The Hierarchical IP Addressing Scheme
An IP address consists of 32 bits of information. These bits are divided into four sections, referred to as octets or bytes, and four octets sum up to 32 bits (8 × 4 = 32). You can depict an IP address using one of three methods:
- Dotted-decimal, as in 172.16.30.56
- Binary, as in 10101100.00010000.00011110.00111000
- Hexadecimal, as in AC.10.1E.38
Each of these examples validly represents the same IP address. Hexadecimal is used with IPv6, and IP addressing uses dotted-decimal or binary, but you still might find an IP address stored in hexadecimal in some programs. The Windows XP Registry is a good example of a program that stores a machine’s IP address in hex.
The 32-bit IP address is known as a structured, or hierarchical, address as opposed to a flat, or nonhierarchical, address. Although either type of addressing scheme can be used, hierarchical addressing has been chosen for a very important reason. The major advantage of this scheme...