#9 INTERNET PROTOCOL: THE NETWORKING SERIES
Are you online? Of course you are! And that’s how you are reading this blog right now. Would you like to know how this is possible? This series is all about what it takes to be online and access internet!
Hey peeps, hope now you are familiar with routing and basic networking concepts. But have you wondered how the packets that you are sending reaches its correct destination? And why not the packets reach the wrong destinations mostly? Yeah, everyone have thought of this at least once. Now here comes to play, “the Internet Protocol”.
We know that router is needed to get outside of your local network. But router alone cannot do the job. We need a proper IP address of source and destination. In this part we’ll be discussing about Internet Protocol. So, let’s dive into the topic!
Purpose of IPv4 Address
Let me start this with a simple example. Assume that you want to send a present for your friend on his birthday. But he is residing in another country or state, wherever. How do you send that present to your friend? Exactly, through mail/post. But if that present has to reach your friend, you must provide that present with a destination address, which is in this case, your friend’s home address. Take this example as reference, and compare this with our internet communication. If a packet that you are sending from your computer should reach a correct destination, then it should also has to have an address which is IP address. Unlike the normal address, IP addresses are like numbers (ex: 192.168.3.4).
A host needs an IPv4 address to participate in almost all LAN networks and on the internet. The IPv4 address is a logical address that helps to identify a particular host. The IPv4 address should be properly configured and unique within the LAN, for local communication and must be unique in the world, for remote communication. That is how a host is able to communicate with other devices and identified on the internet.
An IPv4 address is assigned to the network interface for a host. This is usually a Network interface card (NIC) installed in the device. Some devices or servers have more than one NIC, hence they have many IPv4 addresses which means that each of the NIC has its own IPv4 address. Router interface that provide connections to an IP network will also have an IPv4 address.
Every packet sent across the internet has a source and destination IPv4 address. This information is required by networking devices to make sure that the packets are sent to correct destination and any replies are returned to the source.
IPv4 in Binary
The IPv4 address is simply a series of 32 binary bits (1’s and 0's). There are over 4 billion possible IPv4 addresses using this 32-bit addressing scheme.
It will be very difficult to read an IPv4 address if it is in binary. It will be difficult for humans to read, write or remember. Hence, the 32 bits are grouped into four 8-bit bytes called octets and each octet is represented as its decimal value, separated by a decimal point.
For example, when a host is configured with an IPv4 address, it is entered as a dotted decimal number such as 192.168.1.5. But the actual 32-bit binary equivalent is 11000000101010000000000100000101. If you mistyped even one bit, then the address would be different, and we won’t be able to communicate the host on the network.
Each octet represents 1 byte which is 8 bits. In the above case, each octet separated with space is represented as 11000000 10101000 00000001 00000101. Then each octet is converted into equivalent decimal value and instead of separating with space, as we did here for identification purpose, the decimal values are separated by a decimal point.
Let me conclude this part here! I’ll be writing about the structure of IPv4 address, Classes of IPv4 address and much more about unicast, multicast and broadcast networks.
Hope you enjoy this series! I’ll catch you up in the next part!
Stay connected!!
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