VLSM/CIDR

Key Points about IP addressing

* The IP address is 32 bit long * The network/Host boundary can fall anywhere in the address.

* The Internet address provider will allocate the network part which is normally identified as the left most bits in an IP address

Prefix Addressing Concept

Prefix addressing refers to representation of multiple network addresses with a single common network Address. Prefix addressing enable multiple contiguous network addresses given to a internet customer to be advertised as a single network address

RFC related to CIDR

RFCs explaining the CIDR techniques and applications

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1518 1519 1520

Applicability statement for CIDR implementation

An architecture for IP address allocation with CIDR CIDR:Address assignment and aggregation strategy Exchanging routing information across provider

boundaries in a CIDR environment.

Why CIDR?

Exhaustion of class B address space (most wanted class). RFC 1466 discusses the low percentage usage of IP address classes. Need more granularity for customer requirements Alarming Increase in size of routing tables in tier 1 ISPs.

THE CIDR SOLUTION

Now organization with multiple contiguous class C blocks, advertise only a summarized class C network address reducing routing table size. Increases routing stability in the internet. The shorter the prefix the more general a given network is identified, the longer the prefix a given network is more specific. Some of the address management responsibility is taken care by ISP's

Classless InterdomainRouting
CIDR aggregates multiple network numbers into a single routing entity. CIDR helps Internet routers reduce their routing tables to a more manageable size. For CIDR to work, ISPs need to be in control of consecutive network numbers.

Sample CIDR address granularity

Prefix space.

Mask

New address

/27 /28 /29

255.255.255.224 255.255.255.240 255.255.255.248

30 Hosts 14 hosts 6 hosts

/30

255.255.255.252

2 hosts

CIDR Benefits
Address exhaustion problem is solved.

Reduction in large routing tables.

Conserving resources including router CPU, memory,Bandwidth

Ensures stability in the network.

http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space

VLSM

Variable Length Subnet Masking Used within an organization Provide granularity for specific host addressing requirements Most organization subnets has different number of hosts connected to them.

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How does VLSM do?

Subnet 172.16.14.0/24 is divided into smaller subnets:

Subnet with one mask (/27) Then further subnet one of the unused /27 subnets into multiple /30 subnets

Routing Protocols supporting VLSM

RIP v2 Routing Information Protocol Version 2 OSPF Open Shortest Path First IS-IS Intermediate Systems-to-Intermediate Systems EIGRP Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol BGP-4 Border Gateway Protocol Version 4

Routing Protocols not supporting VLSM

RIPv1 Routing Information Protocol Ver 1

IGRP Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol

VLSM Guidelines

A subnet can be used to address hosts or further sub netted.

can be

Within the allocation of resulting subnets the all ones and all zeros condition does not apply. The routing protocol used has to carry the specific mask of the network in their updates. Multiple IP addresses to be summarized has to share the same high order bits.

Routing decisions give preference to more specific routes than general routes.

VLSM advantages

Better usage of IP addresses (efficiency) Builds a good hierarchical structure about the network.

Summarization
Summarization enables us to combine a set of contiguous networks into a single network to reduce network traffic and reduce routing table size. Summarization represents a series of networks into a single summary address. The purpose of CIDR and VLSM are same, but VLSM extends the CIDR concept to organizations. On the backbone routers the network entries are more general aggregating thousands and thousands of networks is referred as supernets.

Summarization Benefits

Reduce the size of routing tables, uses less CPU and Memory. Recalculation is also confined to a small routing table. Hides network changes. Scalable network growth.

Noncontiguous Networks

A noncontiguous network is referred as two series of IP subnets separated by a different IP subnet. Non VLSM routing protocol will get confused for sending the packets on these networks. It is advised to turn off summarization in dissentious ip subnets. Routing protocol such as EIGRP is capable of summarizing the Interface Level IP address. Key to summarization is on the availability of common high order bits in the IP subnets.

Implementing Summarization of IP subnets

Customer network address allocation should be contiguous. Newer routing protocols need manual configuration of summarization, Each routing protocol behaves differently during summarization.

Older routing protocol such as RIP and IGRP do summarization at the NIC boundary.
Automatic and Manual Summarization.

Manual Summarization

Routing protocols such BGP and EIGRP send subnet masks in their updates. Some routing protocol such as RIP and IGRP does not send subnet masks in their updates.

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http://www.3com.com/other/pdfs/infra/corpinfo/en_US/501302.pdf http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/701/3.html

http://www.raduniversity.com/networks/2003/ipaddr/1.htm

http://www.learntosubnet.com/