Internet Protocol (IP)

 The Internet Protocol (IP) is the heart of the Internet. IP is the

protocol that enables various networks to talk to each other

globally.

 IP is a connectionless datagram protocol for packet switching

network because each packet is handled independently.

 IP also specifies the addressing and routing mechanisms.

 IP does its best to deliver a packet to its destination, but with

no guarantees. The packets may be lost if there is congestion,

though "best-effort" is made for the delivery. The packets may

not be received in sequence; packets may be duplicated.

 IP uses an error detection mechanism (Checksum) and

discards the packet if it is corrupted.

 IP is unreliable.

 IP needs to rely on TCP layer for reliable delivery.

  IP also defines the rules for discarding packets (TTL field), and

how hosts and routers should process the packets

(fragmentation and reassembly).

 IP is implemented as software. This software must run on

every end system and on every router.

There are two versions of IP: IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6

(IPv6).

IPv4 was the first version of Internet Protocol used to take into

account Internet traffic and there are just over 4 billion IPv4

addresses while IPv6 is a newer numbering system that provides a

much larger address pool than IPv4. It was deployed in 1999 and

should meet the world’s IP addressing needs well into the future.

Internet Addressing Scheme

Each end system on the network has to be uniquely identified. For

this, the addressing scheme is very important. Since each end system

is a node on a network, the addressing scheme should be such that

the address contains both an ID for the network and an ID for the

host. This scheme is followed in the IP addressing scheme. Each

node on a TCP/IP network is identified by a 32-bit address. The

address consists of the network ID and the host ID.

IP Addressing Class

Rule for Class Determination

Class Class Range of First Octet Decimal

Identifier equivalent
A 0 00000001 – 01111110 1-126
 B 10 10000000 - 10111111 128-191

C 110 11000000 - 11011111 192-223

D 1110 11100000 - 11101111 224-239

E 1111 11110000-11111111 240-255

Fig.2. IP Address Formats

IP Addresses - Class A
 • 32-bit global internet address

• Network part and host part

• Class A

— Used when site contains a small number of networks and

each network has many host (node)

— Start with binary 0

— All 0 reserved

— 01111111 (127) reserved

— Range 1.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x i.e., 1.0.0.0. to 126.255.255.255

— All allocated

IP Addresses - Class B

• Used for medium number of networks and each network has

more than 256 but less than 65536 hosts

• Start 10

• Range 128.x.x.x to 191.x.x.x i.e., 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255

 • 214 = 16,384 class B addresses

• All allocated

IP Addresses - Class C

• Used for large number of networks and each network has less

256 hosts

• Start 110

• Range 192.x.x.x to 223.x.x.x i.e., 192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255

• Second and third octet also part of network address

• 221 = 2,097,152 addresses

• Nearly all allocated

IP Addresses - Class D
 used when multicasting is required, such as when a datagram

has to be sent to multiple hosts simultaneously.

 Address range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255

IP Addresses -Class E
  These addresses are reserved for future use.

 Address range 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255

In the IP address, if the host address bits are all zeros, the IP

address represents the network address. If the host address bits are

all ones, the IP address is the broadcast address—the packet is

addressed to all hosts on the network.

Dotted Decimal Notation

IP address if it is written in 32-bit format, dotted decimal notation

is used. If the IP address is

it can be represented as 128.11.5.31 for easy readability.

IP Datagram Format (IPv4)

Fig.3. IPv4 Datagram

Fig.4. IPv4 Header

Version number (4 bits): Version number of the IP. The version

presently running in most of the systems is Version 4. Version 6 is

now slowly being deployed. This field ensures that the correct

version of the software is used to process the datagram. All

machines check the version field before processing the datagram.

Internet Header length (4 bits): Length of the IP header in 32-bit

words. All fields except IP options and padding have fixed length.

The minimum length (without option and padding) of the header is

20 bytes.

Service type (8 bits): These bits specify how the datagram has to be

handled by systems. The 4th, 5th, and 6th bits are called D, T, and R

bits. Setting D bit is to request low delay, setting T bit is to request

high throughput, and setting R bit is to request high reliability.

However, it is only a request; there is no guarantee that the request

will be honored. Note that these bits are to set the quality of service

(QoS) parameters. There is no guarantee that the required QoS will

be provided. Actually "IP does not guarantee a desired QoS".

Note: The type of service is specified with the parameters

Precedence, Delay, Throughput and Reliability.

Precedence – An independent measure of the importance of the

datagram.

Delay – Prompt delivery is important for datagram with this

indication.

Throughput – High data rate is important for datagram with this

indication.

Reliability – A higher level of effort to ensure delivery is important for

datagram with this indication.

Length (16 bits): Total length of the datagram in bytes including

header and data. The length of the data field is calculated by

subtracting the header length from the value of this field. The

maximum size of an IP datagram is limited to 65,535 bytes.

The IP datagram size is much larger than can be accommodated by

a LAN that can handle only 1526 bytes in one frame for instance. In

such a case, the datagram has to be fragmented and sent over the

network. The minimum datagram size that every host and router

must handle is 576 bytes. Each fragment contains most of the

original datagram header. The fragmentation is done at routers, but

the reassembly is done at the destination.

Identification (16 bits): Unique ID to identify the datagram. An

identifying value assigned by the sender to aid in assembling the

fragments of the datagram. The source address, destination address,

and identification together uniquely identify the datagram on the

Internet. When the datagram is fragmented, these fields are copied

into the fragments so that the destination will know which

fragments belong to which datagram.

Flags (3 bits): Various Control Flags.

Bit 0: Reserved, must be zero

Bit 1(DF i.e., “do not fragment”): This bit specifies whether the

datagram is to be fragmented. 0 = May Fragment, 1 = Don’t

Fragment.

Bit 2 (MF i.e., “more fragments”): This bit specifies whether the

fragment contains data from the middle of the datagram. 0 = Last

Fragment, 1= More Fragments.

Fragment offset (13 bits): Specifies the offset of the fragment in the

datagram, starting at offset 0. The destination receives all the

fragments and reassembles the fragments using the offset value,

starting with 0 to the highest value.

Time-to-live (8 bits): A packet on the Internet may go round and

round without reaching the destination. To avoid such unnecessary

traffic, this field is very useful. This field contains the number of

hops a packet can travel. At every router, this field is decremented

by 1, and either the packet reaches the destination before the field
becomes 0 or, if it reaches 0 earlier, it is discarded. The default hop

count is 64—the packet can traverse at most through 64 routers.

Protocol (8-bits): The protocol field specifies which higher layer

protocol is encapsulated in the data area of the IP datagram.

Common protocols and their decimal values are:

 1: Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

 6: Transport Control Protocol (TCP)

 17: User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

Header checksum (16 bits): The 16-bit checksum field is used for

error-checking of the header. Since a router changes the content of

TTL and Offset fields, header checksum field is recomputed by

every router when it forwards a packet. At each hop, the checksum

of the header must be compared. If a header checksum is found to

be mismatched, then the packet is discarded.

Source IP address (32 bits): This field contains the IP address of the

source that is sending the datagram.

Destination IP addresses (32 bits): This field contains the IP address

of the final destination.

Option: This is a variable-length field. This field contains data for

network testing and debugging. These options are for operations

such as recording the route of a datagram, and source routing that

specifies the route to be taken by the datagram.

When the record route option is set, each router adds its IP address

in the options field and then forwards it. When the source route

option is set and the IP addresses of all the hops are mentioned in

the options field, the datagram takes only that route. The source

route option provides a way for the sender to dictate the path

through the internet.

Padding (8 bits): To make the IP header an exact multiple of 32 bits,

the padding bits are added if required.

Data (variable): This is a variable field whose length is specified in

the datagram header.

 Carries user data from the next layer up.
 Integer multiple of 8 bits (octet).

 Max length of the datagram (header + data) 65,535 octets.