20
With the classful addressing, it divides IP address into three classes, class A,
class B and class C. The rest of IP addresses are for multicast and broadcast. The
bit length of the network prefix is the same as that of the subnet mask and is
denoted as IP address/X, for example, 192.168.1.0/24. Each class has its address
range described below.
Class A:
Address is less than 126.255.255.255. There are a total of 126 networks can
be defined because the address 0.0.0.0 is reserved for default route and
127.0.0.0/8 is reserved for loopback function.
0
Class B:
IP address range between 128.0.0.0 and 191.255.255.255. Each class B
network has a 16-bit network prefix followed 16-bit host address. There are 16,384
(2^14)/16 networks able to be defined with a maximum of 65534 (2^16 –2) hosts
per network.
10
Class C:
IP address range between 192.0.0.0 and 223.255.255.255. Each class C
network has a 24-bit network prefix followed 8-bit host address. There are
2,097,152 (2^21)/24 networks able to be defined with a maximum of 254 (2^8 –2)
hosts per network.
110
Bit # 0 1 7 8
Network address Host address
Bit # 01 2 15 16
Network address Host address
Bit # 0 1 2 3 23 24 31
Network address Host