Structure of an ipv4 address the types of ipv4 address available?

Structure of IP address

IP address is used by routers, bridges and all kinds of end systems to focus data packets/frames on a particular destination/source port. Following defines the structure of a typical IP address.

IPv4 address is 32 bit long. This 32 bit stream grouped into four segments. Each group may contain 1 byte (or 8 bits)

11000000 11100100 00010001 00111001

Each group of 8 bits can be converted to a decimal number. Following is the decimal conversion of above IP address.

192.228.17.57

This is the general look of an IP address. It will contain four decimal numbers separated by a dot. Each decimal can run up to 255. That is 255.255.255.255 .

IP address gives many information about the network. For example;

Example IP Address:192.248.8.0/28

This network ID is: 192.248.8.0.

Hosts in this network: 32bit - 28 bit = 16 hosts

Last IP (also known as Broadcast IP) = 192.248.8.15

The "/28" is not an integral part of IP address. We use this information is used to derive information from IP address.

Types of IP Addresses

IP Addresses are grouped into five classes. Class A - Class E.

Class A: 1st bit of a class A IP address always has '0'. Next seven bits for network and rest 24 bits for host.

CLass B: 1st two bits of a class B IP address always has '10'. Next 14 bits for Network and rest 16 bits for host.

Class C: 1st Three bits of a Class C IP address has '110'. Next 21 bits for network and rest 8 bits for host.

Class D: 1st Four bits of Class D IP Address has '1110' and rest of the bits are multicast.

Class E: 1st Five bits has '11110' and rest of the bits are allocated for future usages.

Hope this will help you!

(H.W Thushara Indika - From Bandarawela, Sri Lanka)