IP CLASSIFICATION

The IP are divided into the 5 classes

Class AREA OF USE PRIORITY START END RESERVED IP ID

BITS PORTION

STA END N H

A WAN 0 0.0.0.0 127.255.255.255 10.0.0.0 10.255.255.255 1 3

B WAN 10 128.0.0.0 191.255.255.255 169.254.0.0 169.254.255.25 2 2

5
172.16.0.0 172.31.0.0
C LAN 110 192.0.0.0 223.255.255.255 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.0 3 1

D Multicasting 1110 224.0.0.0 239.255.255.255

/Broadcasting

E Research and 1111 240.0.0.0 255.255.255.255

Development

Network 127.0.0.0 is reserved for IP traffic local to your host. Usually, address 127.0.0.1 will be assigned to a special interface on your host, the
loopback interface, which acts like a closed circuit. Any IP packet handed to this interface from TCP or UDP will be returned to them as if it had
just arrived from same network. This allows you to develop and test networking software without ever using a “real” network. The loopback
network also allows you to use networking software on a standalone host.

A special type of IP address is the limited broadcast address 255.255.255.255. A broadcast involves delivering a message from one sender to many recipients.
Senders direct an IP broadcast to 255.255.255.255 to indicate all other nodes on the local network (LAN) should pick up that message. This broadcast is 'limited'
in that it does not reach every node on the Internet, only nodes on the LAN.