Internet Protocol address (IP address)

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as 192.0.2.1

that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for
communication.
An IP address serves two main functions:
(1)network interface identification and
(2)location addressing.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as a 32-bit number.
However, because of the growth of the Internet and the depletion of available IPv4
addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the IP address, was
standardized in 1998.IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s.
IP addresses are written and displayed in human-readable notations, such as
192.0.2.1 in IPv4, and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 in IPv6. The size of the routing
prefix of the address is designated in CIDR notation by suffixing the address with
the number of significant bits, e.g., 192.0.2.1/24, which is equivalent to the
historically used subnet mask 255.255.255.0.
The IP address space is managed globally by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA), and by five regional Internet registries (RIRs) responsible in their
designated territories for assignment to local Internet registries, such as Internet
service providers (ISPs), and other end users.
Network administrators assign an IP address to each device connected to a
network. Such assignments may be on a static (fixed or permanent) or dynamic
basis, depending on network practices and software features.
Function
● An IP address serves two principal functions: it identifies the host, or more
specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in
the network, and thus the capability of establishing a path to that host.
● Its role has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek.
An address indicates where it is.
● A route indicates how to get there.
 ● The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host and
that of the destination host.
IP versions
Two versions of the Internet Protocol are in common use on the Internet today.
The original version of the Internet Protocol that was first deployed in 1983 in
the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4).
The rapid exhaustion of IPv4 address space available for assignment to Internet
service providers and end-user organizations by the early 1990s, prompted the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to explore new technologies to expand the
addressing capability on the Internet.
The result was a redesign of the Internet Protocol which became eventually known
as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) in 1995.
IPv6 technology was in various testing stages until the mid-2000s when commercial
production deployment commenced.
Today, these two versions of the Internet Protocol are in simultaneous use. Among
other technical changes, each version defines the format of addresses differently.
Because of the historical prevalence of IPv4, the generic term IP address typically
still refers to the addresses defined by IPv4.
The gap in version sequence between IPv4 and IPv6 resulted from the assignment
of version 5 to the experimental Internet Stream Protocol in 1979, which however
was never referred to as IPv5.
IP address classes

IP addresses are represented as four decimal integers separated by decimal

points, where each integer gives the value of one octet of the IP address.
Normally each IP address contains a network part and a host part. Depending
on the left most octet, the address can be categorized in 5 classes and they
are given below.

Type Value of left most octet

 Class A 1 -- 127

Class B 128 -- 191

Class C 192 -- 223

Class D 224 -- 239

Class E 240 -- 255

The network parts of IP addresses that are in class A are of one octet. For
example the IP address 1.2.3.4 means that the network part is 1 and the host
part is 2.3.4. Class A address can connect almost 17,000,000 (2 to the power
24 -2) machines.

The network parts of Class B addresses are of 2 octet. Around 6500 (2 to the
power 16 - 2) machines can be connected to a Class B address.

The network parts of Class C addresses are of 3 octet. Two hundred and fifty
four (2 to the power eight - 2) machines can be connected to a Class C
address.

Class D and Class E addresses are used for special purposes .

Historical classful network architecture

Leadi Number
Cla Size Size Number Start
ng of of addre End address
ss of netw of re
bits addresse
ork st networks ss
s
 number bit per
bit field field network

16777216 127.255.255.
A 0 8 24 128 (27) 0.0.0.0
(224) 255

16384 (21 65536 (216 128.0. 191.255.255.

B 10 16 16 4
) ) 0.0 255

2097152 192.0. 223.255.255.

C 110 24 8 256 (28)
(221) 0.0 255

Private addresses
Early network design, when global end-to-end connectivity was envisioned for
communications with all Internet hosts, intended that IP addresses be globally
unique. However, it was found that this was not always necessary as private
networks developed and public address space needed to be conserved.
Computers not connected to the Internet, such as factory machines that
communicate only with each other via TCP/IP, need not have globally unique IP
addresses. Today, such private networks are widely used and typically connect to
the Internet with network address translation (NAT), when needed.
Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses for private networks are
reserved. These addresses are not routed on the Internet and thus their use need
not be coordinated with an IP address registry. Any user may use any of the
reserved blocks. Typically, a network administrator will divide a block into subnets;
for example, many home routers automatically use a default address range
of 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.0.255 (192.168.0.0/24).

Reserved private IPv4 network ranges

 Number of
Name CIDR block Address range Classful description
addresses

24-bit 10.0.0.0 –
10.0.0.0/8 16777216 Single Class A.
block 10.255.255.255

20-bit 172.16.0.0 172.16.0.0 – Contiguous range of 16

1048576
block /12 172.31.255.255 Class B blocks.

16-bit 192.168.0. 192.168.0.0 – Contiguous range of 256

65536
block 0/16 192.168.255.255 Class C blocks.

IPv6 addresses
In IPv6, the address size was increased from 32 bits in IPv4 to 128 bits, thus
providing up to 2128 (approximately 3.403×1038) addresses. This is deemed
sufficient for the foreseeable future.
The intent of the new design was not to provide just a sufficient quantity of
addresses, but also redesign routing in the Internet by allowing more efficient
aggregation of subnetwork routing prefixes. This resulted in slower growth of
routing tables in routers.
The smallest possible individual allocation is a subnet for 264 hosts, which is the
square of the size of the entire IPv4 Internet. At these levels, actual address
utilization ratios will be small on any IPv6 network segment.
IP address assignment
● IP addresses are assigned to a host either dynamically as they join the
network, or persistently by configuration of the host hardware or software.
Persistent configuration is also known as using a static IP address. In contrast,
when a computer's IP address is assigned each time it restarts, this is known
as using a dynamic IP address.
● Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by network using Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP is the most frequently used technology
for assigning addresses. It avoids the administrative burden of assigning
specific static addresses to each device on a network. It also allows devices
to share the limited address space on a network if only some of them are
online at a particular time. Typically, dynamic IP configuration is enabled by
default in modern desktop operating systems.
● The address assigned with DHCP is associated with a lease and usually has an
expiration period. If the lease is not renewed by the host before expiry, the
address may be assigned to another device. Some DHCP implementations
attempt to reassign the same IP address to a host, based on its MAC address,
each time it joins the network. A network administrator may configure DHCP
by allocating specific IP addresses based on MAC address.
● DHCP is not the only technology used to assign IP addresses dynamically.
Bootstrap Protocol is a similar protocol and predecessor to DHCP. Dialup and
some broadband networks use dynamic address features of the Point-to-
Point Protocol.
● Computers and equipment used for the network infrastructure, such as
routers and mail servers, are typically configured with static addressing.
Public address
A public IP address is a globally routable unicast IP address, meaning that the
address is not an address reserved for use in private networks, such as those
reserved by RFC 1918, or the various IPv6 address formats of local scope or site-
local scope, for example for link-local addressing.
Public IP addresses may be used for communication between hosts on the global
Internet. In a home situation, a public IP address is the IP address assigned to the
home's network by the ISP. In this case, it is also locally visible by logging into the
router configuration.
Most public IP addresses change, and relatively often. Any type of IP address that
changes is called a dynamic IP address. In home networks, the ISP usually assigns a
dynamic IP.
If an ISP gave a home network an unchanging address, it's more likely to be abused
by customers who host websites from home, or by hackers who can try the same
IP address over and over until they breach a network.
Firewalling
For security and privacy considerations, network administrators often desire to
restrict public Internet traffic within their private networks. The source and
destination IP addresses contained in the headers of each IP packet are a
convenient means to discriminate traffic by IP address blocking or by selectively
tailoring responses to external requests to internal servers. This is achieved with
firewall software running on the network's gateway router. A database of IP
addresses of restricted and permissible traffic may be maintained in blacklists and
whitelists, respectively.
Address translation
Multiple client devices can appear to share an IP address, either because they are
part of a shared web hosting service environment or because an IPv4 network
address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of
the client, in which case the real originating IP address is masked from the server
receiving a request.
A common practice is to have a NAT(network address translation) mask many
devices in a private network. Only the public interface(s) of the NAT needs to have
an Internet-routable address.
The NAT device maps different IP addresses on the private network to different TCP
or UDP port numbers on the public network. In residential networks, NAT functions
are usually implemented in a residential gateway.
In this scenario, the computers connected to the router have private IP addresses
and the router has a public address on its external interface to communicate on the
Internet. The internal computers appear to share one public IP address.

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