Subnetting And Supernetting.

What is Subnetting?

Process of dividing an IP network in to sub divisions is called subnetting. Subnetting divides an IP address in to two parts as the network (or routing prefix) and the rest field (which is used to identify a specific host). CIDR notation is used to write a routing prefix. This notation uses a slash (/) to separate the network starting address and the length of the network prefix (in bits). For example, in IPv4, 192.60.128.0/22 indicates that 22 bits are allocated for the network prefix and the remaining 10 bits are reserved for the host address. In addition, routing prefix can also be represented using the subnet mask. 255.255.252.0 (11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000)
is the subnet mask for 192.60.128.0/22. Separating the network portion and the subnet portion of an IP address is done by performing a bitwise AND operation between the IP address and the subnet mask. This would result in identifying the network prefix and the host identifier.

What is Supernetting?

Supernetting is the process of combining several IP networks with a common network prefix. Supernetting was introduced as a solution to the problem of increasing size in routing tables. Supernetting also simplifies the routing process. For example, the subnetworks 192.60.2.0/24 and 192.60.3.0/24 can be combined in to the supernetwork denoted by 192.60.2.0/23. In the supernet, the first 23 bits are the network part of the address and the other 9 bits are used as the host identifier. So, one address will represent several small networks and this would reduce the number of entries that should be included in the routing table. Typically, supernetting is used for class C IP addresses (addresses beginning with 192 to 223 in decimal), and most of the routing protocols support supernetting. Examples of such protocols are Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). But, protocols such as Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) and the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) do not support supernetting.

Difference between Subnetting and Supernetting?

Subnetting is the process of dividing an IP network in to sub divisions called subnets whereas****;Super netting is the process of combining several IP networks with a common network prefix. Supernetting will reduce the number of entries in a routing table and also will simplify the routing process. In subnetting, host ID bits (for IP addresses from a single network ID) are borrowed to be used as a subnet ID, while in supernetting, bits from the network ID are borrowed to be used as the host ID

IPv4 - Subnetting (CIDR).

In earlier topic we have describe about IP Address Classess and Now we are discribing that how to Subnet Class A,B,C IP Address.
Each IP class is equipped with its own default subnet mask which bounds that IP class to have prefixed number of Networks and prefixed number of Hosts per network. Classful IP addressing does not provide any flexibility of having less number of Hosts per Network or more Networks per IP Class.

CIDR or Classless Inter Domain Routing provides the flexibility of borrowing bits of Host part of the IP address and using them as Network in Network, called Subnet. By using subnetting, one single Class A IP addresses can be used to have smaller sub-networks which provides better network management capabilities.

Class A Subnets

In Class A, only the first octet is used as Network identifier and rest of three octets are used to be assigned to Hosts (i.e. 16777214 Hosts per Network). To make more subnet in Class A, bits from Host part are borrowed and the subnet mask is changed accordingly.

For example, if one MSB (Most Significant Bit) is borrowed from host bits of second octet and added to Network address, it creates two Subnets (2^1=2) with (2^23-2) 8388606 Hosts per Subnet.

The Subnet mask is changed accordingly to reflect subnetting. Given below is a list of all possible combination of Class A subnets:

In case of subnetting too, the very first and last IP address of every subnet is used for Subnet Number and Subnet Broadcast IP address respectively. Because these two IP addresses cannot be assigned to hosts, Sub-netting cannot be implemented by using more than 30 bits as Network Bits which provides less than two hosts per subnet.

Class B Subnets

By Default, using Classful Networking, 14 bits are used as Network bits providing (214) 16384 Networks and (216-1) 65534 Hosts. Class B IP Addresses can be subnetted the same way as Class A addresses, by borrowing bits from Host bits. Below is given all possible combination of Class B subnetting:

Class C Subnets

Class C IP addresses normally assigned to a very small size network because it only can have 254 hosts in a network. Given below is a list of all possible combination of subnetted Class B IP address:

IPv4 - Variable Length Subnet Masking (VLSM).

In This Section we have Describe that how to subnet a Network Address.

Internet Service Providers may face a situation where they need to allocate IP subnets of different sizes as per the requirement of customer. One customer may ask Class C subnet of 3 IP addresses and another may ask for 10 IPs. For an ISP, it is not feasible to divide the IP addresses into fixed size subnets, rather he may want to subnet the subnets in such a way which results in minimum wastage of IP addresses.

For example, an administrator have 192.168.1.0/24 network. The suffix /24 (pronounced as "slash 24") tells the number of bits used for network address. He is having three different departments with different number of hosts. Sales department has 100 computers, Purchase department has 50 computers, Accounts has 25 computers and Management has 5 computers. In CIDR, the subnets are of fixed size. Using the same methodology the administrator cannot fulfill all the requirements of the network.

The following procedure shows how VLSM can be used in order to allocate department-wise IP addresses as mentioned in the example.

Step - 1

Make a list of Subnets possible.

Step - 2

Sort the requirements of IPs in descending order (Highest to Lowest).

  Sales         100
  Purchase      50
  Accounts      25
  Management    5

Step - 3

Allocate the highest range of IPs to the highest requirement, so let's assign 192.168.1.0 /25 (255.255.255.128) to Sales department. This IP subnet with Network number 192.168.1.0 has 126 valid Host IP addresses which satisfy the requirement of Sales Department. The subnet Mask used for this subnet has 10000000 as the last octet.

Step - 4

Allocate the next highest range, so let's assign 192.168.1.128 /26 (255.255.255.192) to Purchase department. This IP subnet with Network number 192.168.1.128 has 62 valid Host IP Addresses which can be easily assigned to all Purchase department's PCs. The subnet mask used has 11000000 in the last octet.

Step - 5

Allocate the next highest range, i.e. Accounts. The requirement of 25 IPs can be fulfilled with 192.168.1.192 /27 (255.255.255.224) IP subnet, which contains 30 valid host IPs. The network number of Accounts department will be 192.168.1.192. The last octet of subnet mask is 11100000.

Step - 6

Allocate next highest range to Management. The Management department contains only 5 computers. The subnet 192.168.1.224 /29 with Mask 255.255.255.248 has exactly 6 valid host IP addresses. So this can be assigned to Management. The last octet of subnet mask will contain 11111000.

By using VLSM, the administrator can subnet the IP subnet such a way that least number of IP addresses are wasted. Even after assigning IPs to every department, the administrator, in this example, still left with plenty of IP addresses which was not possible if he has used CIDR.