IP Address Classless

CIDR is a new addressing scheme for the Internet which allows for more efficient allocation of IP addresses than the old Class A, B, and C address scheme.

With a new network being connected to the Internet every 30 minutes the Internet was faced with two critical problems:
- Running out of IP addresses
- Running out of capacity in the global routing tables

Restructuring IP Address Assignments
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) is a replacement for the old process of assigning Class A, B and C addresses with a generalized network "prefix". Instead of being limited to network identifiers (or "prefixes") of 8, 16 or 24 bits, CIDR currently uses prefixes anywhere from 13 to 27 bits. Thus, blocks of addresses can be assigned to networks as small as 32 hosts or to those with over 500,000 hosts. This allows for address assignments that much more closely fit an organization's specific needs.

A CIDR address includes the standard 32-bit IP address and also information on how many bits are used for the network prefix. For example, in the CIDR address 206.13.01.48/25, the "/25" indicates the first 25 bits are used to identify the unique network leaving the remaining bits to identify the specific host.

CIDR Block Prefix # Equivalent Class C # of Host Addresses

/27 1/8th of a Class C 32 hosts
/26 1/4th of a Class C 64 hosts
/25 1/2 of a Class C 128 hosts
/24 1 Class C 256 hosts
/23 2 Class C 512 hosts
/22 4 Class C 1,024 hosts
/21 8 Class C 2,048 hosts
/20 16 Class C 4,096 hosts
/19 32 Class C 8,192 hosts
/18 64 Class C 16,384 hosts
/17 128 Class C 32,768 hosts
/16 256 Class C 65,536 hosts
(= 1 Class B)
/15 512 Class C 131,072 hosts
/14 1,024 Class C 262,144 hosts
/13 2,048 Class C 524,288 hosts
.