SWE-306

Computer Communication &

Networks (CC&N)
Internet Layer:
VLSM & IPv6 Addressing
(Week 8 Lecture)

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 Variable sized subnets
Variable Sized Subnets
• Variable-length subnet mask
(VLSM) provides more
efficient use of addresses. 30 hosts

• VLSM allows a network space

14 hosts
to be divided in unequal
30 hosts
parts. 14 hosts

• Subnet mask varies,

30 hosts 30 hosts
depending on how many bits
have been borrowed for a
particular subnet. 30 hosts 30 hosts

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 Classless Addressing

• Problem with classful addresses

– wastage due fix blocks of addresses
• Solution: Classless addressing
– Variable length address blocks
– No classes
• Classful addressing is almost obsolete and
replaced with classless addressing.

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 Classless address blocks
• An entity is granted a block (range) of addresses
• The size of the block (the number of addresses) varies
based on the nature and size of the entity
• Restrictions:
1. The addresses in a block must be contiguous, one after
another.
2. The number of addresses in a block must be a power of 2
(1, 2, 4, 8, ... ).
3. The first address must be evenly divisible by the number of
addresses.

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 Mask in Classless Addressing
• In IPv4 addressing, a block of addresses can be
defined as x.y.z.t/n in which x.y.z.t defines one of the
addresses and the /n defines the mask.
• The address and the /n notation completely define
the whole block (the first address, the last address,
and the number of addresses).
• The first address in the block can be found by setting
the rightmost 32-n bits to 0s.

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Subnetted
Network

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 Subnets and Addresses

Nets 7 – 13 not shown

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15

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 Example 1
A block of addresses is granted to a small
organization. We know that one of the addresses is
205.16.37.39/28. What is the first address in the
block?
Solution
The binary representation of the given address is
11001101 00010000 00100101 00100111
If we set 32−28 rightmost bits to 0, we get
11001101 00010000 00100101 0010000
or
205.16.37.32.
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 Example 2
• An ISP is granted a block of addresses starting with
190.100.0.0/16 The ISP needs to distribute these addresses to
three groups of customers as follows:
a) 1st group has 64 customers; each needs 256 addresses.
b) 2nd group has 128 customers; each needs 128 addrs.
c) 3rd group has 128 customers; each needs 64 addresses.

• Design the subblocks and find out how many addresses are still
available after these allocations.

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Example 2

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 Network Address Translation
• IP addresses are scarce.
• The long-term solution is for the whole Internet to migrate
to IPv6
– 128-bit addresses
• The quick fix is NAT (Network Address Translation)
– described in RFC 3022
• Assign each company a single IP address (or at most, a small
number of them) for Internet traffic.
• Within the company, every computer gets a unique IP address
(private)
• When a packet exits the company and goes to the Internet, an
address translation takes place.
– (private -> global)

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 Private addresses

• 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255: 172.16.0.0/12

– Where does the /12 come from?
12 bits in common
10101100 . 00010000 . 00000000 . 00000000 – 172.16.0.0
10101100 . 00011111 . 11111111 . 11111111 – 172.31.255.255
-------------------------------------------------------------
10101100 . 00010000 . 00000000 . 00000000 – 172.16.0.0/12
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 NAT
• Private network uses private addresses
• NAT router translates private addresses to global address
• The private network is transparent to the rest of the Internet

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Translation table

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 NAT
• Using one IP address
– 1 private host can access an external host at a time
• Using a pool of IP addresses
– N global addresses = N private hosts can access same
external host at a time
• Using both IP addresses and port numbers
– many private hosts can access many external host at a
time

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 PAT – Port Address Translation

• PAT (Port Address Translation) allows you to use a single Public IP

address and assign it up to 65,536 inside hosts (4,000 is more realistic).
• PAT translates and records the TCP/UDP port address to track inside
Host addresses.
• Also known as Network Address and Port Translation (NAPT) and NAT
Overloading.

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 PAT Example

NAT/PAT table
maintains translation
of: DA, SA, SP

DA SA DP SP DA SA DP SP

128.23.2.2 10.0.0.3 80 1331 Data 128.23.2.2 179.9.8.80 80 3333 Data

IP Header TCP/UDP IP Header TCP/UDP

1 Header 2 Header

DA SA DP SP DA SA DP SP

128.23.2.2 10.0.0.2 80 1555 Data 128.23.2.2 179.9.8.80 80 2222 Data

IP Header TCP/UDP IP Header TCP/UDP

1 Header 2 Header
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 PAT – Port Address Translation

• With PAT multiple private IP addresses can be translated by a single public

address (many-to-one translation).
• This solves the limitation of NAT which is one-to-one translation.

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IPv6 Addresses

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 IPv6 Addressing - 3 Types

1. Unicast

2. Anycast

3. Multicast
 IPv6
1. Inevitability
2. Efficiency
3. Security

• Despite all short-term solutions (e.g. NAT/PAT),

address depletion is still a problem for the
Internet.
• This and other problems in the IP protocol
itself have been the motivation for designing
IPv6.
 IPv6 Addresses
• 128 bits long
• assigned to interface
• single interface may have multiple unicast addresses
• three types of addresses:
• An IPv6 address is 128 bits long
• It is usually presented in hexadecimal colon notation

IPv6 address structure

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Abbreviated IPv6 addresses

Type prefixes for

IPv6 addresses

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Multicast address in IPv6

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Reserved addresses in IPv6

Local addresses in IPv6

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 IPv6 Tunnelling: Dual Environments
• Packets travelling on the Internet will
meet routers that are not IPv6
capable
• To ensure compatibility IETF created
IPv6 over IPv4 Tunneling
 IPv6 Tunnelling: Dual Environments
• To determine which protocol to use a router will use DNS records

If IPv4 DNS database record is:

www.senecacollege.ca. IN A 142.204.0.0
If IPv6 address, DNS database record is::
www.senecacollege.ca. IN AAAA FE80:DC28:ffff::1234

If multiple IPv4/v6 addresses, IPv6 addresses will be tried first, and then
IPv4 addresses will be tried.

• Connecting to FE80:DC28:ffff::1234, then

www.senecacollege.ca IN AAAA FE80:DC28:ffff::1234

www.senecacollege.ca IN AAAA FE80:DC28:ffff::5678
www.senecacollege.ca IN A 142.204.0.0