Public and private IP addresses

Public and private IP addresses
9.2.6 This page describes public and private IP addresses.


The stability of the Internet depends directly on the uniqueness of publicly used network addresses. In Figure , there is an issue with the network addressing scheme. In looking at the networks, both have a network address of 198.150.11.0. The router in this illustration will not be able to forward the data packets correctly. Duplicate network IP addresses prevent the router from performing its job of best path selection. Unique addresses are required for each device on a network.

A procedure was needed to make sure that addresses were in fact unique. Originally, an organization known as the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC) handled this procedure. InterNIC no longer exists and has been succeeded by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA carefully manages the remaining supply of IP addresses to ensure that duplication of publicly used addresses does not occur. Duplication would cause instability in the Internet and compromise its ability to deliver datagrams to networks.

Public IP addresses are unique. No two machines that connect to a public network can have the same IP address because public IP addresses are global and standardized. All machines connected to the Internet agree to conform to the system. Public IP addresses must be obtained from an Internet service provider (ISP) or a registry at some expense.

With the rapid growth of the Internet, public IP addresses were beginning to run out. New addressing schemes, such as classless interdomain routing (CIDR) and IPv6 were developed to help solve the problem. CIDR and IPv6 are discussed later in the course.

Private IP addresses are another solution to the problem of the impending exhaustion of public IP addresses. As mentioned, public networks require hosts to have unique IP addresses. However, private networks that are not connected to the Internet may use any host addresses, as long as each host within the private network is unique. Many private networks exist alongside public networks. However, a private network using just any address is strongly discouraged because that network might eventually be connected to the Internet. RFC 1918 sets aside three blocks of IP addresses for private, internal use. These three blocks consist of one Class A, a range of Class B addresses, and a range of Class C addresses. Addresses that fall within these ranges are not routed on the Internet backbone. Internet routers immediately discard private addresses. If addressing a nonpublic intranet, a test lab, or a home network, these private addresses can be used instead of globally unique addresses. Private IP addresses can be intermixed, as shown in the graphic, with public IP addresses. This will conserve the number of addresses used for internal connections.

Connecting a network using private addresses to the Internet requires translation of the private addresses to public addresses. This translation process is referred to as Network Address Translation (NAT). A router usually is the device that performs NAT. NAT, along with CIDR and IPv6 are covered in more depth later in the curriculum.

The next page will introduce subnetting.