Classless Addressing in IP Addressing

Last Updated : 20 Sep, 2023

The Network address identifies a network on the internet. Using this, we

can find a range of addresses in the network and total possible number of
hosts in the network.

Mask is a 32-bit binary number that gives the network address in the
address block when AND operation is bitwise applied on the mask and
any IP address of the block.

The default masks in different classes are :

Class A - 255.0.0.0
Class B - 255.255.0.0
Class C - 255.255.255.0

Question: Given IP address 132.6.17.85 and default class B mask, find the
beginning address (network address).

Solution: The default mask is 255.255.0.0, which means that only the first
2 bytes are preserved and the other 2 bytes are set to 0. Therefore, the
network address is 132.6.0.0.

Subnetting
Dividing a large block of addresses into several contiguous sub-blocks
and assigning these sub-blocks to different smaller networks is called
subnetting. It is a practice that is widely used when classless addressing
is done.
▲ inside a network. Subnets make
A subnet or subnetwork is a network
networks more efficient. Through subnetting,
Open In App network traffic can travel a
shorter distance without passing through unnecessary routers to reach its
destination.

Classless Addressing
To reduce the wastage of IP addresses in a block, we use sub-netting.
What we do is that we use host id bits as net id bits of a classful IP
address. We give the IP address and define the number of bits for mask
along with it (usually followed by a '/' symbol), like, 192.168.1.1/28. Here,
subnet mask is found by putting the given number of bits out of 32 as 1,
like, in the given address, we need to put 28 out of 32 bits as 1 and the
rest as 0, and so, the subnet mask would be 255.255.255.240. A classless
addressing system or classless interdomain routing (CIDR or
supernetting) is the way to combine two or more class C networks to
create a/23 or a /22 supernet. A classless addressing system or classless
interdomain routing (CIDR) is an improved IP addressing system. In a
classless addressing system the block of IP address is assigned
dynamically based on specific rules.

Some Values Calculated in Subnetting:

1. Number of subnets : 2(Given bits for mask - No. of bits in default mask)

2. Subnet address : AND result of subnet mask and the given IP address

3. Broadcast address : By putting the host bits as 1 and retaining the

network bits as in the IP address

4. Number of hosts per subnet : 2(32 - Given bits for mask) - 2

5. First Host ID : Subnet address + 1 (adding one to the binary

representation of the subnet address)
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6. Last Host ID : Subnet address + Number of Hosts

C++ C Python3 C#

#include <bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;

string ip_classless(string ip){

// Extract the first octet as a string and then convert it to an
int using stoi function

int first_octet=stoi(ip.substr(0,ip.find('.')));
if(first_octet>=0 and first_octet<=127){
// Means the IP Address in Class A
return ip+"/8";
}
if(first_octet>=128 and first_octet<=191){
// Means the IP Address is in Class B
return ip+"/16";
}
if(first_octet>=192 and first_octet<=223){
// Means the IP Address is in Class C
return ip+"/24";
}
return "Reserved IP Address. Invalid.";
}
//Driver Code
int main() {
// Will store the ip address as an input in ip variable
string ip;
cout<<"Enter the IP Address: ";
cin>>ip;
cout<<ip_classless(ip)<<endl;

// This Code is contributed by Himesh Singh Chauhan

return 0;
}

Explanation:

This program takes an IP address in classful notation as input (e.g.

192.168.0.0) and converts it to classless addressing (CIDR notation) by
checking the Class of the IP address and setting the mask(number after
'/') on that basis. The resulting CIDR notation is returned by the function
ip_classless.
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 Enter an IP address in classful notation: 192.168.0.0
Classless address: 192.168.0.0/24

Question: Given IP Address - 172.16.0.0/25, find the number of subnets

and the number of hosts per subnet. Also, for the first subnet block, find
the subnet address, first host ID, last host ID, and broadcast address.

Solution:

This is a class B address. So, no. of subnets = 2(25-16) = 29 = 512.

No. of hosts per subnet = 2(32-25) - 2 = 27 - 2 = 128 - 2 = 126

For the first subnet block(means Subnet Number=1), we have subnet

address = 172.16.0.0, first host id = 172.16.0.1, last host id =
172.16.0.126 and broadcast address = 172.16.0.127

GATE Previous Year Questions

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