IP Network Addresses
IP addressing supports five different network classes:
- Class A: Mainly used with a few very large networks. Provide only 7 bits for the network address field.
- Class B: 14 bits for the network address field, 16 bits for the host address field. Offers a good compromise between network and host address space
- Class C: Allocate 22 bits for the network address field, provide only 8 bits for the host field. The number of host may be a limiting factor
- Class D: Reserved for multicast groups, the 4 highest-order bits are set to 1, 1, 1, and 0.
- Class E: Reserved for future use, the four highest-order bits are all set to 1.