Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

Objectives
Part 1: Determine IPv4 Address Subnetting
Part 2: Calculate IPv4 Address Subnetting

Background / Scenario
The ability to work with IPv4 subnets and determine network and host information based on a given IP
address and subnet mask is critical to understanding how IPv4 networks operate. The f irst part is designed to
reinf orce how to compute network IP address information from a given IP address and subnet mask. When
given an IP address and subnet mask, you will be able to determine other information about the subnet.

Required Resources
• 1 PC (Windows 7 or 8 with Internet access)
• Optional: IPv4 address calculator

Part 1: Determine IPv4 Address Subnetting

In Part 1, you will determine the network and broadcast addresses, as well as the number of hosts, given an
IPv4 address and subnet mask.
REVIEW: To determine the network address, perform binary ANDing on the IPv4 address using the subnet
mask provided. The result will be the network address. Hint: If the subnet mask has decimal value 255 in an
octet, the result will ALWAYS be the original value of that octet. If the subnet mask has decimal value 0 in an
octet, the result will ALWAYS be 0 f or that octet.
Example:
IP Address 192.168.10.10
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
==========
Result (Network) 192.168.10.0
Knowing this, you may only have to perform binary ANDing on an octet that does not have 255 or 0 in its
subnet mask portion.
Example:
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
Analyzing this example, you can see that you only have to perform binary ANDing on the third octet. The f irst
two octets will result in 172.30 due to the subnet mask. The f ourth octet will result in 0 due to the subnet
mask.
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
==========
Result (Network) 172.30.?.0
Perf orm binary ANDing on the third octet.

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

Decimal Binary
239 11101111
192 11000000
=======
Result 192 11000000
Analyzing this example again produces the following result:
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
==========
Result (Network) 172.30.192.0
Continuing with this example, determining the number of hosts per network can be calculated by analyzing
the subnet mask. The subnet mask will be represented in dotted decimal format, such as 255.255.192.0, or in
network prefix format, such as /18. An IPv4 address always has 32 bits. Subtracting the number of bits used
f or the network portion (as represented by the subnet mask) gives you the number of bits used for hosts.
Using our example above, the subnet mask 255.255.192.0 is equivalent to /18 in prefix notation. Subtracting
18 network bits from 32 bits results in 14 bits left for the host portion. From there, it is a simple calculation:
2(number of host bits) - 2 = Number of hosts
214 = 16,384 – 2 = 16,382 hosts
Determine the network and broadcast addresses and number of host bits and hosts for the given IPv4
addresses and prefixes in the following table.

IPv4 Total Number Total Number

Address/Prefix Network Address Broadcast Address of Host Bits of Hosts

192.168.100.25/28 192.168.100.16 192.168.100.30 4 14

172.30.10.130/30 172.30.10.128 172.30.10.131 2 3
10.1.113.75/19 10.1.96.0 10.1.127.255 13 8190
198.133.219.250/24 198.133.219.0 198.133.219.255 8 254
128.107.14.191/22 128.107.12.0 128.107.15.255 10 1022
172.16.104.99/27 172.16.104.96 172.16.104.127 5 30
Part 2: Calculate IPv4 Address Subnetting
When given an IPv4 address, the original subnet mask and the new subnet mask, you will be able to
determine:
• Network address of this subnet
• Broadcast address of this subnet
• Range of host addresses of this subnet
• Number of subnets created
• Number of hosts per subnet

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

The f ollowing example shows a sample problem along with the solution for solving this problem:

Given:

Host IP Address: 172.16.77.120

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.240.0

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 4

Number of Subnets Created 16
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 12
Number of Hosts per Subnet 4,094
Network Address of this Subnet 172.16.64.0
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 172.16.64.1
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 172.16.79.254
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 172.16.79.255

Let’s analyze how this table was completed.

The original subnet mask was 255.255.0.0 or /16. The new subnet mask is 255.255.240.0 or /20. The
resulting difference is 4 bits. Because 4 bits were borrowed, we can determine that 16 subnets were created
because 24 = 16.
The new mask of 255.255.240.0 or /20 leaves 12 bits for hosts. With 12 bits left for hosts, we use the
f ollowing formula: 212 = 4,096 – 2 = 4,094 hosts per subnet.
Binary ANDing will help you determine the subnet for this problem, which results in the network 172.16.64.0.

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

Finally, you need to determine the first host, last host, and broadcast address for each subnet. One method to
determine the host range is to use binary math for the host portion of the address. In our example, the last 12
bits of the address is the host portion. The f irst host would have all significant bits set to zero and the least
significant bit set to 1. The last host would have all significant bits set to 1 and the least significant bit set to 0.
In this example, the host portion of the address resides in the 3 rd and 4th octets.

Description 1st Octet 2nd Octet 3rd Octet 4th Octet Description

Network/Host nnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn nnnnhhhh hhhhhhhh Subnet Mask

Binary 10101100 00010000 01000000 00000001 First Host

Decimal 172 16 64 1 First Host

Binary 10101100 00010000 01001111 11111110 Last Host

Decimal 172 16 79 254 Last Host

Binary 10101100 00010000 01001111 11111111 Broadcast

Decimal 172 16 79 255 Broadcast

Step 1: Fill out the tables below with appropriate answers given the IPv4 address, original
subnet mask, and new subnet mask.
a. Problem 1:

Given:

Host IP Address: 192.168.200.139

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.224

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 3

Number of Subnets Created 8
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 5
Number of Hosts per Subnet 30
Network Address of this Subnet 192.168.200.128
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 192.168.200.129
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 192.168.200.158
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 192.168.200.159

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

b. Problem 2:

Given:

Host IP Address: 10.101.99.228

Original Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.128.0

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 9

Number of Subnets Created 512
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 15
Number of Hosts per Subnet 32766
Network Address of this Subnet 10.101.0.0
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 10.101.0.1
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 10.101.127.254
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 10.101.127.255
c. Problem 3:

Given:

Host IP Address: 172.22.32.12

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.224.0

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 3

Number of Subnets Created 8
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 13
Number of Hosts per Subnet 8190
Network Address of this Subnet 172.22.32.0
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 172.22.32.1
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 172.22.63.254
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 172.22.63.255

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

d. Problem 4:

Given:

Host IP Address: 192.168.1.245

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.252

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 6

Number of Subnets Created 64
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 2
Number of Hosts per Subnet 2
Network Address of this Subnet 192.168.1.244
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 192.168.1.245
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 192.168.1.246
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 192.168.1.247
e. Problem 5:

Given:

Host IP Address: 128.107.0.55

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 8

Number of Subnets Created 256
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 8
Number of Hosts per Subnet 254
Network Address of this Subnet 128.107.0.0
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 128.107.0.1
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 128.107.0.254
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 128.107.0.255

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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets

f. Problem 6:

Given:

Host IP Address: 192.135.250.180

Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.248

Find:

Number of Subnet Bits 5

Number of Subnets Created 32
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 3
Number of Hosts per Subnet 6
Network Address of this Subnet 192.135.250.176
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 192.135.250.177
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 192.135.250.182
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 192.135.250.183
Reflection
Why is the subnet mask so important when analyzing an IPv4 address?
Subnet mask is impotant because it helps to
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determine the number of host bits, number of hosts
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and broadcast address.
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