Introduction

For the purpose of enabling communication over the internet, there exists a significant need for a unique identifier for hardware, unlike email addresses, so that communication can be established. Without having a unique identifier for a device, it is impossible to initiate communication over the internet is impossible. Unique identifier here refers to an IP address that lays out standards as well as rules for routing and connecting devices to the internet globally. Primarily, this protocol provides a set of rules which certainly needs to be followed by every user for the purpose of bidirectional data flow. IP addresses can be expressed as a set of numbers depending on the selected version and are not random. These addresses are fundamentally produced and allocated by an agency named as ‘Internet Assigned Numbers Authority’ (IANA) which is a division of a non-profit organization named as ‘Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN).

How IP addresses work?

The primary agenda of using an IP address is to send and receive information from the internet. If computer A wants to establish communication with computer B, there is a need for assigning these devices with individual IP addresses. For example, Computer A must have IP address 192.168.14.5 and computer B must have IP address 150.140.11.10 to initiate the communication. Furthermore, when the device needs to access the web, the device directly requests Internet Service Provider (ISP) through which access to the internet is granted (Mozilla, 2022). Herein, the IP address is assigned to the device on the basis of the given range. When the internet is accessed, all activities go through the provider and is routed back. In such a way, IP address work, and it depends on the user which type of IP address is being utilized. The following diagram shows how computers are connected to each other via ISP.

How does IP address changes?

IP addresses keep changing on a timely basis, depending on the type of IP address assigned. Mainly, there are two types of IP addresses, i.e. Static and Dynamic. Once assigned, a static IP address cannot be changed automatically until the user changes it, and a dynamic IP address keeps on changing at different time intervals (Mozilla, 2022). For example, in the case of DHCP service, a same IP address can be reused on another device on the basis of the lease time allocated to each device. Conversely, static IP’s are assigned to the server as these devices are fixed on the network.

Types of IP addresses

IP addresses can be categorized under different types, such as private IP address and public IP address.

• Private IP address: Private IP addresses are primarily assigned to devices that are connected locally. Devices here refers to speakers, printers, computers, etc., which can be easily identified on the network. These IP addresses are generated by the router so as to ensure every single device is differentiated on the network. For example, in class A, 10.0.0.0 series falls under private IP addresses, in class B, 172.16.0.0-172.32.0.0 falls under private IP addresses and in class C, 192.168.0.0 falls under private IP addresses (Norton, 2022).
• Public IP address:  On the other hand, public IP addresses are primarily associated with the whole network and is provided to the router by an Internet service provider. These are paid IP addresses that need to be purchased from the respective ISP. Unlike private IP addresses, all other left IP addresses fall under public IP addresses (Norton, 2022).

IP Address versions

Initially, there are two types of IP address versions, namely, IP version 4 and IP version 6. IP version 4 is the original version of IP addresses which is still used in computer networks to send and receive information. This type of IP address is expressed in the form of dotted-decimal notation as four decimal numbers and ranges from 0 to 255 as 32-bit numbers. This version IP address is divided into four octets, where each octet comprises of 8 bits. For example, 192.168.100.0/24, 172.18.0.0/16 and 10.0.0.0/8 are some common examples of IP version 4 addresses. There are more than 4 billion of IPv4 IP addresses (4,294,967,296), and it is considered for carrying 94% of internet traffic (Hicks, 2019).

As the number of users are increasing at a rapid rate, IP version 4 addresses are exhausted and to deal with this issue, IP version 6 was proposed by IETF to replace the older IPv4 version. This version supersedes the older version and is much larger than version 4 despite having a 128-bit address length, offering 2¹²⁸ combinations. There are a number of advantages offered by IP version 6, such as faster routing rate, better end-to-end connectivity, enhanced mobility features and improved security. IP version 6 address can be represented in hexadecimal values of eight 16-bit pieces like abcd:fgrt:0000:0000:0000:0000:1g57:23g7. Currently, both IP versions are in use as sometimes user prefer assigning IPv4 instead of IPv6 due to easier administration (Yushkevych, 2022).

IP address Classes

IP version 4

The table given underneath shows different IP address classes which are being used on the internet.

IP version 6

In the same way, distribution for IP version 6 addresses has also been done as given below.

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be said that in order to enable communication over the internet, there is a major need for assigning IP addresses to any device so that it can be identified on a network. In generic terms, IP address refers to the set of rules which are used for governing the format of data on the internal and external network. IP addresses could be of any type, such as private IP addresses and public IP addresses, where private ones are used internally whilst private ones are used externally. Furthermore, there are two versions of IP addresses, out of which version 6 is much more secure and robust due to several enhancements performed over it.

References

• Hicks, K. (2019). Types of IP Addresses | HostGator. HostGator. Retrieved 22 January 2022, from https://www.hostgator.com/blog/types-ip-addresses/.
• Mozilla. (2022). What is an IP address?. https://www.mozilla.org. Retrieved 22 January 2022, from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/more/what-is-an-ip-address/.
• Norton. (2022). What does an IP address tell you, and how it can put you at risk. https://us.norton.com/. Retrieved 22 January 2022, from https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-what-does-an-ip-address-tell-you.html.
• Yushkevych, A. (2022). Different Types of IP Addresses & Version to Use in 2022. https://monovm.com. Retrieved 22 January 2022, from https://monovm.com/blog/types-of-ip-addresses/.