IPv4 Addressing

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 IPv4 Address
• Unique global identifier for a network interface.
• IP address is for the INTERFACE of a host. Multiple interfaces
mean multiple IP addresses.
• The address space of IPv4 is 232 – an IP address is 32-bit long
identifier conceptually divided into network ID and host ID.

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• IP addresses are written in dotted decimal notation
• Each byte is identified by a decimal number in the range [0..255]:

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 Classful Addressing
When Internet addresses were standardized (early 1980s), the Internet address space was divided up into classes:
• Class A: Network prefix is 8 bits long - IP address starts with “0”
• Class B: Network prefix is 16 bits long - IP address starts with “10”
• Class C: Network prefix is 24 bits long - IP address starts with “110”
• Class D: Used for Multicasting - IP address starts with “1110”
• Class E: Reserved: IP address starts with “1111”

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 Default Mask
• A mask is a 32-bit binary number. N1
Class A = 120.0.0.0
N2 Class C – 200.10.5.0

• To get the network address:

Default Mask AND IP address = Network Address
An incoming packet with
Class A default mask is 255.0.0.0 destination IP 200.10.5.20

Class B default mask is 255.255.0.0 N3

Class C Default mask 255.255.255.0 Class C – 192.10.20.0

200.10.5.0 a
• Class A : 8 bits (NID) + 24 bits (HID)
192.10.20.0 c
• Class B : 16 bits (NID) + 16 bits (HID) 120.0.0.0 b
• Class C : 24 bits (NID) + 8 bits (HID)

• 200.10.5.20 AND 255.255.255.0 = 200.10.5.0

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 Problems with Classful Addressing
Problem 1. Too few network addresses for large networks
• Class A and Class B addresses are gone.

Problem 2. Two-layer hierarchy is not appropriate for large networks with Class A and Class
B addresses.
• Fix #1: Subnetting

Problem 3. Inflexible. Assume a company requires 2,000 addresses

• Class A and B addresses are overkill
• Class C address is insufficient (requires 8 Class C addresses)
• Fix #2: Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR)

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 Subnetting
• Organizations have multiple networks which
are independently managed
University Network
✓ Allocate an address for each network
✓ Add another level of hierarchy to the IP
School 1 School 2
addressing structure
• Split the host number portion of an IP address
into a subnet number and a (smaller) host School 3 School 4
number.

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A university with 2 schools has the following IP address: 200.10.5.0. As the network
administrator, you are required to create subnets to accommodate the following
requirements: Each subnet must support 120 hosts.

200.10.5. --------
1st subnet: 200.10.5.0-------
2nd subnet: 200.10.5.1-------
120 hosts = 2^7

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 CIDR – Classless InterDomain Routing
• There are no classes – the length of the network prefix (block ID) is
flexible.
Block ID Host ID

• CIDR notation: a.b.c.d/n

Example: 200.10.5.172/26
26 bits represent block ID
So, no. of bits for host ID = 32 – 26 = 6
Mask: 26 1’s + 6 0’s = 255.255.255.192

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 Network Routing

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 Routing
• Routing is the process of discovering network paths:
• Deals with routing of packet from source to destination - responsible for end-to-
end delivery of individual packets across multiple networks, without guarantees.
• Properties of routing algorithm:
• Correctness, Simplicity, Robustness, Stability, Fairness, Efficiency

• Non-adaptive algorithms vs Adaptive algorithms

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 Shortest Path Routing
• Build a graph of the network, with each node of the graph representing a router and
each arc of the graph representing a communication line (often called a link).
• To choose a route between a given pair of routers, algorithm just finds the shortest path
between them on the graph.
• Shortest Path can be computed using one of the several metrics:
• number of hops
• geographic distance in kilometers
• average traffic
• transmission delay
• channel bandwidth
• several other parameters may be possible

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 Dijkstra's Shortest Path Algorithm
• Developed by E. Dijkstra in 1956 (published in 1959).
• Algorithm exists in many variants.
• Classic Form - For a given source node in the graph, the algorithm finds the
shortest path between that node and every other (single source shortest
path).
• Can also be used for finding the shortest paths from a single node to a single
destination node by stopping the algorithm once the shortest path to the
destination node has been determined.

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 Dynamic Routing
Routing Concept Routing Algorithm Routing Protocol
Distance Vector Routing Bellman Ford / Ford Fulkerson RIP (Routing Information Protocol)
algorithm IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)
Link State Routing Dijkstra algorithm OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)
IS-IS (Intermediate System to
Intermediate System)

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 Distance Vector Routing
• Oldest routing concept in practice.
• It was the original ARPANET routing algorithm and was also used in the Internet under the name RIP.
• Uses distributed Bellman-Ford algorithm (Bellman, 1957).
• Distance vector routing protocol uses a routing algorithm in which routers periodically send routing
updates to all neighbors by broadcasting their entire distance vectors.

Important relationship that exists among the costs of the least-cost paths:

Bellman-Ford equation: dx(y) = minv{current estimate, c(x,v) + dv(y)}

dx(y) is the cost of the least-cost path from node x to node y.

minv in the equation is taken over all of x’s neighbours.

 Working
• A router transmits its distance vector to each of its neighbors.
• Each router receives and saves the most recently received distance
vector from each of its neighbors.
• A router recalculates its distance vector when:
• It receives a distance vector from a neighbor containing different information
than before.
• It discovers that a link to a neighbor has gone down.
• The DV calculation is based on minimizing the cost to each
destination.

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 Destination Cost Link/Hop
A 1 A
B 0 -
C 3 C
D ∞ -
E 9 E
Destination Cost Link/Hop
A 0 -
B 1 B
C 5 C Destination Cost Link/Hop
D ∞ - A ∞ -
E ∞ - B 9 B
C ∞ -
D 2 D
E 0 -

Destination Cost Link/Hop

Destination Cost Link/Hop
A 5 A
A ∞ -
B 3 B B ∞ -
C 0 - C 4 C
D 4 D D 0 -
E ∞ - E 2 E
• After first pass - For router C < 5, 3, 0, 4, ∞ >
• Distance Vector from A: (0, 1, 5, ∞, ∞)
Bellman-Ford equation: dx(y) = minv{current estimate, c(x,v) + dv(y)}
• Distance Vector from B: (1, 0, 3, ∞, 9)
• Distance Vector from D: (∞, ∞, 4, 0, 2)
•

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 Link State Routing
• Link state protocol is a way to communicate information among the nodes so
that all nodes have the consistent link state database. While this basic idea is
very simple, it is not so easy to make this work in a distributed environment.
• A node in the network needs to store the cost of a link and record whether this link is
up or down: generally referred to as the state of the link. Information about links a
node needs to store as the link state database.
• Link State Protocols relay specific link characteristics and state information.

• Dijkstra’s algorithm requires a node to have topological information to

compute the shortest paths:
• Guaranteed to converge.
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 Working Principle
• Discover neighbors, learn network addresses.
• Send “HELLO” to detect neighbours.
• Set distance/cost metric to each neighbor.
• Construct packet telling all learned.
• Each router creates a Link State Packet (LSP) <Source Node, Link ID, Link Cost, Sequence Number, Age>
• Send packet to, receive packets from other routers.
• LSP must be flooded to all nodes – reliable flooding.
• Each node must maintain a link state global database (LSDB).
• Each router uses that information to build its own routing table.
• Compute shortest paths using Dijkstra’s algorithm from a router to all other routers.
• Only changes/updates are sent across the network.
• A router only sends a new version of its LSP when there is a change.
• If no changes, then periodic refreshes a new version of an LSP will overwrite the old version of that LSP in
LSDB no partial updates, complete LSP sent.
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 A
B

C
 Network Layer Devices

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 Router
• Routes data packets based on their IP addresses.
• Does not see the frame addresses and does not know if
the packet came in on a LAN or a point-to-point line.
• Works with networking protocols that they were
designed to handle – requires prior configuration
• Normally connect LANs and WANs together and have
a dynamically updating routing table based on which
they make decisions on routing the data packets – route
optimality based on routing algorithm
• Divide broadcast domains of hosts connected through
it (sub netting).

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 Layer 3 Switch
• It is a multilayer device.
• Combines the functionality of a switch and a router.
• Usually come in 24 or 48 ports - without the WAN interface.
• Connects devices within the same subnet.
• Routing protocols are simple.
• Separate Broadcast Domains.
• Works in 2 modes: Store & Forward ; Cut through.

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 Gateway
• An internetworking system capable of joining together two networks that
use different base protocols
• Can be implemented in software, hardware, or as a combination of both.
• Depending on the types of protocols they support, network gateways can
operate at any level of the OSI model.
• Have capabilities like firewalls and other security features.

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 References
• Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Nick Feamster, and David J. Wetherall;
Computer Networks; Pearson Education; 6th Edition, 2021.

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