Ip addressing scheme with Supernetting!!!!

[h.jerbandi]

hi all...

I hv a confusion, is it possible to design an ip addressing scheme with supernetting, i.e 10.0.0.0 / 4, what are the range and valid ip addresses, or anything less than the standard mask 8. I understand supernetting as a mask less that the standard mask... correst me if iam wrong...

can any1 explains this scheme plz...

thanks

jerbandi

[svermill]

Supernetting is the act of creating one route or network out of many by moving the mask boundary to the left. Using a 4 bit mask would create a network that increments on the fourth bit position of the first byte, or on the 16s place in the first byte. So you would have 0.0.0.0 through 15.255.255.255 and then 16.0.0.0 through 31.255.255.255.

[h.jerbandi]

ok... thanks for u reply... well my question is, supernetting is means ONLY used to do route summerization???? or can i hv an ip addressing scheme with supernetting Ip address. Jost for testing i used 2 ip with this mask like 10.0.0.1 248.0.0.0 and 10.0.0.2 248.0.0.0, with this was able to assign ip & ping, no err mesg, if u give less than 248, u get error msg. check with ip calculator, u may get some idea.

this question was asked in an interview to one of my friends, like Can u design ip addressing scheme with supernetting, given the network like 10.0.0.0 / 4, design an ip addressing scheme with this.

Hope i am clear what my question was :)

thanks

hanu

[svermill]

Yes you can assign addresses and have a functioning network with a /4 mask, as your testing proved. However, it isn't very practical as a subnet as far as I can tell. If I did my math correctly, this would equate to about 270 million hosts on a single network. Also, the network wouldn't be 10.0.0.0/4. It would be 0.0.0.0/4. 10.0.0.0 would just be one of millions of possible host addresses in the 0.0.0.0/4 network.

And with a Cisco router, you can assign interfaces to a /1 mask if you really feel like it. Again, not very practical. I've never seen a real IP addressing scheme based on anything less than a /8 mask. But others may have?

[svermill]

Oh yeah....make that 270 million minus 2.