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Question: One of the drawbacks of IPv4 is the maximum number of network devices it can support

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Question:

One of the drawbacks of IPv4 is the maximum number of network devices it can support. IPv4 addressing uses a 32-bit network address. This allows for 232,, or a little over 4 billion devices. However, today there are significantly more devices on the internet. Even though the more robust IPv6 version has been introduced and efforts are under way to assure wide adoption, IPv4 is still widely used.

One method used to more efficiently use the IPv4 network addresses is a technique to optimize the addresses by splitting them into network addresses and host addresses within designated networks. You will need to take advantage of IP address splitting so that you can efficiently use and allocate the IPv4 network addresses that have been assigned to BallotOnline.

 

For a given large network, rather than addressing all the hosts using the host part of the address, subnetting allows for splitting the network into several smaller ones by borrowing the host part bits and adding them to the network bits. It supports efficient management of local networks composed of multiple LANs. In this step, you will investigate subnetting conventions and discuss them in your final report in order to lay ground for the use of subnets by BallotOnline.

 

As the network engineer for BallotOnline, you know that subnetting a network into several smaller and variable-sized networks will be best for the organization's needs. BallotOnline has been assigned a network address block by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

 

Because BallotOnline has several offices around the world, you will need to subnet this network address to assign just the right number of addresses to each office location based on the number of systems at that office location.

 

Ballot Online has been assigned the following block of Class B IP addresses:

172.16.192.0/19

It allows for up to 2 to the power of 32-19 which is 13, i.e. 8192 IP addresses.

Ballot Online wants to open 4 field offices, with up to 2000 IP network hosts (desktops and other externally accessible networked devices) each. Design the 4 subnets for these field offices. For each subnet, show the subnet mask, network and broadcast addresses in x.x.x.x decimal format as well as 32-bit binary (0 or 1) bitmaps, and the range of usable host addresses within the subnet. Your task is to create the appropriate number of subnets with the right size to optimize the network.

Your technical report should include Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR) notation, which allows for specifying a variable-length network as part of the IPv4 address, leaving the rest for addressing hosts within the network.

 

 

Answer:

BallotOnline has been allocated class B IPV4 addresses: 172.16.192.0/19. The IP address will enable a maximum of 8190 host devices. With the company intending to open four satellite offices, there is a need to have a coordinated infrastructural network. The entire organization intends to have a total of 2000 devices to be connected to the network. This includes desktops, printers, phones and other internet-connected devices. Each of the field offices will have a subnet with a unique IP address. The connected devices also need to be allocated their own IP addresses.

There are going to be 4 subnets for the 4 field offices. The subnet mask address will be 255.255.224.0, while the CIDR notation will be /21. The network IP address of the four subnets will be 172.16.19.0, 172.16.192.64, 172.16.192.128, and 172.16.192. 192. The broadcast addresses for the subnets will be 172.16.19.63/21, 172.16.192.127, 172.16.191.121 and 172.16.192. 255. Hosts size will be 8190, allocating the IP addresses to all 2000 devices connected to the network. The total number of host IDs for each of the four networks is 64. It is important to note that the first host ID is reserved for network ID, while the last host ID is reserved for broadcast ID. This means that for every network, there will be 62 usable host IDs. The usable Host Range will be any address between the network ID and the broadcast ID. These ranges, in this case, will be 172.16.192.1-172.16.192.62, 172.16.192.65-172.16.192.126, 172.16.192.129-172.16.192.190, and 172.16.192.193-172.16.192.254.

The new network set to be established for BallotOnline Offices will be designed to cater to the expected expansion in the near future. This will facilitate the addition of new internet-connected devices such as printers and computers on the network as time goes by. This will also help cater to the increased operations and enhance efficiency within the organization.

 

Feedback:

Your subnets allow for 64 IP addresses (62 for hosts), whereas the requirement was for 2000 each.