title: IPv4 Theory breadcrumbs:
| Prefix | Description |
|-|-|
| 0.0.0.0/8
| Current network |
| 10.0.0.0/8
| Private network |
| 100.64.0.0/10
| Shared address space for CGN |
| 127.0.0.0/8
| Localhost |
| 169.254.0.0/16
| Link-local autoconfiguration |
| 172.16.0.0/12
| Private network |
| 192.0.0.0/24
| IETF Protocol Assignments |
| 192.0.2.0/24
| Documentation (TEST-NET-1) |
| 192.18.0.0/15
| Inter-network benchmarking |
| 192.51.100.0/24
| Documentation (TEST-NET-2) |
| 192.88.99.0/24
| 6to4 anycast (deprecated) |
| 192.168.0.0/16
| Private network |
| 203.0.113.0/24
| Documentation (TEST-NET-3) |
| 224.0.0.0/4
| Multicast (formerly Class D) |
| 240.0.0.0/4
| Reserved (formerly class E) |
| 255.255.255.255/32
| Limited broadcast |
| Range | Description |
|-|-|
| 224.0.0.0/4
| Multicast range |
| 224.0.0.0/24
| Local Network Control, for local router protocols, like OSPF, uses TTL=1 |
| 224.0.1.0/24
| Internetwork Control, for global protocols, like NTP |
| 224.0.2.0-224.0.255.255
| AD-HOC I, publicly routable and publicly assigned |
| 224.1.0.0/16
| Reserved |
| 224.2.0.0/16
| Session Description Protocol/Session Announcement Protocol (SDP/SAP) |
| 224.3.0.0/15
| AD-HOC II, see block I |
| 224.5.0.0-224.255.255.255
| Reserved |
| 232.0.0.0/8
| SSM range, locally assigned |
| 233.0.0.0-233.251.255.255
| GLOP, /24 blocks for 16-bit ASNs, experimental |
| 233.252.0.0/14
| AD-HOC III, see block I |
| 234.0.0.0-238.255.255.255
| Reserved |
| 239.0.0.0/8
| Administratively scoped, for use within a private domain, like RFC 1918 |
| Range | Description |
|-|-|
| 224.0.0.1
| All systems on this subnet |
| 224.0.0.2
| All routers on this subnet |
| 224.0.0.22
| IGMP |
| 224.0.0.251
| mDNS |
| 224.0.0.252
| LLMNR |
Originally the IPv4 address space was split into five classes with fixed, implicit subnet masks, as seen below:
| Class | Leading bits | First address | Network bits | Purpose |
| - | - | - |
| A | 0
| 0.0.0.0
| 8
| Unicast |
| B | 10
| 128.0.0.0
| 16
| Unicast |
| C | 110
| 192.0.0.0
| 24
| Unicast |
| D | 1110
| 224.0.0.0
| N/A | Multicast |
| E | 1111
| 240.0.0.0
| N/A | Reserved |
Variable-length subnet masking (VLSM) allows splitting networks into multiple smaller networks (subnetting). It is the opposite of fixed-length subnet masking.
Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) allows combining multiple smaller networks (with a common prefix) into a larger network (supernetting). It is the opposite of classful routing.
The terms are frequently interchanged and now typically used to refer to the same thing.
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