Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

UNIT II
Topics: Class-ful Internet address, CIDR-Subnetting and Supernetting, ARP, RARP, BOOTP, DHCP.

 Classfull Internet address

An IP addresses are unique and are 32-bit address.
IP addresses, when started a few decades ago, used the concept of classes. This architecture is called
classful addressing. In the mid-1990s, a new architecture, called classless addressing, was introduced
that supersedes the original architecture.

Classes-
In classful addressing, the IP address space is divided into five classes – A, B, C, D and E. Each class
occupies some part of the whole address space.
Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
Class A 0-127 (0......)
Class B 128-191 (10....)
Class C 192-223 (110....)
Class D 224-239 (1110...)
Class E 240-255 (1111...)

Netid and Hostid –

In classful addressing, an IP address in classes A, B, C is divided into netid and hostid. These parts are of
varying lengths, depending on the class of the address.
Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
Class A Netid Hostid
Class B Netid Hostid
Class C Netid Hostid
Class D Multicast address
Class E Reserved for future use

Class A: Since only 1 byte in class A defines the netid and the left-most bit should be 0, the next 7 bits
can be changed to find the number of blocks in this class. Therefore, class A is divided into 27 = 128
organizations.
Class B: Since 2 bytes in class B define the class and two leftmost bit is 10, the next 14 bits can be
changed to find the number of blocks in this class. Therefore, class B is divided into 214 blocks.
Class C: Since 3 bytes in class C define the class and the three leftmost bit is 110, the next 21 bits can be
changed to find the number of blocks in this class. Therefore, class C is divided into 221 blocks, in which
each block contains 256 addresses.
Class D: There is just one block of class D addresses. It is designed for multicasting. Each address in
this class is used to define one group of hosts on the internet. When a group is assigned in this class,
every host that is a member of this group, will have a multicast address in addition to its normal address.
Class E: There is just one block of class E address. It was designed for use as reserved address.

 Two-Level Addressing –
Since all addresses in a network belonged to a single block, each address in classful addressing
contains two parts: netid and hostid. The netid defines the network; the hostid defines a particular
host connected to that network.
 If n bits define the net, then 32-n bits defines the host. However, value of n depends on the class the
block belongs to. The value of n can be 8, 16 & 24 for class A, B and C respectively.

Extracting information in a Block –

A block is a range of addresses. Given any address in the block, we normally to know three pieces of
information about the block: the number of addresses, the first address and the last address. First we
need to find the class of the block, then the value of n – the length of netid. Then the three pieces of
information-
1. The number of addresses in the block – N= 232-n.
2. To find first address, we keep the n leftmost bits and set the (32-n) rightmost bits to all 0s.
3. To find last address, we keep the n leftmost bits and set the (32-n) rightmost bits to all 1s.

 Network Mask –
 The routers in the Internet normally use an algorithm to extract the network address from the
destination address of a packet.
 To do this, we need a network mask.
 A network mask or a default mask in classful addressing is a
 32-bit number with n leftmost bits all set to 1s and (32 − n) rightmost bits all set to 0s.
 Since n is different for each class in classful addressing, we have three default masks in classful
addressing as shown in Figure below:

 Class-less Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) –

1) Subnetting
2) Supernetting

1) Subnetting –
 We are using 3-level addressing in which we are able to divide blocks of addresses available in
class A and B into smaller blocks. These smaller blocks are called as sub-networks.
 The network mask (default mask) is used when a network is not sub-netted. When we divide a
network to several sub-networks, we need to create a subnet mask for each sub-network.
 The subnet mask will have more number of 1s as compared to the network mask.
 We can calculate the subnetid for each sub-network as – nsub= n + log2S
 Subnetting increases the length of the netid and decreases the length of the hostid.
 A network in class B is divided into 4 sub-networks. Here for class B the value of n = 16 and
value of subnet id = 16 + log24 = 18. This means that subnet-id is of 18 1s and (32-18=14) 14 0s.
 2) Supernetting –
 Subnetting could not completely solve address depletion problems in classful addressing because
most organizations did not want to share their granted blocks with others.
 Since class C blocks were still available but the size of the block did not meet the requirement of
new organizations that wanted to join the Internet, one solution was supernetting.
 In supernetting, an organization can combine several class C blocks to create a larger range of
addresses i.e. to create a super-network.
 A super-net mask is the reverse if subnet mask. A subnet mask for class C has less 1s than the
default mask.

 ARP & RARP

 Address Resolution Packet (ARP) -

Figure: Network Layer

ARP associates an IP address with its physical address. On a typical physical network, such as a LAN, each
device on a link is identified by a physical or station address that is usually imprinted on the NIC.
 Figure: ARP Packet Format

Figure: Encapsulation Of ARP Packet

 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)

RARP finds the logical address for a machine that only knows its physical address.
 Figure: RARP Packet

Figure: Encapsulation of RARP Packet

 BOOTP
 The bootstrap protocol (BOOTP) is the pre-runner of DHCP. It is a client-server protocol designed to
overcome the two deficiencies of the RARP protocol.
 First, since it is a client/server program, the BOOTP server can be anywhere in the internet. Second,
it can provide all pieces of information, including IP address.
 BOOTP is a static configuration protocol. When a client requests its IP address, the BOOTP server
consults a table that matches the physical address of the client with its IP address. this determines the
predetermined binding between physical and logical address.
 There are some situations in which we need a dynamic configuration protocol. BOOTP cannot
handle such configuration because of static binding. Therefore, DHCP has been introduced.

 DHCP
 The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a client/server protocol designed to provide
the four pieces of information for a diskless computer or a computer that is booted for the first time.
 DHCP is successor to BOOTP and is backward compatible with it.
 DHCP has been devised to provide static and dynamic address allocation.
 Static allocation - DHCP server has a database that statically binds physical addresses to IP
addresses.
 Dynamic allocation – DHCP has a second database with a pool of available IP addresses. This
second database makes DHCP dynamic. When a DHCP client requests a temporary IP address, the
DHCP server goes to pool of available IP addresses and assigns an IP address for a negotiable period
of time.
DHCP Packet Format –

 Operation Code: this 8-bit field defines the type of DHCP packet: request(1) or reply(2).
 Hardware Type: this is an 8-bit field defining the type of physical network. Each type of
network has been assigned an integer.
 Hardware length: there is an 8-bit field defining the length of the physical address in bytes.
 Hop count – this is an 8-bit field defining the maximum number of hops the packet can travel.
 Transaction id – this is 4-byte field carrying an integer. The transaction identification is set by
the client and is used to match a reply with the request.
 Number of seconds – 16-bit field that indicates the number of seconds elapsed since the time the
client started to boot.
 Flag – 16-bit field in which only the left-most bit is used and the rest of the bits should be set to
0s. A left-most bit specifies a forced broadcasts reply from the server. If the reply were to be
unicast to the client, the destination IP address of the packet is the address assigned to the client.
 Client IP address – 4-byte field that contains the client IP address. if the client does not have
this information, the field value is 0
 Your IP address – 4-byte field contains the client IP address. it is filled by the server at the
request of the client.
 Server IP address – 4-byte containing server IP address.
 Gateway IP address – 4-byte containing the IP address of a router.
 Client hardware address – contains the physical address of the client.
 Server name – 54-byte field that is optionally filled by the server in reply packet.