Basics of IP Address
In today’s world, many devices are connected as a network to carry out workflows. To identify devices on the network, each device must have a unique identifier. This uses the IP address or Internet Protocol address.
What is IP address — Internet Protocol address
In here, everyone is connected across the road and each person has a unique address for communication purpose.
If №1, Point Road residents want to talk to №2A Lake Street residents, they can communicate without any difficulty through the relevant addresses.
Similarly, an IP address is used to identify devices or host (computer or other devices such as router, printer etc) connected to a network).
The figure below shows a simple network diagram. All devices connected to the Internet or network use the “Internet language” for communication. That is, instead of street addresses, as in the example, each device has its own unique IP address. For example, the IP address of the first computer is 192.168.1.1. In this way, “packets” which is information units communicated over the network at any time reach the relevant destinations through these IP addresses.
How IP address create?
Before discussing this section, you should know that there are two types of IP addresses, IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is considered as a primary Internet protocol to carry 94% of Internet traffic and is used to identify network devices using an addressing system. So today’s article will go with IPV 4 addresses.
IPv4 address created using 32 bits (basic knowledge of binary is important). These 32 bits are divided into 4 sections using dots (periods). Each partition is equal to 8 bits (= 1 octet). For ease of understanding, a binary format number is converted to four decimals as same as separated by dots.
The value of this 1 octet is in the range of 0 -255 in decimal or 00000000–11111111 in binary.
You now have a basic idea of how to develop an IP address. This IP has two parts, Network address and Host address. For example, in the IP address 192.168.13.156, 192.168.123.0 is the network address and 0.0.0.156 is the host address.
More about IP Addresses
- An IP address is also known as an IP number or an Internet address.
- Depending on the range of octal values, networks of different scales can be developed under 5 classes, A to E.
- Layer 3 of the OSI model (Seven-Layer Architecture) use IP addresses as a logical address to live routing.
- There are static and dynamic IP addresses, where the static IP address does not change once assigned and the dynamic address changes after the network changes.
Resources.
Deland-Han, “TCP/IP addressing and subnetting — Windows Client.” https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/networking/tcpip-addressing-and-subnetting.
“IP Addressing and Subnetting for New Users”, Cisco, 2021. Available: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/routing-information-protocol-rip/13788-3.html#anc0.
“IPv4 vs IPv6: What’s the Difference?” https://www.guru99.com/difference-ipv4-vs-ipv6.html.
