Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
Objectives
Part 1: Determine IPv4 Address Subnetting
Part 2: Calculate IPv4 Address Subnetting
Background / Scenario
The ability to work with IPv4 subnets and determine network and host information based on a given IP
address and subnet mask is critical to understanding how IPv4 networks operate. The f irst part is designed to
reinf orce how to compute network IP address information from a given IP address and subnet mask. When
given an IP address and subnet mask, you will be able to determine other information about the subnet.
Required Resources
• 1 PC (Windows 7 or 8 with Internet access)
• Optional: IPv4 address calculator
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 and subnet mask.
REVIEW: To determine the network address, perform binary ANDing 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 f or that octet.
Example:
IP Address [Link]
Subnet Mask [Link]
==========
Result (Network) [Link]
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 [Link]
Subnet Mask [Link]
Analyzing this example, you can see that you only have to perform binary ANDing on the third octet. The f irst
two octets will result in 172.30 due to the subnet mask. The f ourth octet will result in 0 due to the subnet
mask.
IP Address [Link]
Subnet Mask [Link]
==========
Result (Network) 172.30.?.0
Perf orm binary ANDing on the third octet.
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Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
Decimal Binary
239 11101111
192 11000000
=======
Result 192 11000000
Analyzing this example again produces the following result:
IP Address [Link]
Subnet Mask [Link]
==========
Result (Network) [Link]
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 [Link], or in
network prefix format, such as /18. An IPv4 address always has 32 bits. Subtracting the number of bits used
f or 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 [Link] 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:
2(number of host bits) - 2 = Number of hosts
214 = 16,384 – 2 = 16,382 hosts
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 Total Number Total Number
Address/Prefix Network Address Broadcast Address of Host Bits of Hosts
[Link]/28 [Link] [Link] 4 14
[Link]/30 [Link] [Link] 2 3
[Link]/19 [Link] [Link] 13 8190
[Link]/24 [Link] [Link] 8 254
[Link]/22 [Link] [Link] 10 1022
[Link]/27 [Link] [Link] 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
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
The f ollowing example shows a sample problem along with the solution for solving this problem:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
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 [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
Let’s analyze how this table was completed.
The original subnet mask was [Link] or /16. The new subnet mask is [Link] or /20. The
resulting difference is 4 bits. Because 4 bits were borrowed, we can determine that 16 subnets were created
because 24 = 16.
The new mask of [Link] or /20 leaves 12 bits for hosts. With 12 bits left for hosts, we use the
f ollowing formula: 212 = 4,096 – 2 = 4,094 hosts per subnet.
Binary ANDing will help you determine the subnet for this problem, which results in the network [Link].
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
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 is the host portion. The f irst 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.
In this example, the host portion of the address resides in the 3 rd and 4th octets.
Description 1st Octet 2nd Octet 3rd Octet 4th 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: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 3
Number of Subnets Created 8
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 5
Number of Hosts per Subnet 30
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
b. Problem 2:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 9
Number of Subnets Created 512
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 15
Number of Hosts per Subnet 32766
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
c. Problem 3:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 3
Number of Subnets Created 8
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 13
Number of Hosts per Subnet 8190
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
d. Problem 4:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 6
Number of Subnets Created 64
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 2
Number of Hosts per Subnet 2
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
e. Problem 5:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 8
Number of Subnets Created 256
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 8
Number of Hosts per Subnet 254
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Lab – Calculating IPv4 Subnets
f. Problem 6:
Given:
Host IP Address: [Link]
Original Subnet Mask [Link]
New Subnet Mask: [Link]
Find:
Number of Subnet Bits 5
Number of Subnets Created 32
Number of Host Bits per Subnet 3
Number of Hosts per Subnet 6
Network Address of this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of First Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Address of Last Host on this Subnet [Link]
IPv4 Broadcast Address on this Subnet [Link]
Reflection
Why is the subnet mask so important when analyzing an IPv4 address?
Subnet mask is impotant because it helps to
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determine the number of host bits, number of hosts
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and broadcast address.
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