The IP address is a unique identifier for a device on the internet. It is a 32-bit number. The IP address is made up of 4 numbers, separated by dots (.), each ranging from 0 to 255. The IP address can be written as four decimal numbers, separated by periods (.). For example, 192.168.1.1 can be written as 192.168.1.0 or 192.168-1-0 or even 12106801000 or 121068010000 001. The IP address is used with the prefix 192.168, which identifies a network connection as being on the 192.168 subnet. The full address of an individual device on this network would be 192.168.1.100, meaning that it is located at the first location in the fourth octet of this range.
An Overview of IPv4 Addresses
IPv4 addresses are the most common form of IP address and are used to identify a host on the Internet. They are written as four numbers separated by periods, and they look something like 12.34.56.78. The IPv4 address space is limited to 4,294,967,296 unique addresses (2^32). The IPv4 address space was exhausted in 2011 and has been replaced by IPv6 which has a much larger address space of 2^128 (340 undecillion). addresses.IPv6 is an improved version of IPv4 and addresses the depletion of the IPv4 space. It also uses 128-bit addresses, which allows for a theoretical maximum number of addresses of around 340 undecillion.IP address formats and types:ipv4 address – IPv4 Address, which consists of four numbers separated by periods, and they look something like 12.34.56.78.ipv6 address – IPV6 Address, which consists of eight hexadecimal numbers separated by colons, and they look something like 0d0aebfdc57.
Different Types of IPv4 Address
The IPv4 protocol is the most widely used and deployed Internet Protocol version in the world. It was first developed in 1977, and it has been revised to meet the needs of an ever-growing Internet population.
There are a number of different types of IPv4 addresses. The following will give you a better idea about them:
Unicast: This type is used when a single packet is sent to one specific destination. The packet can be received by either one host or many hosts that share the same address. This type of IPv4 address is also used for sending data packets from servers to clients or from routers to hosts on LANs. Broadcast: This type is mainly used for sending data packets from a server to all clients on a LAN, It is not used for sending data packets from a client to a server.
Multicast: This type is used for sending data packets to all hosts on a LAN that share the same address. Every host on the LAN can receive the packet and this type of IP address is also used for sending data packets from routers to hosts on LANs.
A Class C IP address is defined as 192.168.2.0 to 192.168.254
Class D IP Addresses are allocated for multicast addresses, such as 224.0.1 for the All-Points-Multicast group and 239.255 for the Protocol Independent Multicast group (224-239).
Class E IP Addresses are used in conjunction with subnetting and the designations of Class A, B, C, or D IP addresses.
Class F IP Addresses are used in conjunction with subnetting and the designations of Class E. and Class A, B, or C addresses. In the system of an organization called “classful address,” each network has a range of different class prefixes assigned to it and at the end of each class, a prefix is a number that tells you what type of IP address is associated with this particular range. For example, 216.10.0.0/16 means that the 216.10.0.0 network is for Class A IP addresses, and 10.1.2 would be a Class B address, 10.2 would be a Class C address, and so on.
What are IPv6 Address
IPv6 addresses are the new version of internet protocol addresses. They are the successor to IPv4 addresses, which were the standard for decades. The main difference between IPv6 and IPv4 is that IPv6 has a much larger address space, allowing for more devices to be connected to the internet. IPv6 is designed so that every device can have its own unique IP address and no longer share one with other devices on a network. IPv6 will allow for many more connections per second than its predecessor and will also have much less overhead when transferring data
The unique feature of IPv6 Address
IPv6 is the latest version of IP, which is the protocol that defines how data is communicated on the internet. IPv6 was first published in 1998 and became a formal standard in 2005.
The following features are unique to IPv6: – The address space is much larger than IPv4 (128 bits vs 32 bits). This means that there are enough addresses to assign one to every square meter of the Earth’s surface. – There are two types of addresses: Unicast and Multicast. A unicast address identifies a single interface or host, while multicast addresses identify multiple interfaces or hosts. – The header includes a “Next Header” field, which allows for extension headers and options so that new internet protocols can be added without having to update IPv6 itself. .16-bit Prefix Length field: This field can have a value of 0 to 63. The prefix length indicates the number of leading zeros in the address. For example, if an IPv6 system has an address with a prefix length of 8, then it’s equivalent to having an address that starts with 08:00:00:0. . This field is used to identify the size of the prefix on this interface. The Interface ID: This 32-bit value represents the interface on which an IPv6 packet will be sent. It can be compared to an address that identifies a computer or network connection in your local area network (LAN). or on the Internet. For example, the Interface ID for a LAN is typically an IEEE 802 address of a device connected to a switch in your LAN. The Interface ID for an IPv6 address is hexadecimal, and it’s normally written as 3FFE: FE02::1. The IP Type field: This variable-length field can have one of these values: 0 for IPv6 packets. 1 for ICMPv6 packets, or 2 for UDPv6 packets. The last field in the header describes the type of IPv6 packet that will be sent on this interface and can have one of the following values: 1 for unicast, 2 for multicast, 3 for anycast. The Next Header field: This variable-length field can have one of these values: 0 for IPv4, 1 for ICMPv4, 2 for UDPv4, 4 for TCPv4, and 6 for TCPv6.The IP Header is defined by the next header field to identify a packet transmitted on an Ethernet or IEEE 802 network.
