Re: FW: Ip address question.....

Amit Joshi wrote:
> From: Amit Joshi [mailto:amitkjoshi.cisco_at_gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 8:44 AM
> To: <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
> Subject: Ip address question.....
>
>
>
> Hello All,
>
>
>
> May be it is silly question here. I read the RFC791 to
> understand that why the IP address is 32 bits but there is no more
> information about it.
>
>
>
> May be it is irrelevant question, but I would like to know why the IP
> address is 32 bits only why not 48 bits.
>
    The more bits you have, the more valid addresses you get. However,
as you add more bits, the headers get bigger (which means more overhead,
and more time required for processing the packet in the router).

    At the time IPv4 was made, they needed to find a balance between the
two. They chose 32 bits, because they thought that would be enough to
address all network devices for the foreseeable future (4 billion
addresses should be enough for everyone, right? :) ).

-- 
Bogdan Sass
CCAI,CCSP,JNCIA-ER,CCIE #22221 (RS)
Information Systems Security Professional
"Curiosity was framed - ignorance killed the cat"
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