IP Address Classes

By : Lawrence Williams Updated October 28, 2023

What is an IP Address?
An IP (Internet Protocol)
address is a numerical label
assigned to the devices
connected to a computer
network that uses the IP for
communication.

IP address act as an identifier

for a specific machine on a particular network. It also helps you to develop a
virtual connection between a destination and a source. The IP address is also
called IP number or internet address. It helps you to specify the technical format
of the addressing and packets scheme. Most networks combine TCP with IP.

An IP address consists of four numbers, each number contains one to three

digits, with a single dot (.) separates each number or set of digits.

Parts of IP address

IP Address is divided into two parts:

Prefix: The prefix part of IP address identifies the physical network to which
the computer is attached. . Prefix is also known as a network address.
Suffix: The suffix part identifies the individual computer on the network.
The suffix is also called the host address.
 Table of Content:

Types of IP4 Classes

IP Header Classes:
 Max
Address Subnet Example Leading number
Class Application
Range masking IP bits of
networks

Used for
IP Class A 1 to 126 255.0.0.0 1.1.1.1 8 128 large number
of hosts.

Used for
128 to
IP Class B 255.255.0.0 128.1.1.1 16 16384 medium size
191
network.

Used for
192 to
IP Class C 255.255.255.0 192.1.11. 24 2097157 local area
223
network.

Reserve for
224 to
IP Class D NA NA NA NA multi-
239
tasking.

This class is
reserved for
240 to
IP Class E NA NA NA NA research and
254
Development
Purposes.

How does IP address work?

IP address works in an IP network like a postal address. For example, a postal
address combines two addresses, address, or your area your house address.

The address or your area is a group address of all houses that belong to a
specific area. The house address is the unique address of your homes in that
area. Here, your area is represented by a PIN code number.

In this example, the network address comprises all hosts which belong to a
specific network. The host address is the unique address of a particular host in
that network.

What is Classful Addressing?

Classful addressing is a network addressing the Internet’s architecture from 1981
till Classless Inter-Domain Routing was introduced in 1993.

This addressing method divides the IP address into five separate classes based
on four address bits.

Here, classes A, B, C offers addresses for networks of three distinct network sizes.
Class D is only used for multicast, and class E reserved exclusively for
experimental purposes.

Let’s see each of the network classes in detail:

Class A Network
This IP address class is used when there are a large number of hosts. In a Class A
type of network, the first 8 bits (also called the first octet) identify the network,
and the remaining have 24 bits for the host into that network.

An example of a Class A address is 102.168.212.226. Here, “102” helps you

identify the network and 168.212.226 identify the host.

Class A addresses 127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 cannot be used and is reserved

for loopback and diagnostic functions.

Class B Network
In a B class IP address, the binary addresses start with 10. In this IP address, the
class decimal number that can be between 128 to 191. The number 127 is
reserved for loopback, which is used for internal testing on the local machine.
The first 16 bits (known as two octets) help you identify the network. The other
remaining 16 bits indicate the host within the network.

An example of Class B IP address is 168.212.226.204, where *168 212* identifies

the network and *226.204* helps you identify the Hut network host.

Class C Network
Class C is a type of IP address that is used for the small network. In this class,
three octets are used to indent the network. This IP ranges between 192 to 223.

In this type of network addressing method, the first two bits are set to be 1, and
the third bit is set to 0, which makes the first 24 bits of the address them and the
remaining bit as the host address. Mostly local area network used Class C IP
address to connect with the network.

Example for a Class C IP address:

192.168.178.1

Class D Network
Class D addresses are only used for multicasting applications. Class D is never
used for regular networking operations. This class addresses the first three bits
set to “1” and their fourth bit set to use for “0”. Class D addresses are 32-bit
network addresses. All the values within the range are used to identify multicast
groups uniquely.

Therefore, there is no requirement to extract the host address from the IP

address, so Class D does not have any subnet mask.
Example for a Class D IP address:

227.21.6.173

Class E Network
Class E IP address is defined by including the starting four network address bits
as 1, which allows you two to incorporate addresses from 240.0.0.0 to
255.255.255.255. However, E class is reserved, and its usage is never defined.
Therefore, many network implementations discard these addresses as
undefined or illegal.

Example for a Class E IP address:

243.164.89.28

Limitations of classful IP addressing

Here are the drawbacks/ cons of the classful IP addressing method:

Risk of running out of address space soon

Class boundaries did not encourage efficient allocation of address space

Rules for assigning Network ID

The network ID will be assigned based on the below-given rules:

The network ID cannot start with 127 because 127 belongs to class A
address and is reserved for internal loopback functions.
 All bits of network ID set to 1 are reserved for use as an IP broadcast address
and cannot be used.
All bits of network ID are set to 0. They are used to denote a particular host
on the local network and should not be routed.

Summary
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical label assigned to the
devices connected to a computer network that uses the IP for
communication.
IP Address is divided into two parts: 1) Prefix 2)Suffix
IP address works in a network like a postal address. For example, a postal
address combines two addresses, address, or your area your house address.
In a class A type of network, the first 8 bits (also called the first octet)
identify the network, and the remaining have 24 bits for the host into that
network.
In class B type of network, the first 16 bits (known as two octets) help you
identify the network. The other remaining 16 bits indicate the host within
the network.
In class C, three octets are used to indent the network. This IP ranges
between 192 to 223.
Class D addresses are 32-bit network addresses. All the values within the
range are used to identify multicast groups uniquely.
Class E IP address is defined by including the starting four network address
bits as 1.
The major drawback of IP address classes is the risk of running out of
address space soon.
Important rule for assigning network id is that the network ID cannot start
with 127 as this number belongs to class A address and reserved for internal
loopback functions.

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