Explain IP addressing and how to create subnets

Understanding IP Addresses

• An IP address is an address used in order to uniquely identify a device on an IP network. The address is made up of 32 binary bits, which can be divisible into a network portion and host portion with the help of a subnet mask.
• The 32 binary bits are broken into four octets (1 octet = 8 bits). Each octet is converted to decimal and separated by a period (dot). For this reason, an IP address is said to be expressed in dotted decimal format.

• For example,172.16.81.100). The value in each octet ranges from 0 to 255 decimal, or 00000000 11111111 binary.

• Here is how binary octets convert to decimal: The right most bit, or least significant bit, of an octet holds a value of 20. The bit just to the left of that holds a value of 21. 
• This continues until the leftmost bit, or most significant bit, which holds a value of 27. So if all binary bits are a one, the decimal equivalent would be 255 as shown here:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 (128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1=255)

• Here is a sample octet conversion when not all of the bits are set to1.

0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 64 0 0 0 0 0 1 (0+64+0+0+0+0+0+1=65)

• And this is sample shows an IP address represented in both binary and decimal.

10. 1. 23. 19 (decimal)

00001010.00000001.00010111.00010011 (binary)

• These octets are broken down to provide an addressing scheme that can accommodate large and small networks.
• There are five different classes of networks, A to E. This document focuses on addressing classes