Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
Part 1: Determine IPv4 Address Subnetting
In Part 1, you will determine the network and broadcast addresses, as well as the number of hosts, given an
IPv4 address (the first address on the subnet that isn’t usable (like the broadcast address) and
subnet mask.
There are 2 components of the IPv4 address, network and host.
REVIEW: To determine the network address, perform binary ANDing(multiplication) on the IPv4 address
using the subnet mask provided. The result will be the network address. Hint: If the subnet mask has decimal
value 255 in an octet, the result will ALWAYS be the original value of that octet. If the subnet mask has
decimal value 0 in an octet, the result will ALWAYS be 0 for that octet.
Example:
IP Address 192.168.10.10
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 (Class C subnet mask)
==========
Result (Network) 192.168.10.0
Knowing this, you may only have to perform binary ANDing on an octet that does not have 255 or 0 in its
subnet mask portion.
Example:
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
Analyzing this example, you can see that you only have to perform binary ANDing on the third octet. The first
two octets will result in 172.30 due to the subnet mask. The fourth octet will result in 0 due to the subnet
mask.
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
==========
Result (Network) 172.30.?.0
Perform binary ANDing on the third octet.
Decimal Binary
239 11101111
192 11000000
=======
Result 192 11000000
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
Analyzing this example again produces the following result:
IP Address 172.30.239.145
Subnet Mask 255.255.192.0
==========
Result (Network) 172.30.192.0
Continuing with this example, determining the number of hosts per network can be calculated by analyzing
the subnet mask. The subnet mask will be represented in dotted decimal format, such as 255.255.192.0, or in
network prefix format, such as /18. An IPv4 address always has 32 bits. Subtracting the number of bits
used for the network portion (as represented by the subnet mask) gives you the number of bits used for
hosts.
Using our example above, the subnet mask 255.255.192.0 is equivalent to /18 in prefix notation. Subtracting
18 network bits from 32 bits results in 14 bits left for the host portion. From there, it is a simple calculation:
(number of host bits)
2 - 2 = Number of hosts
14
2 = 16,384 – 2 = 16,382 hosts
Prefix notation tells us how many bits is used for the network.
AND = x
OR = +
Octets 192.168.10.10
Contain 8 bits (when calculating you use the binary values instead of the decimal values)
11111111 = 255
``
Subnet Classes
Class 1st Octet Decimal Range Default Subnet Mask
A 1 – 126* 255.0.0.0
B 128 – 191 255.255.0.0
C 192 – 223 255.255.255.0
D 224 – 239 Reserved for Multicasting
E 240 – 254 Experimental; used for research
Determine the network and broadcast addresses and number of host bits and hosts for the given IPv4
addresses and prefixes in the following table.
IPv4 Subnet Mask Network Address Number of IP Broadcast Total Number Total
Address/Prefix (IP Address * Address Address of Host Bits Number of
2(number of host bits)
Subnet Mask) Hosts
192.168.100.25/28 255.255.255.240 192.168.100.16 64 192.168.100.80 4 14
172.30.10.130/30 255.255.255.252 172.30.10.128 4 172.30.10.131 2 4
10.1.113.75/19 255.255.224.0 10.1.64.0 15 32766
198.133.219.250/24 255.255.255.0 8 254
128.107.14.191/22 255.255.252.0 10 1022
172.16.104.99/27 255.255.255.224 5 30
Part 2: Calculate IPv4 Address Subnetting
When given an IPv4 address, the original subnet mask and the new subnet mask, you will be able to
determine:
• Network address of this subnet
• Broadcast address of this subnet
• Range of host addresses of this subnet
• Number of subnets created
• Number of hosts per subnet
The following example shows a sample problem along with the solution for solving this problem:
Given:
Host IP Address: 172.16.77.120
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.240.0
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 4
Number of Subnets Created 16
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 12
Number of Hosts per Subnet 4,094
Network Address of this Subnet 172.16.64.0
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet 172.16.64.1
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet 172.16.79.254
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet 172.16.79.255
Let’s analyze how this table was completed.
The original subnet mask was 255.255.0.0 or /16. The new subnet mask is 255.255.240.0 or /20. The
resulting difference is 4 bits. Because 4 bits were borrowed, we can determine that 16 subnets were created
4
because 2 = 16.
The new mask of 255.255.240.0 or /20 leaves 12 bits for hosts. With 12 bits left for hosts, we use the
12
following formula: 2 = 4,096 – 2 = 4,094 hosts per subnet.
Binary ANDing will help you determine the subnet for this problem, which results in the network 172.16.64.0.
Finally, you need to determine the first host, last host, and broadcast address for each subnet. One method to
determine the host range is to use binary math for the host portion of the address. In our example, the last 12
bits of the address are the host portion. The first host would have all significant bits set to zero and the least
significant bit set to 1. The last host would have all significant bits set to 1 and the least significant bit set to 0.
rd th
In this example, the host portion of the address resides in the 3 and 4 octets.
st nd rd th
Description 1 Octet 2 Octet 3 Octet 4 Octet Description
Network/Host nnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn nnnnhhhh hhhhhhhh Subnet Mask
Binary 10101100 00010000 01000000 00000001 First Host
Decimal 172 16 64 1 First Host
Binary 10101100 00010000 01001111 11111110 Last Host
Decimal 172 16 79 254 Last Host
Binary 10101100 00010000 01001111 11111111 Broadcast
Decimal 172 16 79 255 Broadcast
Step 1: Fill out the tables below with appropriate answers given the IPv4 address, original
subnet mask, and new subnet mask.
a. Problem 1:
Given:
Host IP Address: 192.168.200.139
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.224
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
b. Problem 2:
Given:
Host IP Address: 10.101.99.228
Original Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.128.0
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
c. Problem 3:
Given:
Host IP Address: 172.22.32.12
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.224.0
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
d. Problem 4:
Given:
Host IP Address: 192.168.1.245
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.252
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
e. Problem 5:
Given:
Host IP Address: 128.107.0.55
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
f. Problem 6:
Given:
Host IP Address: 192.135.250.180
Original Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
New Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.248
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits
Number of Subnets Created
Number of Host Bits per Subnet
Number of Hosts per Subnet
Network Address of this Subnet
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet
Reflection
Why is the subnet mask so important when analyzing an IPv4 address?
