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Home/ QNA/What Is The Name Of The 32-bit Or 128-bit Number That Is Used To Identify A Device On A Network?

What Is The Name Of The 32-bit Or 128-bit Number That Is Used To Identify A Device On A Network?

What Is The Name Of The 32-bit Or 128-bit Number That Is Used To Identify A Device On A Network?

IP Address

The question is, to find Name Of The 32-bit Or 128-bit Number That Is Used To Identify A Device On A Network. The answer is Internet Protocol address, commonly referred to as IP address. Now we can learn what is Internet Protocol address.

A specific interface or a device in a network can be uniquely identified by using a numerical representation. And this numeric representation is termed as IP address(Internet Protocol address). The versions of the IP address that we commonly used are, IPv6 and IPv4. The length of addresses found in the version IPv4 is 32 bits in size.

The maximum unique addresses provided by this version is 232, that is, 4,294,967,296 addresses. Where the length of addresses found in the version IPv6 is 128 bits in size and the maximum unique addresses provided by this version is 2128, that is, 3.4×1038 addresses.

We actually cannot use the full address pool of both versions since there are some reserved addresses and for other things. Usually, these addresses are expressed in the form decimal in version IPv4 and it is represented in hexadecimal form in the version IPv6. But actually, this address is in binary number format. For the purpose of making them easier usage and reading by human beings, it is represented in decimal or hexadecimal format.

Some examples for the IP addresses are given below:

  • 127.0.0.1
  • 172.16.0.9
  • 192.0.0.7

Internet Protocol(IP)

For creating the datagrams, or the packets and for sending these through the network, it needs some requirements and standards. And the IP address contains the set of those things. The internet protocol suite considers the Internet protocol as part of its internet layer. And the network layer considers this protocol is as part of the OSI model. Usually, this protocol is used with the higher-level protocol such as TCP.

Working of IP

The IP works without the need for any monitor or the central directory and it does not depend on any existing nodes or links. So we can say that it is designed in a way of working over a dynamic network. This protocol is datagram oriented that is it is a connectionless protocol. So that if one needs to transmit a packet over the internet using this protocol, it must contain some information with it such as data in the header, source IP address, and the destination IP address. This protocol becomes unreliable for this thing.

This disadvantage is overcome by higher-level protocols such as UDP and TCP. The first one is a connectionless protocol and the latter is connection-oriented.

IP Versions

The two versions which are commonly used today are,

  1. IPv4
  2. IPv6

Both the corporate networks and the internet today use the first one, IPv4. As we described at the beginning of this topic, the maximum number of unique addresses provided by this version is 232.

The IETF(Internet Engineering Task Force) developed the later version, IPv6, in 1998. This version allows more addresses than the first version. The maximum number of unique addresses provided by this version is 2128. The major advantages of this version over the first one are,

  • Packet routing gets improved.
  • Security of packets is advanced.
  • Improved IP packet header’s efficiency.

IPv4 addresses

As we discussed before, this version is a 32-bit binary number. This address usually has two sub addresses which are also referred to as identifiers. The first subaddress is used for identifying the network and the latter one is used for identifying the host to the network. They both are separated by an imaginary boundary. For easier handling and human readability, this binary number is represented in decimal form as 4 octets of numbers range from o to 255.

For example, the IP address 00111111.00000000.00000000.00000001 can be represented as 127.0.0.1.

Also Read:

IPv6 addresses

This version of IP addresses have more address size than IPv4, that is the maximum address size here is 2128. Here the binary number is represented in the hexadecimal form. It represents in 8 sets of 4 hexadecimal numbers.

For example, 2DAB:FFFF:0000:3ABE:10AE:FAB1:1100:0000 is a IP address of version 6 (IPv6).

I want to repeat the answer, the Name Of The 32-bit Or 128-bit Number That Is Used To Identify A Device On A Network is Internet Protocol address, commonly referred to as IP address.

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