Network Layer:
Logical Addressing
An IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely identifies a device connected to the Internet. An IPv4 address space contains over 4 billion addresses. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long and expand the available address space vastly. Classful addressing divided the IP address space into classes A, B, C, D and E based on network size. However, classful addressing wasted large parts of the address space. Classless or subnetting addressing was introduced to allocate address blocks more efficiently.