Multihoming:

Each network interface on an IP internetwork has a separate IP address. In a

classical network, each regular computer, usually called a host, attaches to
the network in exactly only one place, so it will have only one IP address. This
is what most of us are familiar with when using an IP network (and is also why
most people use the term “host” when they really mean “network interface”.)
If a device has more than one interface to the internetwork, it will have more
than one IP address. The most obvious case where this occurs is with routers,
which connect together different networks and thus must have an IP address
for the interface on each one. It is also possible for hosts to have more than
one IP address, however. Such a device is sometimes said to be multihomed.
Multihoming Methods
There are two ways that a host can be multihomed:
o Two Or More Interfaces To The Same Network: Devices such as
servers or high-powered workstations may be equipped with two
physical interfaces to the same network for performance and/or
reliability reasons. They will have two IP addresses on the same
network with the same network ID.

o Interfaces To Two Or More Different Networks: Devices may have

multiple interfaces to different networks. The IP addresses will typically
have different network IDs in them.
Figure A shows IP addresses within the following Class C subnetworks:
• 192.168.64.0
• 192.168.65.0
• 192.168.66.0
• 192.168.67.0

These four smaller networks have been combined to create the 192.168.64.0
supernetwork. Class C supernetworks will usually assume the address of the
subnetwork with the lowest IP address, in this case, 192.168.64.0.

Creating the supernetwork mask

Before I discuss creating a supernetwork mask, I should cover some points about the
regular Class C subnet mask. The default subnet mask for Class C networks is
255.255.255.0. In binary format, this is written as:
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000.

The 1s in the mask represent the network ID (Netid) section of the address, and the 0s
represent the host ID (Hostid) section. When a subnetwork is created, we first create
the subnet mask by changing some of the 0s in the Hostid section to 1s.

For example, to create four separate subnetworks from one Class C network, we
would simply add two bits (22 = 4) to the default subnet mask. Example A shows
how this is done.

Example A
Netid Hostid
11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Original subnet mask

Netid Hostid
11111111 11111111 11111111. 11000000
New subnet mask

With this new subnet mask, the network has been transformed from one Class C
network with up to 254 hosts to four separate subnetworks, each with 64 (26 = 64)
hosts. However, because the IP with all host bits set to 0 and the IP address with all
bits set to 1 are both reserved, there is actually a limit of 62 hosts for each
subnetwork.

To create a supernetwork, we reverse the procedure. Remember, what we are trying to

do here is make room to combine networks by creating space for a larger number of
hosts. To accomplish this, we start with the default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and
use some of the bits reserved for the Netid to identify the Hostid. Example B shows
we would create a new supernetwork by combining four separate subnetworks.

Example B
New supernet mask
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
Original subnet mask
11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000
Create a new supernetwork by combining four separate subnetworks.

This new supernetwork can now accommodate 210, or 1024 hosts. If the first Netid is
192.168.64.0, the next three Netids will be 192.168.65.0, 192.168.66.0, and
192.168.67.0.

Now, when the router for the new supernet receives an incoming packet, the new
supernet mask is applied to the destination IP address, and a bitwise AND operation is
performed. If the result of this bitwise AND operation and the lowest network IP
address are the same, the router knows that the packet must be routed to a host on the
supernet. A bitwise AND operation compares an IP address to a subnet mask to
discover which network an IP packet will be routed to.

Bitwise AND operations

The principle behind bitwise AND operations is simple: If the first operator has a
value of 1 (true) and the second operator has a value of 1 (true), then the value
returned is true. In all other cases, the value returned is false (0).

Let's look at an example of this procedure. If a packet arrives at the router with the
destination address 192.168.64.48, the supernet mask 255.255.252.0 is applied to the
destination address.
11000000.10101000.01000000.00110000 (destination IP address)

AND
11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000 (supernet mask)

Returns
11000000.10101000.01000000.00000000

In this example, the value returned by the bitwise AND operation is 192.168.64.0.
This is the lowest available IP address on the supernet. This router then uses this
information to forward the incoming packet to a host on the newly created
supernetwork.

Classless interdomain routing

When a supernetwork is created, the result is a Class C network capable of hosting
more than 254 IP addresses (hosts). One potential problem with supernetting occurs
with routing tables. Normally, each of these 254 IP addresses and the applicable
subnet mask would have to be entered into the routing table. To eliminate the need to
enter each IP address into the routing table, we use classless interdomain routing
(CIDR). With this form of routing, the only entries in the routing table are the
supernetwork mask and the lowest IP address available on the supernetwork.
Example C shows an example of a routing table using the default Class C subnet
mask, and a routing table with the supernetwork mask.

Example C
Default Mask Network Address Next Hop
255.255.255.0 192.168.64.0
255.255.255.0 192.168.65.0
255.255.255.0 192.168.66.0
255.255.255.0 192.168.67.0
Default class routing table entry

Default Mask Network Address Next Hop

255.255.2552.0 192.168.64.0
Routing table using classless interdomain routing
No Next Hop
The new routing table is able to determine that the packet is being sent to a host on the
new 192.168.64.0 supernetwork, and the packet is sent directly to the destination IP
address without being forwarded to another router. For this reason, there is no entry in
the Next Hop column in the routing table.

When CIDR is employed, a bitwise AND operation is performed on the destination IP

addresses on incoming packets. In Example C, when a packet is addressed to a host
on any of the following networks:
192.168.64.0, 192.168.65.0, 192.168.66.0, 192.168.67.0

the new routing table is able to determine that the packet is being sent to a host on the
new 192.168.64.0 supernetwork, and the packet is sent directly to the destination IP
address.