Chapter 4

Network Layer
Computer Networking: A
Top Down Approach
4th edition.
Jim Kurose, Keith Ross
Addison-Wesley, July
2007.

Last Lecture

Internet Protocol (IP)

Fragmentation and Reassembly

Todays Lecture

IP

Addressing
Classful Addressing

Network layer
Transport segment from sending to receiving host
On sending side encapsulates segments into

datagrams
On receiving side, delivers segments to transport
layer
Network layer protocols in routers
Router examines header fields in all IP datagrams
passing through it

application
transport
network
data link
physical
network
data link
physical

network
data link
physical
network
data link
physical

network
data link
physical
network
data link
physical

network
network
data
link
data link
physical
physical
network
data link
physical

network
data link
physical

network
data link
physical

network
data link
physical

application
transport
network
data link
physical

Two Key Network-Layer Functions

Forwarding: Move packets from routers input

to appropriate routers output

Local action of transferring a packet

Routing: Determine route taken by packets

from source to destination.

Network wide process that determines the end to

end paths

The algorithms that calculate these paths are

referred to as routing algorithms

Routing and Forwarding

routing algorithm

Forwarding Table
o Router Forwards a
packet by examining the
destination address of the
packet

local forwarding table

header value output link

o Routing Algorithm
value in arriving
determines the values
packets header
that are inserted in the
routers forwarding tables

0100
0101
0111
1001

0111

3
2
2
1

1
3 2

Network Layer
Host, router network layer functions:
Transport layer: TCP, UDP

Network
layer

IP protocol
addressing conventions
datagram format
packet handling conventions

Routing protocols
path selection
RIP, OSPF, BGP

forwarding
table

ICMP protocol
error reporting
router signaling

Link layer
physical layer

IPv4 Datagram Format

IP protocol version
number
header length
(bytes)
type of data
max number
remaining hops
(decremented at
each router)
upper layer protocol
to deliver payload to

type of
ver head.
len service

length
fragment
16-bit identifier flgs
offset
time to
header
protocol
live
checksum

total datagram
length (bytes)
for
fragmentation/
reassembly

32 bit source IP address

32 bit destination IP address
Options (if any)

data
(variable length,
a TCP
or UDP segment)

e.g. timestamp,
record route
taken etc
Find other use?

IP Fragmentation & Reassembly

Network links have MTU

(Maximum Transmission Unit)

- largest possible link-level
frame.
o Different link between
sender and destination
Use different MTUs
Large IP datagram is divided
(fragmented)
o One datagram becomes
several datagrams
o Referred as Fragments
o Reassembled only at final
destination
o IP header bits used to
identify, order related
fragments

fragmentation:
in: one large datagram
out: 3 smaller datagrams

reassembly

IP Fragmentation & Reassembly

Identification Number, Flag and Offset fields in the datagram

header

Identification Number
o
o

Sending Host stamps the datagram with an identification number

Destination receives datagram
o Examines the identification number

Flag Bit
o
o

All fragments set to 1

Last fragment set to 0

Offset Field
o

Use to specify where fragment fits in the within the original IP

datagram

IP Fragmentation & Reassembly

Example
Datagram of 4000 bytes
o 20 bytes of IP header, 3980 bytes of payload
o MTU is 1500 bytes
Fragment
Bytes
ID
Offset
0 (beginning)

Flag

1st Fragment

1480 bytes

777

1 (there is more)

2nd Fragment

1480 bytes

777

185

1 (there is more)

3rd Fragment

1020 bytes

777

370

0 (Last )

IP Address
An IP address is a 32-bit address.
The IP addresses are unique.
The address space of IPv4 is
232 or 4,294,967,296.(more than 4 billion)
Represented in binary or decimal

CLASSFUL ADDRESSING
IP addressing when started used the concept of
classes.
This architecture is called classful addressing.
Organizations can be of different sizes
Require varying numbers of IP addresses on the Internet.

A system was devised whereby the IP address space

would be divided into classes.
Each class occupies some part of the whole
address space
Some classes are for
Large networks on the Internet
Smaller organizations

Some classes are reserved for special purposes.

IP Address Classes
There are five classes in the classful system, which are
given letters A through E.
The first few bits in binary notation can immediately tell
us the class of the address

IP Address Classes

Netid and Hostid

An IP address is divided into Netid and Hostid
Network Identifier (Netid): Few bits starting from
the left-most bit are used to identify the network
where the host is located.
Host Identifier (Hostid): The remainder of the bits
are used to identify the host on the network.
These parts are of varying lengths depending on the
class of the address.

Netid and Hostid

Class A
Class A is divided into 128 blocks (27)
Each block having different Netid
First block covers addresses from
0.0.0.0 to 0.255.255.255 (netid 0)
Second block covers addresses from
1.0.0.0 to 1.255.255.255 (netid 1)
The last block covers addresses from
127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 (netid 127)
Each block in this class contains 16,777,216 addresses
Class A addresses were designed for large
organizations with large number of hosts attached to
their network

16,777,216 too large, millions of class A addresses are wasted

Class B
Class B is divided into 16384 blocks (214)
Each block having different netid
First block covers addresses from
128.0.0.0 to 128.0.255.255 (netid 128.0)
The last block covers addresses from
191.255.0.0 to 191.255.255.255 (netid 191.255)
Each block in this class contains 65,536 addresses
Class B addresses were designed for medium size
organizations with thousands of hosts attached to
their network
65,536 is also too large for medium size organizations, many
of class B addresses are wasted

Class C
Class C is divided into 2097152 blocks (221)
Each block having different netid
First block covers addresses from
192.0.0.0 to 192.0.0.255 (netid 192.0.0)
The last block covers addresses from
223.255.255.0 to 223.255.255.255 (netid
223.255.255)
Each block in this class contains 256 addresses
Class C addresses were designed for small
organizations
256 is small for most organizations

IP Address Classes
Given the network address 17.0.0.0, find the
class, the netid, and the range of the
addresses?.

IP Address Classes
Solution
The class is A because the first byte is between
0 and 127. The block has a netid of 17. The
addresses range from 17.0.0.0 to
17.255.255.255.

IP Address Classes
Given the network address 220.34.76.0, find
the class, the block/netid, and the range of the
addresses?.

IP Address Classes
Solution
The class is C because the first byte is between
192 and 223. The block has a netid of
220.34.76. The addresses range from
220.34.76.0 to 220.34.76.255

Issues with Classful Addressing

Flexibility in Internal addressing:
Thousands of hosts connected to one large network

Inefficient Use of Address Space:

Wastage of limited IP address space.

Router Table Entries:

Increase in router table entries.

Example:
Hosts needed by organization are 5000
Hosts in B 65,536 and in C 256
Organization with 5,000 hosts is in a dilemma
It can only choose to either waste 90% of a Class B address
or use 20 different Class C networks.
Replacing with 20 C networks will increase entries in routers

Subnetting
To better meet the administrative and technical
requirements of larger organizations, the classful
IP addressing system was enhanced through a
technique known as subnet addressing or subnetting.
A three-level hierarchy is created: networks, which
contain subnets, each of which then has a number of
hosts.

Subnetting
Subnetting adds an additional level to the hierarchy
of structures used in IP addressing.
IP addresses must be broken into three elements
instead of two.
Network ID is unchanged
The host ID into a subnet ID and host ID.
These subnet ID bits are used to identify each
subnet within the network.
Splitting the host ID into subnet ID and host ID, we
reduce the size of the host ID portion of the address
Class A networks have 24 bits to split between the
subnet ID and host ID: class B networks have 16, and
class C networks only 8.

Subnetting

The more bits we use from the host ID for the subnet ID, the more
subnets we can have but the fewer hosts we can have for each subnet.

Subnet Mask
In classful addressing without subnetting
Routers use the first octet of the IP address to determine
what the class is of the address
From class they know which bits are the network ID and
which are the host ID.

In subnetting, the routers also need to know how that

host ID is divided into subnet ID and host ID.
This division can be arbitrary for each network.
There is no way to tell how many bits belong to each simply
by looking at the IP address.
The additional information about which bits are for the
subnet ID and which for the host ID must be communicated
to devices that interpret IP addresses.
This information is given in the form of a 32-bit binary
number called a subnet mask.

Determining the Subnet Mask

The subnet mask is a 32-bit binary number

It is created so that it has a one bit for each corresponding bit of
the IP address that is part of its network ID or subnet ID, and a
zero for each bit of the IP addresss host ID.
The mask thus tells TCP/IP devices which bits in that IP address
belong to the network ID and subnet ID, and which are part of
the host ID.

Determining the Subnet Mask

Suppose we have the Class B network 154.71.0.0.
We decide to subnet this using 5 bits for the subnet
ID and 11 bits for the host ID.
In this case, the subnet mask will have 16 ones for
the network portion (since this is Class B) followed by
5 ones for the subnet ID, and 11 zeroes for the host
ID.
That's 11111111 11111111 11111000 00000000 in
binary, with the bits corresponding to the subnet ID
highlighted.
Converting to dotted decimal, the subnet mask would
be 255.255.248.0

Determining the Subnet Mask

Example
A company is granted the site address
210.70.64.0. The company needs six
subnets. What is the subnet Mask?

Determining the Subnet Mask

Solution
Class C address
6 subnets means 3 bits in the subnet id
3 ones in the subnet mask
11111111 11111111 11111111 11100000
255.255.255.224 (decimal)

Using a Subnet Mask

Suppose we have a host on a network with an IP of
154.71.150.42 and subnet mask 255.255.248.0
A router needs to figure out which subnet this
address is on.

154.71.144.0 is the IP address of the subnet to which 154.71.150.42

belongs.

Designing a Subnet

Analyze the requirements

Determine the subnet mask
Each Subnet address
Host Addresses

Example:
Network Address: 211.77.20.0
8 sub networks
32 hosts in each

Designing a Subnet

Designing a Subnet
211.77.20.0 in binary is
11010011 01001101 00010100 00000000

Subnet 0
substitute 000 for the subnet ID bits (211.77.20.0)
Subnet 1
substitute 001 for the subnet ID bits, to yield the following:
11010011 01001101 00010100 00100000 (211.77.20.32 )
Subnet 2
substitute 010 for the subnet ID bits to give:
11010011 01001101 00010100 01000000 (211.77.20.64)
Subnet 3
Substitute 01100000 (211.77.20.96)
Subnet 7 (last)
Substitute 11100000 (211.77.20.224)

Designing a Subnet

Determining Host Address

Subnet #0
First address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 00000000 (211.77.20.0)
Second address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 00000001
(211.77.20.1)
Third address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 00000010
(211.77.20.2)
Last address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 00011111
(211.77.20.31)

Subnet #6.
It has 110 for the subnet bits instead of 000.
First address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 11000000
(211.77.20.192)
Second address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 11000001
(211.77.20.193)
Third address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 11000010
(211.77.20.194)
Last address: 11010011 01001101 00010100 11011111
(211.77.20.223)
Similarly for other subnets

Designing a Subnet
Home Assignment
A company is granted the site address
172.16.0.0. The company needs 1000
subnets. Design the subnets?
Advantages of Subnetting?