19216811.liveDG-BG4100N User
Manual
131
IP Address and Network (Subnet) Mask:
IP stands for Internet Protocol. An IP address
consists of a series of four numbers separated by periods, which identifies a single, unique
Internet computer host in an IP network. Example: 192.168.2.1. It consists of 2 portions: the IP
network address and the host identifier.
The IP address is a 32-bit binary pattern, which can be represented as four cascaded decimal
numbers separated by “.”: aaa.aaa.aaa.aaa, where each “aaa” can be anything from 000 to
255,
or
as
four
cascaded
binary
numbers
separated
by
“.”:
bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb, where each “b” can either be 0 or 1.
A network mask is also a 32-bit binary pattern, and consists of consecutive leading
1’s followed by consecutive trailing 0’s, such as
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000. Therefore sometimes a network mask can also be
described simply as “x” number of leading 1’s.
When both are represented side by side in their binary forms, all bits in the IP address that
correspond to 1’s in the network mask become part of the IP network address, and the
remaining bits correspond to the host ID.
For example, if the IP address for a device is, in its binary form,
11011001.10110000.10010000.00000111, and if its network mask is,
11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000
It means the device’s network address is
11011001.10110000.10010000.00000000, and its host ID is,
00000000.00000000.00000000.00000111.
This is a convenient and efficient method for routers to route IP packets to their destination.