CCNA – Semester 2

Chapter 6: VLSM and CIDR

CCNA Exploration version 4.0

Objectives

• Compare and contrast classful and classless IP

addressing.
• Review VLSM and explain the benefits of classless IP
addressing.
• Describe the role of the Classless Inter-Domain
Routing (CIDR) standard in making efficient use of
scarce IPv4 addresses

2
Introduction

• Prior to 1981, IP addresses used only the first 8 bits to

specify the network portion of the address
• In 1981, RFC 791 modified the IPv4 32-bit address to
allow for three different classes
• IP address space was depleting rapidly
– The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
introduced Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
• CIDR uses Variable Length Subnet Masking
(VLSM) to help conserve address space.
» VLSM is simply subnetting a subnet

3
Classful and Classless Addressing

4
Classful IP Addressing

• As of January 2007, there

are over 433 million hosts
on internet
• Initiatives to conserve IPv4
address space include:
– VLSM & CIDR notation
(1993, RFC 1519)
– Network Address
Translation (1994, RFC
1631)
– Private Addressing
(1996, RFC 1918)

5
Classful IP Addressing

• The High Order Bits

These are the leftmost bits in a 32 bit address

6
Classful IP Addressing

• Classes of IP addresses are identified by the decimal

number of the 1st octet
– Class A address begin with a 0 bit
• Range of class A addresses
0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255
– Class B address begin with a 1 bit and a 0 bit
• Range of class B addresses
128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255
– Class C addresses begin with two 1 bits & a 0 bit
• Range of class C addresses
192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255

7
Classful IP Addressing
• The IPv4 Classful Addressing Structure (RFC 790)
– An IP address has 2 parts:
• The network portion
– Found on the left side of an IP address
• The host portion
– Found on the right side of an IP address

8
Classful IP Addressing

9
Classful Routing Protocol

• Recall that classful routing protocols (i.e. RIPv1) do not

send subnet masks in their routing updates
– The reason is that the Subnet mask is directly related
to the network address
10
Classless IP Addressing

• Classless Inter-domain Routing (CIDR – RFC 1517)

– Allows for:
• More efficient use of IPv4 address space
• Route summarization
– Requires subnet mask to be included in routing
update because address class is meaningless

Recall purpose of a subnet mask:

– To determine the network and host portion of an IP
address

11
CIDR and Route Summarization
• CIDR & Route Summarization
– Variable Length Subnet Masking (VLSM): Allows a
subnet to be further sub-netted according to individual
needs
– Prefix Aggregation a.k.a. Route Summarization
– CIDR allows for routes to be summarized as a single
route

12
Classless Routing Protocol
• Characteristics of classless routing protocols:
– Routing updates include the subnet mask
– Supports VLSM
– Supports Route Summarization

13
Classless Routing Protocol

Routing Ability to
Routing updates Supports send
Protocol Include subnet VLSM Supernet
Mask routes
Classful No No No

Classless Yes Yes Yes

14
VLSM

15
VLSM is Action

• Classful routing
– Only allows for one
subnet mask for all
networks
• VLSM & classless routing
– This is the process of
subnetting a subnet
– More than one subnet
mask can be used

16
 207.21.24.192/30 207.21.24.204/30

207.21.24.216/30
207.21.24.96/27 207.21.24.128/27
207.21.24.64/27
207.21.24.208/30 207.21.24.212/30
207.21.24.196/30 207.21.24.200/30

207.21.24.160/27 207.21.24.224/27 207.21.24.32/27 207.21.24.0/27

• This network has seven /27 subnets with 30 hosts each AND seven /30
subnets with 2 hosts each (one left over).
• /30 subnets with 2 hosts per subnet do not waste host addresses on
serial networks . 17
VLSM and the Routing Table
Displays one subnet mask for all child routes.
Classful mask is assumed for the parent route.
Routing Table without VLSM
RouterX#show ip route
207.21.24.0/27 is subnetted, 4 subnets
C 207.21.24.0 is directly connected, Serial0
C 207.21.24.32 is directly connected, Serial1
C 207.21.24.64 is directly connected, Serial2
C 207.21.24.96 is directly connected, FastEthernet0
Each child routes displays its own subnet mask.
Routing Table with VLSM Classful mask is included for the parent route.
RouterX#show ip route
207.21.24.0/24 is variably subnetted, 4 subnets, 2 masks
C 207.21.24.192 /30 is directly connected, Serial0
C 207.21.24.196 /30 is directly connected, Serial1
C 207.21.24.200 /30 is directly connected, Serial2
C 207.21.24.96 /27 is directly connected, FastEthernet0

• Parent Route shows classful mask instead of subnet mask of the child
routes.
• Each Child Routes includes its subnet mask.

18
VLSM
• VLSM – the process of
sub-netting a subnet to
fit your needs
• Example:
– Subnet 10.1.0.0/16, 8
more bits are
borrowed again, to
create 256 subnets
with a /24 mask.
– Mask allows for 254
host addresses per
subnet
– Subnets range from:
10.1.0.0 / 24 to
10.1.255.0 / 24
19
All Zeros and All Ones Subnets

Using the All Ones Subnet

• There is no command to enable or disable the use of the all-ones subnet, it is
enabled by default.
• The use of the all-ones subnet has always been explicitly allowed and the use
of subnet zero is explicitly allowed since Cisco IOS version 12.0.
Router(config)#ip subnet-zero

RFC 1878 states, "This practice (of excluding all-zeros and all-ones subnets) is
obsolete! Modern software will be able to utilize all definable networks."
Today, the use of subnet zero and the all-ones subnet is generally accepted
and most vendors support their use, though, on certain networks,
particularly the ones using legacy software, the use of subnet zero and the
all-ones subnet can lead to problems.

CCO: Subnet Zero and the All-Ones Subnet

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk648/tk361/technologies_tech_note09186a
0080093f18.shtml
20
CIDR

21
Route Summarization
• Route summarization done by CIDR
– Routes are summarized with masks that are less
than that of the default classful mask
– Example:
172.16.0.0 / 13 is the summarized route for the
172.16.0.0 / 16 to
172.23.0.0 / 16 classful networks

22
Calculating Route Summarization

• Steps to calculate a route

summary
– List networks in binary
format
– Count number of left
most matching bits to
determine summary
route’s mask
– Copy the matching bits
and add zero bits to
determine the
summarized network
address

23
Without CIDR, a
router must
maintain
individual
routing table
entries for these
class B
networks.

With CIDR, a
router can
summarize
these routes
into eight
networks by
using a 13-bit
prefix:
172.24.0.0 /13
Steps:
1. Count the number of left-most matching bits, /13
2. Add all zeros after the last matching bit:
172.24.0.0 = 10101100 00011000 00000000 00000000 24
CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)
• By using a prefix address to summarizes routes,
administrators can keep routing table entries manageable,
which means the following
– More efficient routing
– A reduced number of CPU cycles when recalculating
a routing table, or when sorting through the routing table
entries to find a match
– Reduced router memory requirements
• Route summarization is also known as:
– Route aggregation
– Supernetting
• Supernetting is essentially the inverse of subnetting.

25
Supernetting Example
• Company XYZ needs to address 400 hosts.
• Its ISP gives them two contiguous Class C addresses:
– 207.21.54.0/24
– 207.21.55.0/24
• Company XYZ can use a prefix of 207.21.54.0 /23 to supernet
these two contiguous networks. (Yielding 510 hosts)
• 207.21.54.0 /23
– 207.21.54.0/24
– 207.21.55.0/24

23 bits in common 26
Supernetting Example

• With the ISP acting as the addressing authority for a CIDR block of
addresses, the ISP’s customer networks, which include XYZ, can be
advertised among Internet routers as a single supernet.

27
CIDR and the Provider

28
CIDR and the provider

200.199.48.0/24 11001000 11000111 001100 00 00000000

200.199.49.0/24 11001000 11000111 001100 01 00000000
200.199.50.0/24 11001000 11000111 001100 10 00000000
200.199.51.0/24 11001000 11000111 001100 11 00000000
200.199.48.0/22 11001000 11000111 001100 00 00000000

200.199.52.0/24 11001000 11000111 001101 00 00000000

200.199.53.0/24 11001000 11000111 001101 01 00000000
200.199.54.0/24 11001000 11000111 001101 10 00000000
200.199.55.0/24 11001000 11000111 001101 11 00000000
200.199.52.0/22 11001000 11000111 001101 00 00000000

200.199.56.0/24 11001000 11000111 00111 000 00000000

200.199.57.0/24 11001000 11000111 00111 001 00000000
…………..
200.199.63.0/24 11001000 11000111 00111 111 00000000
200.199.56.0/21 11001000 11000111 00111 000 00000000

29
CIDR Restrictions

• Dynamic routing protocols must send network address

and mask (prefix-length) information in their routing
updates.
• In other words, CIDR requires classless routing protocols
for dynamic routing.

30
Route flapping

• Route flapping occurs when a router interface alternates rapidly between the
up and down states.
• Route flapping, and it can cripple a router with excessive updates and
recalculations.
• However, the summarization configuration prevents the RTC route flapping
from affecting any other routers.
• The loss of one network does not invalidate the route to the supernet.
• While RTC may be kept busy dealing with its own route flap, RTZ, and all
upstream routers, are unaware of any downstream problem.
• Summarization effectively insulates the other routers from the problem of route
flapping. 31
Summary

32
33