Chapter 5
Logical Addressing
communication at the network layer is host-to-host
(computer-to-computer); a computer somewhere in the world
needs to communicate with another computer somewhere
else in the world. Usually, computers communicate through
the Internet.
The packet transmitted by the sending computer may pass
through several LANs or WANs before reaching the
destination computer
Today, we use the term IP address to mean a logical
address in the network layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite.
The Internet addresses are 32 bits in length; this gives us a
maximum of 232 addresses. These addresses are referred to
as IPv4 (IP version 4) addresses or simply IP addresses if
there is no confusion
the Internet uses 128-bit addresses that give much greater
flexibility in address allocation. These addresses are
referred to as IPv6 (IP version 6) addresses.
IPv4 ADDRESSES
An IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and
universally defines the connection of a device (for
example, a computer or a router) to the Internet.
IPv4 addresses are unique. They are unique in the sense
that each address defines one, and only one, connection
to the Internet. Two devices on the Internet can never
have the same address at the same time
Address Space
A protocol such as IPv4 that defines addresses has an
address space. An address space is the total number of
addresses used by the protocol. If a protocol uses N bits to
define an address, the address space is 2N because each bit
can have two different values (0 or 1) and N bits can have
2N values.
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, which means that the address
space is 232 or 4,294,967,296 (more than 4 billion).
Classful Addressing
IPv4 addressing, at its inception, used the concept of
classes. This architecture is called classful addressing.
Although this scheme is becoming obsolete, we briefly
discuss it here to show the rationale behind classless
addressing. In classful addressing, the address space is
divided into five classes: A, B, C, D, and E. Each class
occupies some part of the address space
Network Addresses
A very important concept in IP addressing is the network
address. When an organization is given a block of
addresses, the organization is free to allocate the addresses
to the devices that need to be connected to the Internet. The
first address in the class, however, is normally (not always)
treated as a special address. The first address is called the
network address and defines the organization network.
Network Address Translation
(NAT)
The number of home users and small businesses that want to
use the Internet is ever increasing. In the beginning, a user
was connected to the Internet with a dial-up line, which
means that she was connected for a specific period of time.
An ISP with a block of addresses could dynamically assign an
address to this user. An address was given to a user when it
was needed. But the situation is different today. Home users
and small businesses can be connected by an ADSL line or
cable modem.
Addresses for private
networks
Address Translation
All the outgoing packets go through the NAT router,
which replaces the source address in the packet with
the global NAT address. All incoming packets also
pass through the NAT router, which replaces the
destination address in the packet (the NAT router
global address) with the appropriate private address.
Addresses in a NAT
IPv6 ADDRESSES
An IPv6 address consists of 16 bytes (octets); it is
128 bits long.
Despite all short-term solutions, such as classless
addressing, Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP).
Abbreviated IPv6
addresses
we can abbreviate the address. The leading zeros of a section
(four digits between two colons) can be omitted. Only the
leading zeros can be dropped, not the trailing zeros
Address Space
IPv6 has a much larger address space; 2128
addresses are available. The designers of IPv6
divided the address into several categories.
Unicast Addresses
A unicast address defines a single computer. The
packet sent to a unicast address must be delivered to
that specific computer. IPv6 defines two types of
unicast addresses:
1- geographically based
2- provider-based.
Multicast Addresses
Multicast addresses are used to define a
group of hosts instead of just one. A packet
sent to a multicast address must be
delivered to each member of the group
Anycast
is anetwork addressing and routing methodology in which a
single destination address has multiple routing paths to two or
more endpoint destinations. Routers will select the desired
path on the basis of number of hops, distance, lowest cost,
latency measurements or based on the least congested route.
Anycast networks are widely used for
content delivery network (CDN) products to bring their
content closer to the end user.
Local Addresses
These addresses are used when an organization wants to use IPv6
protocol without being connected to the global Internet. In other
words, they provide addressing for private networks. Nobody
outside the organization can send a message to the nodes using
these addresses.
Two types of addresses are defined for this purpose:
1-Link local
2-Site local
Link local
A link- local address in self-generated when a
computer boots up.
It is valid inly for communication on local network
Routers do not forward packets with link local address
.
site-local addresses
site-local addresses , that could be used within a
"site" for private IPv6 networks. However,
insufficient definition of the term site led to
confusion over the governing routing rules.
SUMMARY
An IPv4 address is 32 bits long and uniquely and
universally defines a host or router on the Internet.
An IP address defines a device's connection to a network.
There are five classes in IPv4 addresses. Classes A, B,
and C differ in the number of hosts allowed per network.
Class D is for multicasting and Class E is reserved.
IPv6 addresses use hexadecimal colon notation with
abbreviation methods available.
There are three types of addresses in IPv6: unicast,
anycast, and multicast.
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