Chapter 20. Variable-Length Subnet Masks

IPv4 addressing and subnetting use a lot of terms, a lot of small math steps, and a lot of concepts that fit together. While learning those concepts, it helps to keep things as simple as possible. One way this book has kept the discussion simpler so far was to show examples that use one mask only inside a single Class A, B, or C network.

This chapter removes that restriction by introducing variable-length subnet masks (VLSM). VLSM simply means that the subnet design uses more than one mask in the same classful network. VLSM has some advantages and disadvantages, but when learning, the main challenge is that a subnetting design that uses VLSM requires more math, and it requires that you think about some ...

Get Cisco CCENT/CCNA ICND1 100-101 Official Cert Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.