The following is a summary of each topic in the chapter and some questions for your reflection.
What Did I Learn in this Module? (9.4.1)
• IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast—Unicast transmission refers to one device sending a message to one other device in one-to-one communications. A unicast packet has a destination IP address that is a unicast address which goes to a single recipient. A source IP address can only be a unicast address because the packet can only originate from a single source. This is regardless of whether the destination IP address is a unicast, broadcast or multicast. IPv4 unicast host addresses are in the address range of 1.1.1.1 to 223.255.255.255.
Broadcast transmission refers to a device sending a message to all the devices on a network in one-to-all communications. A broadcast packet has a destination IP address with all ones (1s) in the host portion, or 32 one (1) bits. A broadcast packet must be processed by all devices in the same broadcast domain. A broadcast may be directed or limited. A directed broadcast is sent to all hosts on a specific network. A limited broadcast is sent to 255.255.255.255. By default, routers do not forward broadcasts.
Multicast transmission reduces traffic by allowing a host to send a single packet to a selected set of hosts that subscribe to a multicast group. A multicast packet is a packet with a destination IP address that is a multicast address. IPv4 has reserved the 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 addresses as a multicast range. Each multicast group is represented by a single IPv4 multicast destination address. When an IPv4 host subscribes to a multicast group, the host processes packets addressed to this multicast address, and packets addressed to its uniquely allocated unicast address.
• Types of IPv4 Addresses—Public IPv4 addresses are addresses which are globally routed between ISP routers. However, not all available IPv4 addresses can be used on the internet. There are blocks of addresses called private addresses that are used by most organizations to assign IPv4 addresses to internal hosts. Most internal networks, from large enterprises to home networks, use private IPv4 addresses for addressing all internal devices (intranet) including hosts and routers. However, private addresses are not globally routable. Before the ISP can forward this packet, it must translate the source IPv4 address, which is a private address, to a public IPv4 address using NAT.
Loopback addresses (127.0.0.0 /8 or 127.0.0.1 to 127.255.255.254) are more commonly identified as only 127.0.0.1, these are special addresses used by a host to direct traffic to itself. Link-local addresses (169.254.0.0 /16 or 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254) are more commonly known as the Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) addresses or self-assigned addresses. They are used by a Windows DHCP client to self-configure in the event that there are no DHCP servers available.
In 1981, IPv4 addresses were assigned using classful addressing as defined in RFC 790 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc790), Assigned Numbers. Customers were allocated a network address based on one of three classes, A, B, or C. The RFC divided the unicast ranges into specific classes as follows:
• Class A (0.0.0.0/8 to 127.0.0.0/8) – Designed to support extremely large networks with more than 16 million host addresses.
• Class B (128.0.0.0 /16 – 191.255.0.0 /16) – Designed to support the needs of moderate to large size networks with up to approximately 65,000 host addresses.
• Class C (192.0.0.0 /24 – 223.255.255.0 /24) – Designed to support small networks with a maximum of 254 hosts.
There is also a Class D multicast block consisting of 224.0.0.0 to 239.0.0.0 and a Class E experimental address block consisting of 240.0.0.0 – 255.0.0.0.
Public IPv4 addresses are addresses which are globally routed over the internet. Public IPv4 addresses must be unique. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are managed by the IANA. The IANA manages and allocates blocks of IP addresses to the RIRs. RIRs are responsible for allocating IP addresses to ISPs who provide IPv4 address blocks to organizations and smaller ISPs. Organizations can also get their addresses directly from an RIR.
• Network Segmentation—In an Ethernet LAN, devices use broadcasts and ARP to locate other devices. ARP sends Layer 2 broadcasts to a known IPv4 address on the local network to discover the associated MAC address. Devices on Ethernet LANs also locate other devices using services. A host typically acquires its IPv4 address configuration using DHCP which sends broadcasts on the local network to locate a DHCP server. Switches propagate broadcasts out all interfaces except the interface on which it was received.
A large broadcast domain is a network that connects many hosts. A problem with a large broadcast domain is that these hosts can generate excessive broadcasts and negatively affect the network. The solution is to reduce the size of the network to create smaller broadcast domains in a process called subnetting. These smaller network spaces are called subnets. The basis of subnetting is to use host bits to create additional subnets. Subnetting reduces overall network traffic and improves network performance. It helps administrators to implement security policies such as which subnets are allowed or not allowed to communicate together. It reduces the number of devices affected by abnormal broadcast traffic due to misconfigurations, hardware/software problems, or malicious intent.
I just sent invitations to a party to several of my friends and family. The invitations went to different addresses, but the card inside is the same for everyone. This is like a multicast email isn’t it? I didn’t know you could do that, and I also didn’t know you could send a broadcast email to every person on your network! Can you think of a good reason to send a broadcast email to everyone in your network? Can you think of a reason why you should be careful before you send a broadcast email?