
126 Networking Explained, Second Edition
use this concept of “classful addressing.” Registries now use a classless addressing strategy,
which enables the network ID of Class A, B, and C addresses to be any size instead of being
restricted to 8, 16, or 24 bits. This strategy is formally called Classless Interdomain Routing
(CIDR, pronounced “cider”). When assigning IPv4 addresses, quantities of address space
are referred to by their prefix length (i.e., the number of leading bits that specify the network
ID) and are denoted by a slash notation. Thus, /24 refers to a single conventional Class C
IPv4 network because /24 implies that the network ID consists ...