Lab 12

IPv4 Address Subnetting-Part2

In this lab we learn about:

1. Requirements Analysis
2. Partitioning Network Address Host Bits
3. Class B Subnetting Design Example
4. Class C Custom Subnet Mask Calculation Example
5. Class B Custom Subnet Mask Calculation Example
6. Determining Subnet Identifiers and Subnet Addresses
7. VLSM & Route Summarization
8. Class B Subnet ID and Address Determination Example
9. CIDR ("Slash") Notation

1: Requirements Analysis

Analyzing the requirements of the network for subnetting isn't difficult, because there
are only a few issues that we need to consider. Since requirements analysis is usually
done by asking questions, here's a list of the most important questions in analyzing
subnetting requirements:
 What class is our IP address block?
 How many physical subnets are on the network? (A “physical subnet”
generally refers to a broadcast domain on a LAN; a set of hosts on a physical
network bounded by routers.)
 Are we adding more physical networks in the near future? If so then how
many?
 How many hosts do we have in the largest subnet today?
 How many hosts do we have in the largest subnet in the near future?
We need to analyze the requirements above not only for the present network, but for
the near future as well.
2: Partitioning Network Address Host Bits

After we complete our brief requirements analysis, we should know the two critical
parameters that we must have in order to subnet our network: the number of subnets
required for the network, and the maximum number of hosts per subnetwork. In using
these two figures to design our Subnetted network, we will decide while subnetting:
how to divide the 8, 16 or 24 bits in the “classful” host ID into subnet ID and host ID.
We need to decide how many bits to borrow from the host ID to use for the subnet ID.

Fundamental trade-off in choosing this number is as follows:

There are six possible ways this decision can be made for a Class C network, as the
following figure illustrates:

The relationship between the bits and the number of subnets and hosts is as follows:
 The number of subnets allowed in the network is two to the power of
the number of subnet ID bits.
 The number of hosts allowed per subnet is two to the power of the
number of host ID bits, minus two.

We subtract two from the number of hosts in each subnet to exclude the “special
meaning” cases where the host ID is all zeroes or all ones. First we must calculate the
number of subnets and hosts when we use the subnet ID bits and leave the rest for the
host ID.
3. Class B Subnetting Design Example

4. Class C Custom Subnet Mask Calculation Example

1. Determine Default Subnet Mask: Each of Classes A, B and C has a default
subnet mask, which is the subnet mask for the network prior to subnetting. It has a 1
for each network ID bit and a 0 for each host ID bit. For Class C, the subnet mask is
255.255.255.0.
2. Change Left-Most Zeroes to Ones for Subnet Bits: We have decided to use 3
bits for the subnet ID. The subnet mask has to have a 1 for each of the network ID or
subnet ID bits. The network ID bits are already 1 from the default subnet mask, so, we
change the 3 left-most 0 bits in the default subnet mask from a 0 to 1
3. Convert Subnet Mask To Dotted Decimal Notation: We take each of the octets
in the subnet mask and convert it to decimal. The result is our custom subnet mask in
the form we usually see it: 255.255.255.224.
4. Express Subnet Mask In “Slash Notation”: Alternately, we can express the
subnet mask in “slash notation”. This is just a slash followed by the number of ones in
the subnet mask. 255.255.255.224 is equivalent to “/27”.

5. Class B Custom Subnet Mask Calculation Example

Now, let's do the same example with our Class B network (166.113.0.0) with 5 bits
for the subnet ID (with a bit less narration this time):
1. Determine Default Subnet Mask: For Class B, the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0. In
binary, this is:11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000
2. Change Left-Most Zeroes to Ones for Subnet Bits: We have decided to use 5
bits for the subnet ID, so, we change the 5 left-most 0 bits from 0 to 1.
3. Convert Subnet Mask to Dotted Decimal Notation: We take each of the octets in
the subnet mask and convert it to decimal, to give us a custom subnet mask of
255.255.248.0
4. Express Subnet Mask in “Slash Notation”: We can express the subnet mask
255.255.248.0 as “/21”, since it is 21 ones followed by 11 zeroes. In other words, its
prefix length is 21.
6: Determining Subnet Identifiers and Subnet Addresses:
The network ID assigned to our network applies to the entire network. This includes
all subnets and all hosts in all subnets. Each subnet, however, needs to be identified
with a unique subnet identifier called subnet ID, so it can be differentiated from the
other subnets in the network. This is of course the purpose of the subnet ID bits that
we took from the host ID bits in subnetting. After we have identified each subnet we
need to determine the address of each subnet, so we can use this in assigning hosts
specific IP addresses.
The key to understanding how to determine subnet IDs and subnet addresses is to
always work in binary form, and then convert to decimal later.
7. VLSM & Route Summarization:
We determine the subnet IDs and addresses as follows:
1. Subnet ID: This is just the subnet number, and can be expressed in either binary or
decimal form.
2. Subnet Address: This is the address formed by taking the address of the network
as a whole, and substituting the (binary) subnet ID in for the subnet ID bits. We need
to do this in binary, but only for the octets where there are subnet ID bits; the ones
where there are only network ID bits or only host ID bits are left alone.
Class C Subnet ID and Address Determination Example

This diagram shows each of the 8 possible subnets created when we use 3 bits for the
subnet ID in a Class C network. The binary subnet ID is simply substituted for the
subnet bits, and the resulting 32-bit number converted to dotted decimal form. The
address of any subnet can be found by adding 32 to the last octet of the previous
subnet. This pattern occurs for all subnetting choices; the increment depends on how
many bits we are using for the subnet ID.
Here, the increment is 32, which is 25; 5 is the number of host ID bits left after we
took 3 subnet ID bits.

8. Class B Subnet ID and Address Determination Example

Class B network 166.113.0.0. We are using 5 bits for the subnet ID, leaving 11 hosts
ID bits.

This diagram shows how both subnet addresses and host addresses are determined in
a two-step process. The subnet addresses are found by substituting subnet ID values
(shown in red) for the subnet ID bits of the network. Then, for any given subnet
address, we can determine a host address by substituting a host number (shown in
blue) for the host ID bits within that subnet. So, for example, host #2 in subnet #6 has
“110” for the subnet ID and “00010” for the host ID, resulting in a final octet value of
“11000010” or 194.
9. CIDR ("Slash") Notation
Classless addressing scheme sometimes called Classless Inter-Domain Routing
(CIDR).

Just as subnetting required the use of a subnet mask to show which bits belong to the
network ID or subnet ID and which to the host ID, CIDR uses a subnet mask to show
where the line is drawn between host ID and network ID. However, for simplicity,
under CIDR we don't usually work with 32-bit binary subnet masks. Instead, we use
slash notation, more properly called CIDR notation. In this method, we show the size
of the network, sometimes called the prefix length, by following an IP address by an
integer that tells us how many bits are used for the network ID (prefix).
For example, consider the network specification 184.13.152.0/22. The “22” means
this network has 22 bits for the network ID and 10 bits for the host ID. This is
equivalent to specifying a network with an address of 184.13.152.0 and a subnet mask
of 255.255.252.0. This sample network provides a total of 1,022 hosts (210 minus 2).
The table in the following topic shows all the different possible network sizes that can
be configured under CIDR.
Important note about subnetting:
The network ID is the same for all hosts in all subnets, and all subnets in the network.
The subnet ID is the same for all hosts in each subnet, but unique to each subnet in the
network.
The host ID is unique within each subnet. Each subnet has the same set of host IDs.