IP TO COORDS UPDATE

IP TO COORDS UPDATE

IP routers have to exchange, learn and update their routing tables to be able to route towards any IP address (and not away from it). Obviously, the IP 'coordinate system' is a purely logical one - it as no relation to the actual location. Inside the datacenter, 123.45.67.0/24 addresses the subsection and 123.45.67.80/28 your allocated address range with your server finally at 123.45.67.89. Behind the border, 123.45.64.0/18 indicates the datacenter with your server in it. The prefix length usually varies along the path, from more general, aggregated routes from afar to more precise, refined routes when closing in towards the host.įor instance, your ISP may advertise the 123.45.0.0/16 route on the Internet. Of course, the division between network address and host part is flexible in IP, as defined by the subnet mask or prefix length - a very clever scheme. If you visualize all networks on one axis and all hosts in each network on the other axis, that's a kind of coordinate system.

The network prefix is used to select the next-hop gateway and on the last hop, the host part is used to select the destination host. IP uses a paradigm of network part/prefix + host part that could be regarded as dimensions.

That depends very much on what you consider as dimensions.

Ip to coords