IPv4 or Internet Protocol version 4

PorRodrigo Ramirez

Sep 5, 2020 #Guide, #IPv4

It is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP), an Internet-based networking protocol, and it was the first version implemented in 1983 for the production of ARPANET. Defined in RFC 791, IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, limited to unique addresses, many of which are dedicated to local networks (LAN) Because of the enormous growth that the Internet has had (much more than I expected when IPv4 was designed), combined with the fact that there is waste of addresses in many cases (see the sections that follow), it has been several Years, it was observed that IPv4 addresses were in short supply.

This limitation helped stimulate the study on the feasibility of implementing a new IPv6 protocol, which in 2016 is already in the early stages of testing, and which is expected to end up replacing the current IPv4 protocol.

IPv4 addresses can be represented in any notation that expresses a 32-bit integer value. Most of the time they are written in decimal notation, which consists of four octets of the address expressed individually in decimal numbers, and separated one from the next by periods.

For example, the four-point IP address 192.0.2.235 represents the 32-bit decimal number 3221226219, which in hexadecimal format is 0xC00002EB. This can also be expressed in dotted hexadecimal format such as 0xC0.0x00.0x02.0xEB, or with values in octal format such as 0300.0000.0002.0353.

In the original design of IPv4, an IP address was divided into two parts: the network identifier was the most significant octet of the address, and the host identifier (host or guest) was the rest of the address. The latter was also called the resting field. This structure allowed a maximum of 256 network identifiers, which were quickly found to be inappropriate.

Combining all the digits is possible a maximum of almost 4.3 billion IP addresses that will soon be exhausted. To continue providing IP addresses for domains, the successor protocol IPv6 is already in use. However, existing IPv4 addresses will still be valid.