You have 5 subnets with approximately 300 hosts on each subnet. Within the next 6 months, the number of subnets could increase to more than 100. The number of hosts on each subnet will probably never be more than 2,000. You do not have any plans to connect to the Internet directly.
Which type of address did you use? Justify your choice.
How many bits did you use for the subnet mask? Explain.
How much growth did you allow for additional subnets?
How much growth did you allow for additional hosts?
Based on the given information, it appears that you are using Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) addressing.
CIDR allows for more flexibility in subnetting by not conforming strictly to Classful addressing, which divides address space into fixed-size network classes. With CIDR, the subnet mask can vary in length, depending on the number of hosts required for each subnet.
To determine the number of bits used for the subnet mask, we need to find the next highest power of 2 that can accommodate the maximum number of hosts on each subnet (2,000 hosts). The minimum number of bits required is calculated by finding the log base 2 of 2,000, which is approximately 10.95. Since we cannot have fractional bits, we need to round up to the nearest whole number, which is 11. Therefore, we need at least 11 bits for the host portion in the subnet mask.
The number of subnets is expected to increase to more than 100, so we need to allocate enough bits in the subnet mask to accommodate this growth. To calculate the number of bits required for the subnet portion, we need to find the next highest power of 2 that is greater than 100. The minimum number of bits required is calculated by finding the log base 2 of 100, which is approximately 6.6438. Since we cannot have fractional bits, we need to round up to the nearest whole number, which is 7. Therefore, we need at least 7 bits for the subnet portion in the subnet mask.
In summary:
- The type of address used is Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) addressing.
- The subnet mask used contains 11 bits for the host portion and 7 bits for the subnet portion.
- The network design allows for the growth of more than 100 subnets.
- The network design allows for a maximum of 2,000 hosts on each subnet.