UNIT III

NETWORK LAYER
Switching : Packet Switching - Internet protocol - IPV4 – IP Addressing – Subnetting - IPV6,
ARP, RARP, ICMP, DHCP

NETWORK LAYER
The network layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite is responsible for the host-
to-host delivery of datagrams.
It provides services to the transport layer and receives services from the data-
link layer.
The network layer translates the logical addresses into physical addresses
It determines the route from the source to the destination and also manages the
traffic problems such as switching, routing and controls the congestion of
datapackets.
The main role of the network layer is to move the packets from sending
host tothe receiving host.

SWITCHING
o The technique of transferring the information from one computer network to
another network is known as switching.
o Switching in a computer network is achieved by using switches.
o A switch is a small hardware device which is used to join multiple computers
together with one local area network (LAN).
o Switches are devices capable of creating temporary connections between two or more
devices linked to the switch.
o Switches are used to forward the packets based on MAC addresses.
o A Switch is used to transfer the data only to the device that has been addressed. It
verifies the destination address to route the packet appropriately.
o It is operated in full duplex mode.
o It does not broadcast the message as it works with limited bandwidth.
Advantages of Switching:
o Switch increases the bandwidth of the network.
o It reduces the workload on individual PCs as it sends the information to only that
device which has been addressed.
o It increases the overall performance of the network by reducing the traffic on the
network.
o There will be less frame collision as switch creates the collision domain for each
connection.

Disadvantages of Switching:
o A Switch is more expensive than network bridges.
o A Switch cannot determine the network connectivity issues easily.
o Proper designing and configuration of the switch are required to handle multicast
packets.

Types of Switching Techniques

CIRCUIT SWITCHING

o Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated path

between sender and receiver.
o In the Circuit Switching Technique, once the connection is established then the
dedicated path will remain to exist until the connection is terminated.
o Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the telephone works.
o A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes place.
o In case of circuit switching technique, when any user wants to send the data, voice,
video, a request signal is sent to the receiver then the receiver sends back the
acknowledgment to ensure the availability of the dedicated path. After receiving the
acknowledgment, dedicated path transfers the data.
o Circuit switching is used in public telephone network. It is used for voice
transmission.
o Fixed data can be transferred at a time in circuit switching technology.

Phases in Circuit Switching

Communication through circuit switching has 3 phases:

1. Connection Setup / Establishment - In this phase, a dedicated circuit is

established from the source to the destination through a number of intermediate
switching centres. The sender and receiver transmits communication signals to request
and acknowledge establishment of circuits.

2. Data transfer - Once the circuit has been established, data and voice are
transferred from the source to the destination. The dedicated connection remains as long
as the end parties communicate.

3. Connection teardown / Termination - When data transfer is complete, the connection is

relinquished. The disconnection is initiated by any one of the user. Disconnection
involves removal of all intermediate links from the sender to the receiver.
Advantages
 It is suitable for long continuous transmission, since a continuous transmission route
is established, that remains throughout the conversation.
 The dedicated path ensures a steady data rate of communication.
 No intermediate delays are found once the circuit is established. So, they are
suitable for real time communication of both voice and data transmission.

Disadvantages
 Circuit switching establishes a dedicated connection between the end parties. This
dedicated connection cannot be used for transmitting any other data, even if the data
load is very low.
 Bandwidth requirement is high even in cases of low data volume.
 There is underutilization of system resources. Once resources are allocated to a
particular connection, they cannot be used for other connections.
 Time required to establish connection may be high.
 It is more expensive than other switching techniques as a dedicated path is
required for each connection.

PACKET SWITCHING

o The packet switching is a switching technique in which the message is sent in one go, but
it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent individually.
o The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are given a unique
number to identify their order at the receiving end.
o Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source address,
destination address and sequence number.
o Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
o All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to resend the
message.
o If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment message will be
sent.
Advantages of Packet Switching:
o Cost-effective: In packet switching technique, switching devices do not require
massive secondary storage to store the packets, so cost is minimized to some extent.
Therefore, we can say that the packet switching technique is a cost- effective
technique.
o Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be rerouted. This ensures that the
Packet Switching technique provides reliable communication.
o Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It does not require any
established path prior to the transmission, and many users can use the same
communication channel simultaneously, hence makes use of available bandwidth very
efficiently.

Disadvantages of Packet Switching:

o Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented in those applications that
require low delay and high-quality services.
o The protocols used in a packet switching technique are very complex and requires high
implementation cost.
o If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it requires retransmission of lost
packets. It can also lead to the loss of critical information if errors are nor
recovered.

APPROACHES OF PACKET SWITCHING

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:
o Datagram Packet switching
o Virtual Circuit Switching

Datagram Packet switching

o It is a packet switching technology in which packet is known as a datagram, is
considered as an independent entity.
o Each packet contains the information about the destination and switch uses this
information to forward the packet to the correct destination.
o The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o In Datagram Packet Switching technique, the path is not fixed.
o Intermediate nodes take the routing decisions to forward the packets.
o Datagram Packet Switching is also known as connectionless switching.
o There are no setup or teardown phases.
o Each packet is treated the same by a switch regardless of its source or destination.
 In this example, all four packets (or datagrams) belong to the same message, but may travel
different paths to reach their destination.

Routing Table
In this type of network, each switch (or packet switch) has a routing table which is based on the
destination address. The routing tables are dynamic and are updated periodically. The
destination addresses and the corresponding forwarding output ports are recorded in the tables.

Delay in a datagram network

 The packet travels through two switches.

 There are three transmission times (3T),three propagation delays (slopes 3t of the lines),
and two waiting times (w1 + w2).
 We ignore the processing time in each switch.
Total delay = 3T + 3t + w1 + w2
 Virtual Circuit Switching
o Virtual Circuit Switching is also known as connection-oriented switching.
o In the case of Virtual circuit switching, a virtual connection is established before the
messages are sent.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish the connection between sender
and receiver.
o In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.

Virtual Circuit Identifier (VCI)

A virtual circuit identifier (VCI) that uniquely identifies the connection at this switch. A VCI,
unlike a global address, is a small number that has only switch scope; it is used by a frame
between two switches. When a frame arrives at a switch, it has a VCI; when it leaves, it has a
different VCI.

Virtual Circuit Table

Every Virtual Circuit (VC) maintains a table called Virtual Circuit table. One
entry in the VC table on a single switch contains the following :
 An incoming interface on which packets for this VC arrive at the switch
 An outgoing interface in which packets for this VC leave the switch
 A outgoing VCI that will be used for outgoing packets

Example :
Source A sends a frame to Source B through Switch 1, Switch 2 and Switch 3.
Types of Virtual Circuits
There are two broad classes of Virtual Circuits.
They are
1. PVC – Permanent Virtual Circuit
 Network Administrator will configure the state
 The virtual circuit is permanent (PVC)

2. SVC – Switched Virtual Circuit

 A host can send messages into the network to cause the state to be
established. This is referred as signaling.
 A host may set up and delete such a VC dynamically without the
involvement of a network administrator

Delay in Virtual-Circuit Networks

 The packet is traveling through two switches (routers).

 There are three transmission times (3T ), three propagation times (3t), data transfer
depicted by the sloping lines, a setup delay (which includes transmission and
propagation in two directions), and a teardown delay (which includes transmission
and propagation in one direction).
Total delay = 3T + 3t + Setup delay + Teardown delay

COMPARISON – CIRCUIT SWITCHING AND PACKET SWITCHING

PACKET SWITCHING
CIRCUIT
SWITCHING
Virtual Circuit Switching Datagram Switching

Connection oriented Connection oriented Connection less

 Packets may be delivered out of
Ensures in order delivery Ensures in order delivery
order

No reordering is required No reordering is required Reordering is required

A dedicated path exists A dedicated path exists for No dedicated path exists for
for data transfer data transfer data transfer

All the packets take the All the packets take the All the packets may not take
same path same path the same path

Resources are allocated Resources are allocated on

No resources are allocated
before data transfer demand using 1st packet

Stream oriented Packet oriented Packet oriented

Fixed bandwidth Dynamic Bandwidth Dynamic bandwidth

Reliable Reliable Unreliable

No overheads Less overheads Higher overheads

Implemented at physical Implemented at data link Implemented at network

layer layer layer

Inefficient in terms of Provides better efficiency Provides better efficiency

resource utilization than circuit switched than message switched
systems systems
Example- Telephone Examples- X.25, Frame
Example- Internet
systems relay

MESSAGE SWITCHING

o Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is transferred as a

complete unit and routed through intermediate nodes at which it is stored and
forwarded.
o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated path
between the sender and receiver.
o The destination address is appended to the message. Message Switching provides a
dynamic routing as the message is routed through the intermediate nodes based on the
information available in the message.
o Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can provide the most
efficient routes.
o Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward it to the next node.
 This type of network is known as store and forward network.
o Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.

NETWORK LAYER PROTOCOLS

 The main protocol Internet Protocol is responsible for packetizing, forwarding,
and delivery of a packet at the network layer.
 The Internet Control Message Protocol version 4 (ICMPv4) helps IPv4 to
handle some errors that may occur in the network-layer delivery.

IP - INTERNET PROTOCOL
 The Internet Protocol is the key tool used today to build scalable,
heterogeneous internetworks.
 IP runs on all the nodes (both hosts and routers) in a collection of networks
 IP defines the infrastructure that allows these nodes and networks to function as a
single logical internetwork.

IP SERVICE MODEL
 Service Model defines the host-to-host services that we want to provide
 The main concern in defining a service model for an internetwork is that we can
provide a host-to-host service only if this service can somehow be provided over each
of the underlying physical networks.
 The Internet Protocol is the key tool used today to build scalable, heterogeneous
internetworks.
 The IP service model can be thought of as having two parts:
A GLOBAL ADDRESSING SCHEME - which provides a way to
identify all hosts in the internetwork
A DATAGRAM DELIVERY MODEL – A connectionless model of data
delivery.

IP PACKET FORMAT / IP DATAGRAM FORMAT

 A key part of the IP service model is the type of packets that can be carried.
  The IP datagram consists of a header followed by a number of bytes of data.

FIELD DESCRIPTION

Version Specifies the version of IP. Two versions exists – IPv4 and IPv6.
HLen Specifies the length of the header
TOS An indication of the parameters of the quality of service
(Type of Service) desired such as Precedence, Delay, Throughput and Reliability.
Length Length of the entire datagram, including the header. The maximum
size of an IP datagram is 65,535(210 )bytes
Ident Uniquely identifies the packet sequence number.
(Identification) Used for fragmentation and re-assembly.

Flags Used to control whether routers are allowed to fragment a packet.

If a packet is fragmented , this flag value is 1.If not, flag value is
0.
Offset Indicates where in the datagram, this fragment belongs.
(Fragmentation The fragment offset is measured in units of 8 octets
offset) (64 bits). The first fragment has offset zero.
TTL Indicates the maximum time the datagram is allowed to
(Time to Live) remain in the network. If this field contains the value zero, then the
datagram must be destroyed.
Protocol Indicates the next level protocol used in the data portion of the
datagram
Checksum Used to detect the processing errors introduced into the packet

Source Address The IP address of the original sender of the packet.

Destination The IP address of the final destination of the packet.

Address
Options This is optional field. These options may contain values for
options such as Security, Record Route, Time Stamp, etc
Pad Used to ensure that the internet header ends on a 32 bit boundary.
The padding is zero.
IP DATAGRAM - FRAGMENTATION AND REASSEMBLY
Fragmentation :
 Every network type has a maximum transmission unit (MTU), which is the largest
IP datagram that it can carry in a frame.

 Fragmentation of a datagram will only be necessary if the path to the

destination includes a network with a smaller MTU.
 When a host sends an IP datagram,it can choose any size that it wants.
 Fragmentation typically occurs in a router when it receives a datagram that it wants
to forward over a network that has an MTU that is smaller than the received
datagram.
 Each fragment is itself a self-contained IP datagram that is transmitted over a
sequence of physical networks, independent of the other fragments.
 Each IP datagram is re-encapsulated for each physical network over which it
travels.
 For example , if we consider an Ethernet network to accept packets up to 1500 bytes
long.
 This leaves two choices for the IP service model:
Make sure that all IP datagrams are small enough to fit inside one packet on
any network technology
Provide a means by which packets can be fragmented and reassembled
when they are too big to go over a given network technology.
 Fragmentation produces smaller, valid IP datagrams that can be readily reassembled into
the original datagram upon receipt, independent of the order of their arrival.

Example:

 The original packet starts at the client; the fragments are reassembled at the
 server.
 The value of the identification field is the same in all fragments, as is the value of the
flags field with the more bit set for all fragments except the last.
 Also, the value of the offset field for each fragment is shown.
 Although the fragments arrived out of order at the destination, they can be
correctly reassembled.

 The value of the offset field is always relative to the original datagram.
 Even if each fragment follows a different path and arrives out of order, the final
destination host can reassemble the original datagram from the
fragments received (if none of them is lost) using the following strategy:
1) The first fragment has an offset field value of zero.
2) Divide the length of the first fragment by 8. The second fragment has an offset
value equal to that result.
3) Divide the total length of the first and second fragment by 8. The third
fragment has an offset value equal to that result.
4) Continue the process. The last fragment has its M bit set to 0.
5) Continue the process. The last fragment has a more bit value of 0.

Reassembly:
 Reassembly is done at the receiving host and not at each router.
 To enable these fragments to be reassembled at the receiving host, they all carry
the same identifier in the Ident field.
 This identifier is chosen by the sending host and is intended to be unique
among all the datagrams that might arrive at the destination from this source over
some reasonable time period.
 Since all fragments of the original datagram contain this identifier, the
reassembling host will be able to recognize those fragments that go together.
 For example, if a single fragment is lost, the receiver will still attempt to
reassemble the datagram, and it will eventually give up and have to garbage- collect
the resources that were used to perform the failed reassembly.
 Hosts are now strongly encouraged to perform “path MTU discovery,” a process by
which fragmentation is avoided by sending packets that are small
enough to traverse the link with the smallest MTU in the path from sender to
receiver.
 IPV4 ADDRESSES

The identifier used in the IP layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite to identify the
connection of each device to the Internet is called the Internet address or IP
address.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version in the development of the
Internet Protocol (IP) and the first version of the protocol to be widely
deployed.
IPv4 is described in IETF publication in September 1981.
The IP address is the address of the connection, not the host or the router. An IPv4
address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and universally defines the connection .
If the device is moved to another network, the IP address may be changed.
IPv4 addresses are unique in the sense that each address defines one, and only one,
connection to the Internet.
If a device has two connections to the Internet, via two networks, it has two
IPv4 addresses.
Pv4 addresses are universal in the sense that the addressing system must be
accepted by any host that wants to be connected to the Internet.

IPV4 ADDRESS SPACE

IPv4 defines addresses has an address space.
An address space is the total number of addresses used by the protocol.
If a protocol uses b bits to define an address, the address space is 2b because each
bit can have two different values (0 or 1).
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, which means that the address space is 232 or
4,294,967,296 (more than four billion).
4 billion devices could be connected to the Internet.

IPV4 ADDRESS NOTATION

There are three common notations to show an IPv4 address:
(i) binary notation (base 2), (ii) dotted-decimal notation (base 256), and
(ii) hexadecimal notation (base 16).

In binary notation, an IPv4 address is displayed as 32 bits. To make the address more
readable, one or more spaces are usually inserted between bytes (8 bits).

In dotted-decimal notation,IPv4 addresses are usually written in decimal form with a

decimal point (dot) separating the bytes. Each number in the dotted-decimal notation is
between 0 and 255.
In hexadecimal notation, each hexadecimal digit is equivalent to four bits. This means that a
32-bit address has 8 hexadecimal digits. This notation is often used in network programming.

HIERARCHY IN IPV4 ADDRESSING

In any communication network that involves delivery, the addressing system is
hierarchical.
A 32-bit IPv4 address is also hierarchical, but divided only into two parts.
The first part of the address, called the prefix, defines the network(Net ID); the second
part of the address, called the suffix, defines the node (Host ID).
The prefix length is n bits and the suffix length is (32- n) bits.

A prefix can be fixed length or variable length.

The network identifier in the IPv4 was first designed as a fixed-length prefix.
This scheme is referred to as classful addressing.
The new scheme, which is referred to as classless addressing, uses a variable- length
network prefix.

CATEGORIES OF IPV4 ADDRESSING

There are two broad categories of IPv4 Addressing techniques.
They are
 Classful Addressing
 Classless Addressing

CLASSFUL ADDRESSING
An IPv4 address is 32-bit long(4 bytes).
An IPv4 address is divided into sub-classes:
Classful Network Architecture

Class A
In Class A, an IP address is assigned to those networks that contain a large
number of hosts.
The network ID is 8 bits long.
The host ID is 24 bits long.
In Class A, the first bit in higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 0 and
the remaining 7 bits determine the network ID.
The 24 bits determine the host ID in any network.
The total number of networks in Class A = 2 7 = 128 network address
The total number of hosts in Class A = 2 24 - 2 = 16,777,214 host address
Class B
In Class B, an IP address is assigned to those networks that range from small-
sized to large-sized networks.
The Network ID is 16 bits long.
The Host ID is 16 bits long.
In Class B, the higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 10, and the
remaining14 bits determine the network ID.
The other 16 bits determine the Host ID.
The total number of networks in Class B = 2 14 = 16384 network address
The total number of hosts in Class B = 2 16 - 2 = 65534 host address

Class C
In Class C, an IP address is assigned to only small-sized networks.
The Network ID is 24 bits long.
The host ID is 8 bits long.
In Class C, the higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 110, and the
remaining 21 bits determine the network ID.
The 8 bits of the host ID determine the host in a network.
The total number of networks = 2 21 = 2097152 network address
The total number of hosts = 2 8 - 2 = 254 host address

Class D
In Class D, an IP address is reserved for multicast addresses.
It does not possess subnetting.
The higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 1110, and the remaining bits
determines the host ID in any network.

Class E
In Class E, an IP address is used for the future use or for the research and
development purposes.
It does not possess any subnetting.
The higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 1111, and the remaining bits
determines the host ID in any network.
Address Depletion in Classful Addressing
The reason that classful addressing has become obsolete is address depletion.
Since the addresses were not distributed properly, the Internet was faced with the
problem of the addresses being rapidly used up.
This results in no more addresses available for organizations and individuals that
needed to be connected to the Internet.
To understand the problem, let us think about class A.
This class can be assigned to only 128 organizations in the world, but each
organization needs to have a single network with 16,777,216 nodes .
Since there may be only a few organizations that are this large, most of the
addresses in this class were wasted (unused).
Class B addresses were designed for midsize organizations, but many of the
addresses in this class also remained unused.
Class C addresses have a completely different flaw in design. The number of
addresses that can be used in each network (256) was so small that most
companies were not comfortable using a block in this address class.
Class E addresses were almost never used, wasting the whole class.

Advantage of Classful Addressing

Although classful addressing had several problems and became obsolete, it had
one advantage.
Given an address, we can easily find the class of the address and, since the prefix
length for each class is fixed, we can find the prefix length immediately.
In other words, the prefix length in classful addressing is inherent in the
address; no extra information is needed to extract the prefix and the suffix.

Subnetting and Supernetting

To alleviate address depletion, two strategies were proposed and implemented: (i)
Subnetting and (ii) Supernetting.

Subnetting
In subnetting, a class A or class B block is divided into several subnets.
Each subnet has a larger prefix length than the original network.
For example, if a network in class A is divided into four subnets, each subnet has a
prefix of nsub = 10.
At the same time, if all of the addresses in a network are not used, subnetting allows
the addresses to be divided among several organizations.

CLASSLESS ADDRESSING
In 1996, the Internet authorities announced a new architecture called classless
addressing.
In classless addressing, variable-length blocks are used that belong to no
classes.
We can have a block of 1 address, 2 addresses, 4 addresses, 128 addresses, and so on.
 In classless addressing, the whole address space is divided into variable length
blocks.
The prefix in an address defines the block (network); the suffix defines the node
(device).
Theoretically, we can have a block of 2 0, 21, 22, 232 addresses.
The number of addresses in a block needs to be a power of 2. An organization can be
granted one block of addresses.

The prefix length in classless addressing is variable.

We can have a prefix length that ranges from 0 to 32.
The size of the network is inversely proportional to the length of the prefix.
A small prefix means a larger network; a large prefix means a smaller network.
The idea of classless addressing can be easily applied to classful addressing.
An address in class A can be thought of as a classless address in which the prefix
length is 8.
An address in class B can be thought of as a classless address in which the prefix is
16, and so on. In other words, classful addressing is a special case of
classless addressing.

Notation used in Classless Addressing

The notation used in classless addressing is informally referred to as slash
notation and formally as classless interdomain routing or CIDR.

For example , 192.168.100.14 /24 represents the IP address 192.168.100.14 and,

its subnet mask 255.255.255.0, which has 24 leading 1-bits.

Address Aggregation
One of the advantages of the CIDR strategy is address aggregation
(sometimes called address summarization or route summarization).
When blocks of addresses are combined to create a larger block, routing can be
done based on the prefix of the larger block.
ICANN assigns a large block of addresses to an ISP.
Each ISP in turn divides its assigned block into smaller subblocks and grants the
subblocks to its customers.

Special Addresses in IPv4

There are five special addresses that are used for special purposes:
this-host address, limited-broadcastaddress, loopback address,
private addresses, and multicast addresses.
 This-host Address
 The only address in the block 0.0.0.0/32 is called the this-host address.
 It is used whenever a host needs to send an IP datagram but it does not know its own
address to use as the source address.

Limited-broadcast Address
 The only address in the block 255.255.255.255/32 is called the limited-
broadcast address.
 It is used whenever a router or a host needs to send a datagram to all devices in a
network.
 The routers in the network, however, block the packet having this address as the
destination;the packet cannot travel outside the network.

Loopback Address
 The block 127.0.0.0/8 is called the loopback address.
 A packet with one of the addresses in this block as the destination address never
leaves the host; it will remain in the host.

Private Addresses
 Four blocks are assigned as private addresses: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12,
192.168.0.0/16, and 169.254.0.0/16.

Multicast Addresses
 The block 224.0.0.0/4 is reserved for multicast addresses.


SUBNETTING:
When a bigger network is divided into smaller networks, to maintain security, then that
is known as Subnetting. So, maintenance is easier for smaller networks. For example, if we consider a class
A address, the possible number of hosts is 224 for each network, it is obvious that it is difficult to maintain
such a huge number of hosts, but it would be quite easier to maintain if we divide the network into small
parts.

Uses of Subnetting
 Subnetting helps in organizing the network in an efficient way which helps in
expanding the technology for large firms and companies.
 Subnetting is used for specific staffing structures to reduce traffic and maintain order and
efficiency.
 Subnetting divides domains of the broadcast so that traffic is routed efficiently, which helps
in improving network performance.
 Subnetting is used in increasing network security.

A Subnet is created from the bits taken from the Host ID.

To understand about this concept let take an example of a network this belongs to class C.
Our goal is to create to build a network. The capacity of each network must be Thirty (30) Devices.
We have three networks of type Class C Network based on IPv4 Addressing.

Each Class C Network can provide Two Hundred and Fifty Four (254) Internet Protocol Addresses. The

Capacity of each device which we require is very less than the Capacity which we require.

So, now we divide the four networks based on the requirement. Let us see how this division
happens.

We have four Class C Networks of imaginary Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses like:

Network 1 : 255.147.1.0
Network 2 : 255.147.2.0
Network 3 : 255.147.3.0
Network 4 : 255.147.4.0
We know that each network can produce 254 IP Addresses alone. This means four networks can produce
254 * 4 = 1016 (Thousand and Sixteen ) Internet Protocol Addresses can be formed. But
what we require is only thirty Internet Protocol Addresses from each Network. This means we only
need hundred and Twenty (120) IP Addresses only. This

means 1016 - 120 = 896

Eight Hundred and Ninety-Six Addresses created are wasted. So, we need to use the Host ID bits wisely.

So, by some calculation we will get to know that if we take 5 bits from each network we will be able to get 30
IP Addresses from each Network.

The formula for number of IP Addresses is:

The total number of IP Addresses creatable = 2 The total number of Host ID Bits - 2.

So, now we will consider 5 Host ID Bits.

25 - 2 = 30 Internet Protocol Addresses from each Network.

So, by considering we can create 30 Usable IP Addresses from each Class C Network.

So, now we have 3 more Host ID Bits left over unused. We also have different ways in using these
remaining bits.

Other Ways are:

1. These remaining Host ID Bits can be used to increase the capacity of the IP Addresses
 to be created in future, if required.
2. We can also create a new six subnets from each network using these three Host ID Bits.
First method is usually chosen because creation of two different subnets causes wastage of IP
Addresses. Let me explain this problem with the help of the above example.

Example:

The network belongs to Class C Network which has 8 Host ID Bits.

In the above first created Subnet we have only used 30 IP Addresses only. In the
newly created Subnet we have created only 6 IP Addresses only.
This means we have used the full potential of the Class C Network. We might have used the whole 8 bits.
But, this is considered as wastage of resources.
This is called wastage because we have now a capacity of 36 IP Addresses to be created. But,
the actual capacity of the Class C is 254 IP Addresses.
This means 254 - 36 = 218 IP Addresses are wasted now because of this Host ID Bits Division.
So, it is better to save the remaining Host ID Bits for future purpose rather than dividing it for these kind of
resource wasting purpose.

The network can be divided into two parts:

To divide a network into two parts, you need to choose one bit for each Subnet from
the host ID part.

In the above diagram, there are two Subnets.

Note: It is a class C IP so, there are 24 bits in the network id part and 8 bits in the host id part.

Working of Subnets
Subnetting, as we all know, separates the network into small subnets. While each subnet permits
communication between the devices connected to it, subnets are connected together by routers. The network
technology being utilized and the connectivity requirements define the size of a subnet.
Each organization is responsible for selecting the number and size of the subnets it produces, within
the constraints of the address space available for its use.
 For the construction of the subnets, we usually check the MSB (Most Significant Bit) bits of the
host ID and if found wrong we make it right. In order to create two network
 subnets, we fix one of the host's MSB (Most Significant Bit) bits in the table below. We are
unable to alter network bits since doing so would alter the entire network.

We need a subnet mask to identify a subnet, which is created by substituting the number "1" for each
Network ID bit and the amount of bits we reserve for Host ID to create the subnet. A data packet
from the internet is intended to be forwarded to the specified subnet network using the subnet
mask.

A part of an address should be used as the Subnet ID is also specified by the subnet mask. In order to
apply the subnet mask to the whole network address, a binary AND operation is utilized. When
performing an AND operation, it is assumed that the result will be "true" if both inputs are. If not,
"false" is presented. This is only possible when both bits are 1.

The Subnet ID results from this. The Subnet ID is used by routers to choose the best route among the
sub - networks.

 The two components that make up an IP address are the Network Prefix (sometimes called the
Network ID) and the Host ID. Depending on whether the address is Class A, B, or C, either the
Network Prefix or the Host ID must be separated. A Class B IPv4 address,
172.16.37.5, is seen in the image below. The Network Prefix is 172.16.0.0, and the Host
ID is 37.5.
  We use permutations to the amount of bits set aside to form subnets if we wish to produce subnets
of varied length. Variable Length Subnet Masking is the name of this subnetting (VLSM).
 After setting aside some bits to indicate the subnet, the broadcast address of a subnet is
computed by setting all the remaining bits of the host id to 1.The message is sent to all
network hosts using the broadcast address.

How Does Subnetting Work?

The working of subnets starts in such a way that firstly it divides the subnets into smaller
subnets. For communicating between subnets, routers are used. Each subnet allows its linked devices to
communicate with each other. Subnetting for a network should be done in such a way that it does not
affect the network bits.
In class C the first 3 octets are network bits so it remains as it is.
 For Subnet-1: The first bit which is chosen from the host id part is zero and the range will
be from (193.1.2.00000000 till you get all 1’s in the host ID part i.e, 193.1.2.01111111) except
for the first bit which is chosen zero for subnet id part.

Thus, the range of subnet 1 is: 193.1.2.0 to 193.1.2.127

Subnet id of Subnet-1 is : 193.1.2.0

The direct Broadcast id of Subnet-1 is: 193.1.2.127
The total number of hosts possible is: 126 (Out of 128,
2 id's are used for Subnet id & Direct Broadcast id) The
subnet mask of Subnet- 1 is: 255.255.255.128
 For Subnet-2: The first bit chosen from the host id part is one and the range will be from
(193.1.2.100000000 till you get all 1’s in the host ID part i.e, 193.1.2.11111111).

Thus, the range of subnet-2 is: 193.1.2.128 to 193.1.2.255

Subnet id of Subnet-2 is : 193.1.2.128
The direct Broadcast id of Subnet-2 is: 193.1.2.255
The total number of hosts possible is: 126 (Out of 128,
2 id's are used for Subnet id & Direct Broadcast id) The
subnet mask of Subnet- 2 is: 255.255.255.128
 The best way to find out the subnet mask of a subnet is to
set the fixed bit of host-id to 1 and the rest to 0.
Finally, after using the subnetting the total number of usable hosts is reduced from 254 to 252.

Example 1: An organization is assigned a class C network address of 201.35.2.0. It uses a netmask of

255.255.255.192 to divide this into sub -networks. Which of the following is/are valid host IP addresses?
1. 201.35.2.129
2. 201.35.2.191
3. 201.35.2.255
4. Both (A) and (C)
Solution:
Converting the last octet of the netmask into the binary form: 255.255.255. 11000000
Converting the last octet of option 1 into the binary form: 201.35.2. 10000001
Converting the last octet of option 2 into the binary form: 201.35.2. 10111111
Converting the last octet of option 3 into the binary form: 201.35.2.11111111
From the above, we see that Options 2 and 3 are not valid host IP addresses (as they are broadcast
addresses of a subnetwork), and OPTION 1 is not a broadcast address and it can be assigned to a host
IP.

Example 2: An organization has a class C network address of 201.32.64.0. It uses a subnet mask of
255.255.255.248. Which of the following is NOT a valid broadcast address for any subnetworks?

1. 201.32.64.135
2. 201.32.64.240
3. 201.32.64.207
Solution:
4. 201.32.64.231
Converting the last octet of the netmask into the binary form: 255.255.255.11111000
Converting the last octet of option 1 into the binary form: 201.32.64. 10000111
Converting the last octet of option 2 into the binary form: 201.32.64. 11110000
Converting the last octet of option 3 into the binary form: 201.32.64. 11001111
Converting the last octet of option 4 into the binary form: 201.32.64. 11100111
From the above, we can see that in OPTION 1, 3, and 4, all the host bits are 1 and give the valid
broadcast address of subnetworks.
and OPTION 2, the last three bits of the Host address are not 1 therefore it’s not a valid
broadcast address.

Advantages of Subnetting
The advantages of Subnetting are mentioned below:
 It provides security to one network from another network. eg) In an Organisation, the code of the
Developer department must not be accessed by another department.
 It may be possible that a particular subnet might need higher network priority than others.
For example, a Sales department needs to host webcasts or video conferences.
 In the case of Small networks, maintenance is easy.

Disadvantages of Subnetting
The disadvantages of Subnetting are mentioned below:
 In the case of a single network, only three steps are required to reach a Process i.e Source Host to
Destination Network, Destination Network to Destination Host, and then Destination Host to
Process.
 In the case of a Single Network only two IP addresses are wasted to represent Network Id and
Broadcast address but in the case of Subnetting two IP address es are wasted for each Subnet.
 The cost of the overall Network also increases. Subnetting requires internal routers,
Switches, Hubs, Bridges, etc. which are very costly.

12. IPV6 - NEXT GENERATION IP

The main reason for migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is the small size of the
address space in IPv4.
IPv6 was evolved to solve address space problem and offers rich set of services. An
IPv6 address is 128 bits or 16 bytes (octets) long, four times the address length in
IPv4.
Some hosts and routers will run IPv4 only, some will run IPv4 and IPv6 and
some will run IPv6 only.
DRAWBACKS OF IPV4
Despite subnetting and CIDR, address depletion is still a long-term problem.
Internet must accommodate real-time audio and video transmission that
requires minimum delay strategies and reservation of resources.
Internet must provide encryption and authentication of data for some
applications

FEATURES OF IPV6
1. Better header format - IPv6 uses a new header format in which options are
separated from the base header and inserted, when needed, between the base header
and the data. This simplifies and speeds up the routing process because most of the
options do not need to be checked by routers.
2. New options - IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.
3.Allowance for extension - IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the
protocol if required by new technologies or applications.
4. Support for resource allocation - In IPv6, the type-of-service field has been
removed, but two new fields, traffic class and flow label, have been added to enable
the source to request special handling of the packet. This mechanism can be used to
support traffic such as real-time audio and video.

Additional Features :
1. Need to accommodate scalable routing and addressing
2. Support for real-time services
3. Security support
4.Autoconfiguration -
The ability of hosts to automatically configure themselves with such
information as their own IP address and domain name.
5. Enhanced routing functionality, including support for mobile hosts
6. Transition from ipv4 to ipv6

Representation
A computer normally stores the address in binary, but it is clear that 128 bits cannot easily be handled
by humans. Several notations have been proposed to represent IPv6 addresses when they are handled
by humans. The following shows two of these notations: binary and colon hexadecimal.

Address Space
The address space of IPv6 contains 2128 addresses. This address space is 296 times the IPv4
address—definitely no address depletion—as shown, the size of the space is

ADDRESS SPACE ALLOCATION OF IPV6

IPv6 provides a 128-bit address space to handle up to 3.4 × 10 38 nodes.
IPv6 uses classless addressing, but classification is based on MSBs.
The address space is subdivided in various ways based on the leading bits. The
current assignment of prefixes is listed in Table

A node may be assigned an “IPv4-compatible IPv6 address” by zero-extending a 32-

bit IPv4 addressto128 bits.
A node that is only capable of understanding IPv4 can be assigned an “IPv4-
mapped IPv6 address” by prefixing the 32-bit IPv4 address with 2 bytes of all
1s and then zero-extending the result to 128 bits.

GLOBAL UNICAST
Large chunks (87%) of address space are left unassigned for future use.
 IPv6 defines two types of local addresses for private networks.
oLink local - enables a host to construct an address that need not be
globally unique.
oSite local - allows valid local address for use in a isolated site with
several subnets.
Reserved addresses start with prefix of eight 0's.
oUnspecified address is used when a host does not know its address
oLoopback address is used for testing purposes before connecting
oCompatible address is used when IPv6 hosts uses IPv4 network
o Mapped address is used when a IPv6 host communicates with a IPv4 host
IPv6 defines anycast address, assigned to a set of interfaces.
Packet with anycast address is delivered to only one of the nearest interface.

ADDRESS NOTATION OF IPV6

Standard representation of IPv6 address is x : x : x : x : x : x : x : x where x is a
16-bit hexadecimal address separated by colon (:). For
example,
47CD : 1234 : 4422 : ACO2 : 0022 : 1234 : A456 : 0124

IPv6 address with contiguous 0 bytes can be written compactly. For

example,
47CD : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : A456 : 0124 → 47CD : : A456 : 0124

IPv4 address is mapped to IPv6 address by prefixing the 32-bit IPv4 address with 2
bytes of 1s and then zero-extending the result to 128 bits.
For example,
128. 96.33.81 → : : FFFF : 128.96.33.81
This notation is called as CIDR notation or slash notation.

Mapping for EUI-64

Mapping for Ethernet MAC

 Example:1
Using the format we defined for Ethernet addresses, find the interface identifier if the
physical address in the EUI is (F5-A9-23-EF-07-14-7A-D2)16.
Solution
We only need to change the seventh bit of the first octet from 0 to 1 and change the format to
colon hex notation. The result is F7A9:23EF:0714:7AD2.
Example:2
Using the format we defined for Ethernet addresses, find the interface identifier if the
Ethernet physical address is (F5-A9-23-14-7A-D2) 16.
Solution
We only need to change the seventh bit of the first octet from 0 to 1, insert two octets FFFE 16
and change the format to colon hex notation. The result is F7A9:23FF:FE14:7AD2 in colon hex.

ADDRESS AGGREGATION OF IPV6

IPv6 provides aggregation of routing information to reduce the burden on
routers.
Aggregation is done by assigning prefixes at continental level.
For example, if all addresses in Europe have a common prefix, then routers in other
continents would need one routing table entry for all networks in Europe.

 Prefix - All addresses in the same continent have a common prefix

 RegistryID ― identifies the continent
 ProviderID ― identifies the provider for Internet access, i.e., ISP.
 SubscriberID ― specifies the subscriber identifier
 SubnetID ― contains subnet of the subscriber.
 InterfaceID ―contains link level or physical address.

THE IPv6 PROTOCOL

The change of the IPv6 address size requires the change in the IPv4 packet format. The
designer of IPv6 decided to implement remedies for other shortcomings now that a change is inevitable. The
following shows other changes implemented in the protocol in addition to changing address size and format.
The IPv6 packet is shown in Figure. Each packet is composed of a base header
followed by the payload. The base header occupies 40 bytes, whereas payload can be up to 65,535
bytes of information. The description of fields follows.

PACKET FORMAT OF IPV6

IPv6 base header is 40 bytes long.

 Version — specifies the IP version, i.e., 6.

 Traffic Class — defines priority of the packet with respect to traffic
congestion. It is either congestion-controlled or non-congestion controlled
 Flow Label — provides special handling for a particular flow of data. Router
handles different flows with the help of a flow table.
 Payload Len — gives length of the packet, excluding IPv6 header.
 Next Header — Options are specified as a header following IP header.
NextHeader contains a pointer to optional headers.
 Hop Limit — Gives the TTL value of a packet.
 Source Address / Destination Address — 16-byte addresses of source and
destination host

Extension Headers
Extension header provides greater functionality to IPv6.
Base header may be followed by six extension headers.
Each extension header contains a NextHeader field to identify the header
following it.

 Hop-by-Hop — source host passes information to all routers visited by the packet
 Destination — source host information is passed to the destination only.
 Source Routing — routing information provided by the source host.
 Fragmentation — In IPv6, only the source host can fragment. Source uses a path MTU
discovery technique to find smallest MTU on the path.
 Authentication — used to validate the sender and ensures data integrity.
 ESP (Encrypted Security Payload) — provides confidentiality against
eavesdropping.
 ADVANCED CAPABILITIES OF IPV6
Auto Configuration — Auto or stateless configuration of IP address to hosts
without the need for a DHCP server, i.e., plug and play.
Advanced Routing — Enhanced routing support for mobile hosts is provided.
Additional Functions ― Enhanced routing functionality with support formobile hosts.
Security ― Encryption and authentication options provide confidentiality and
integrity.
Resource allocation ― Flow label enables the source to request specialhandling of
real-time audio and video packets

ADVANTAGES OF IPV6
Address space ― IPv6 uses 128-bit address whereas IPv4 uses 32-bit address.
Hence IPv6 has huge address space whereas IPv4 faces address shortage
problem.
Header format ― Unlike IPv4, optional headers are separated from base header
in IPv6. Each router thus need not process unwanted addition
information.
Extensible ― Unassigned IPv6 addresses can accommodate needs of future
technologies.

TRANSITION FROM IPv4 TO IPv6

Although we have a new version of the IP protocol, how can we make the transition to
stop using IPv4 and start using IPv6? in the Internet can move The transition must be smooth to
prevent any problems between IPv4 and IPv6 systems.
Strategies
Three strategies have been devised for transition: dual stack, tunneling, and header
translation. One or all of these three strategies can be implemented during the transition period.

Dual-Stack Operation and Tunneling

In dual-stack, nodes run both IPv6 and IPv4, uses Version field to decide which
stack should process an arriving packet.
IPv6 packet is encapsulated with an IPv4 packet as it travels through an IPv4 network.
This is known as tunneling and packet contains tunnel endpoint as its
destination address.

Dual Stack
 Tunneling strategy

Header translation

Network Address Translation

NAT enables hosts on a network to use Internet with local addresses.
Addresses reserved for internal use range from 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
Organization must have single connection to the Internet through a router that runs
the NAT software.

ARP and RARP:

ARP and RARP are the LAN (Local Area Network) protocols. A LAN is a fast, fault-
tolerant data network that only covers a limited area of land. There are three types of LAN data
transmissions unicast, multicast, and broadcast. A single packet is transferred from the source to a
destination on the network during a unicast transmission. A single data packet is copied and
delivered to a certain group of network nodes as part of a multicast transmission. A single data
packet is copied and delivered to every network node as part of a broadcast transmission. Both ARP
and RARP use broadcast in request and unicast in response.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
Address Resolution Protocol is a communication protocol used for discovering physical
address associated with given network address. Typically, ARP is a network layer to data link layer
mapping process, which is used to discover MAC address for given Internet Protocol Address. In
order to send the data to destination, having IP address is necessary but not sufficient; we also need
the physical address of the destination machine. ARP is used to get the physical address (MAC
address) of destination machine.
 Before sending the IP packet, the MAC address of destination must be known. If not
so, then sender broadcasts the ARP-discovery packet requesting the MAC address of intended
destination. Since ARP-discovery is broadcast, every host inside that network will get this message
but the packet will be discarded by everyone except that intended receiver host whose IP is
associated. Now, this receiver will send a unicast packet with its MAC address (ARP-reply) to the
sender of ARP-discovery packet. After the original sender receives the ARP-reply, it updates
ARP-cache and start sending unicast message to the destination.

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)

Reverse ARP is a networking protocol used by a client machine in a local area
network to request its Internet Protocol address (IPv4) from the gateway-router’s ARP table. The
network administrator creates a table in gateway-router, which is used to map the MAC address to
corresponding IP address. When a new machine is setup or any machine which don’t have memory
to store IP address, needs an IP address for its own use. So the machine sends a RARP broadcast
packet which contains its own MAC address in both sender and receiver hardware address field.
 A special host configured inside the local area network, called as RARP-server is
responsible to reply for these kind of broadcast packets. Now the RARP server attempt to find out
the entry in IP to MAC address mapping table. If any entry matches in table, RARP server send the
response packet to the requesting device along with IP address.
 LAN technologies like Ethernet, Ethernet II, Token Ring and Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI) support the Address Resolution Protocol.
 RARP is not being used in today’s networks. Because we have much great featured
protocols like BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol) and DHCP( Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol).

Difference between ARP and RARP

Basic ARP RARP
The MAC address of
The Internet Protocol(IP) address of the
the server is mapped to
Definition host is mapped with MAC address of
the Internet Protocol
the client or server.
address of the client.

RARP will help to find

ARP will help to find the IP address of
IP Address the IP address of the
the different systems.
same system.

The RARP table is

The ARP table is maintained or
Maintenance maintained or managed
managed by the local host.
on the server side.

LAN A Broadcast IP address

A Broadcast MAC address is used.
Transmission is used.

The layer 2 forwarding

It is used to get the Machine address of tables are updated by
Purpose a system using its Internet Protocol RARP whenever a MAC
address. address changes
data centers.

Common We need to maintain a cache of RARP clients should

Improvements recent translations and the storage not be allowed to keep
 space required for these addresses is trying. That only results
small. So store the IP and physical in useless broadcasts and
addresses of every host that broadcasts so has one or two RARP
ARP. Every host that receives a backup servers running at
broadcast ARP request will thereafter arbitrary delays.
be able to determine
the sender's address translation.

The purpose of ARP involves

It is utilized with
Uses finding the machine address of the
minimum resources.
other host.

ICMPV4 - INTERNET CONTROL MESSAGE PROTOCOL VERSION 4

 ICMP is a network-layer protocol.
 It is a companion to the IP protocol.
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) defines a collection of error messages
that are sent back to the source host whenever a router or host is unable to
process an IP datagram successfully.

ICMP MESSAGE TYPES

 ICMP messages are divided into two broad categories: error-reporting
messages and query messages.
 The error-reporting messages report problems that a router or a host
(destination) may encounter when it processes an IP packet.
 The query messages help a host or a network manager get specific information from a
router or another host.

ICMP Error – Reporting Messages

 Destination Unreachable―When a router cannot route a datagram, the datagram is

discarded and sends a destination unreachable message to source host.
 Source Quench―When a router or host discards a datagram due to congestion, it sends a
source-quench message to the source host. This message acts as flow control.
 Time Exceeded―Router discards a datagram when TTL field becomes 0 and a time
exceeded message is sent to the source host.
 Parameter Problem―If a router discovers ambiguous or missing value in any field
of the datagram, it discards the datagram and sends parameter problem
message to source.
 Redirection―Redirect messages are sent by the default router to inform the source host to
update its forwarding table when the packet is routed on a wrong path.

ICMP Query Messages

 Echo Request & Reply―Combination of echo request and reply messages

determines whether two systems communicate or not.
 Timestamp Request & Reply―Two machines can use the timestamp request and
reply messages to determine the round-trip time (RTT).
 Address Mask Request & Reply―A host to obtain its subnet mask, sends an address
mask request message to the router, which responds with an address
mask reply message.
 Router Solicitation/Advertisement―A host broadcasts a router solicitation message to
know about the router. Router broadcasts its routing information with router
advertisement message.

ICMP MESSAGE FORMAT

 An ICMP message has an 8-byte header and a variable-size data section.
 Type Defines the type of the message
Code Specifies the reason for the particular message type
Checksum Used for error detection
Rest of the header Specific for each message type
Data Used to carry information
Identifier Used to match the request with the reply
Sequence Number Sequence Number of the ICMP packet

ICMP DEBUGGING TOOLS

Two tools are used for debugging purpose. They are (1) Ping (2) Traceroute

Ping
 The ping program is used to find if a host is alive and responding.
 The source host sends ICMP echo-request messages; the destination, if alive,
responds with ICMP echo-reply messages.
 The ping program sets the identifier field in the echo-request and echo-reply message
and starts the sequence number from 0; this number is incremented by
1 each time a new message is sent.
 The ping program can calculate the round-trip time.
 It inserts the sending time in the data section of the message.
 When the packet arrives, it subtracts the arrival time from the departure time to get the
round-trip time (RTT).
$ ping google.com

Traceroute or Tracert
 The traceroute program in UNIX or tracert in Windows can be used to trace
the path of a packet from a source to the destination.
 It can find the IP addresses of all the routers that are visited along the path.
 The program is usually set to check for the maximum of 30 hops (routers) to be
visited.
 The number of hops in the Internet is normally less than this.
$ traceroute google.com

DHCP – DYNAMIC HOST CONFIGURATION PROTOCOL

 The dynamic host configuration protocol is used to simplify the installation and
maintenance of networked computers.
 DHCP is derived from an earlier protocol called BOOTP.
 Ethernet addresses are configured into network by manufacturer and they are
unique.
 IP addresses must be unique on a given internetwork but also must reflect the
structure of the internetwork
 Most host Operating Systems provide a way to manually configure the IP
information for the host
 Drawbacks of manual configuration :
1. A lot of work to configure all the hosts in a large network
2. Configuration process is error-prune
 It is necessary to ensure that every host gets the correct network number and that
 no two hosts receive the same IP address.
 For these reasons, automated configuration methods are required.
 The primary method uses a protocol known as the Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP).
 The main goal of DHCP is to minimize the amount of manual configuration
required for a host.
 If a new computer is connected to a network, DHCP can provide it with all the
necessary information for full system integration into the network.
 DHCP is based on a client/server model.
 DHCP clients send a request to a DHCP server to which the server responds with an IP
address
 DHCP server is responsible for providing configuration information to hosts.
 There is at least one DHCP server for an administrative domain.
 The DHCP server can function just as a centralized repository for host
configuration information.
 The DHCP server maintains a pool of available addresses that it hands out to hosts
on demand.

 A newly booted or attached host sends a DHCPDISCOVER message to a special IP

address (255.255.255.255., which is an IP broadcast address.
 This means it will be received by all hosts and routers on that network.
 DHCP uses the concept of a relay agent. There is at least one relay agent on each
network.
 DHCP relay agent is configured with the IP address of the DHCP server.
 When a relay agent receives a DHCPDISCOVER message, it unicasts it to the DHCP
server and awaits the response, which it will then send back to the requesting
client.
DHCP Message Format

A DHCP packet is actually sent using a protocol called the User Datagram
Protocol (UDP).