 in the subnet mask.

• It is written in “slash notation,” which is noted by a forward slash (/) followed by the number of bits set to
1.

• Therefore, count the number of bits in the subnet mask and prepend it with a slash.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8
IPv4 Address Structure
The Prefix Length (Cont.)
Subnet Mask 32-bit Address Prefix Length
255.0.0.0 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 /8
255.255.0.0 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 /16
255.255.255.0 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 /24
255.255.255.128 11111111.11111111.11111111.10000000 /25
255.255.255.192 11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000 /26
255.255.255.224 11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000 /27
255.255.255.240 11111111.11111111.11111111.11110000 /28
255.255.255.248 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000 /29
255.255.255.252 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111100 /30

Note: A network address refers to a prefix or network prefix. Therefore, the prefix length is the number of 1 bit
in the subnet mask.
• When representing an IPv4 address using a prefix length, the IPv4 address is written, followed by the prefix
length with no spaces.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9
IPv4 Address Structure
Determining the Network: Logical AND
• A logical AND is one of three Boolean operations used in Boolean or digital logic (the other two are
OR and NOT).

• The use of the AND operation determines the network address.

• Logical AND is the comparison of two bits that produce the results shown below:
• 1 AND 1 = 1
• 0 AND 1 = 0
• 1 AND 0 = 0
• 0 AND 0 = 0

Note: In digital logic, 1 represents True, and 0 represents False. Both input values must be True (1)
when using an AND operation for the result to be True (1).

• The IPv4 address is logically ANDed, bit by bit, with the subnet mask, which identifies the network
address of an IPv4 host.

• ANDing between the address and the subnet mask yields the network address.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
IPv4 Address Structure
Determining the Network: Logical AND (Cont.)
• To illustrate how AND is used to discover a network address, consider a host with IPv4 address
192.168.10.10 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, as shown in the figure:
• The IPv4 host address (192.168.10.10) is in dotted decimal and binary formats.
• Subnet mask (255.255.255.0) is in dotted decimal and binary formats.
• The network address (192.168.10.0) - The logical AND operation between the IPv4 address and
subnet mask results in an IPv4 network address shown in dotted decimal and binary formats.

• The AND operation performs on the 1-bit of the host address

with the 1-bit of the subnet mask, which uses the first
sequence of bits as an example.
• This results in a 1 bit for the network address (1 AND 1 = 1).
• The AND operation between an IPv4 host address and a
subnet mask results in the IPv4 network address for this host.
• The AND operation between the host address results in the
IPv4 network address of 192.168.10.0/24.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
IPv4 Address Structure
Video - Network, Host and Broadcast Addresses
This video will cover the following:

• Network address
• Broadcast address
• First usable host
• Last usable host

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12
23.2 IPv4 Address Structure
Summary

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13
IPv4 Address Structure Summary
What Did I Learn in this Module?
• A network portion and a host portion make up a 32-bit hierarchical address which is an IPv4 address.
• The bits within the network portion of the address must be identical for all devices that reside in the same
network.
• The bits within the address's host portion must be unique to identify a specific host within a network.
• If two hosts have the same bit pattern in the specified network portion, they will reside in the same network.
• The IPv4 subnet mask differentiates the network portion from the host portion of an IPv4 address.
• When assigning an IPv4 address to a device, the subnet mask determines the device's network address.
• The network address represents all the devices on the same network.
• An alternative method of identifying a subnet mask is called the prefix length.
• The prefix length is the number of bits set to 1 in the subnet mask.
• A forward slash notes it (/) followed by the number of bits set to 1.
• Using the AND operation determines the network address.
• Logical AND is the comparison of two bits.
• Note how only a 1 AND 1 produces a 1, and any other combination results in a 0.
• The IPv4 address is logically ANDed, bit by bit, with the subnet mask, which identifies the network address
of an IPv4 host.
• ANDing between the address and the subnet mask yields the network address.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14