Chapter 9. Network Layer Addresses

This chapter describes the structure of addresses in various network layer protocols, including IP, IPX, IPv6, CLNP, AppleTalk, and DECnet. Even if all you care about is IP, you will understand IP better if you can see contrasting solutions. There are also good ideas as well as mistakes in the other protocols (as well as in IP), and it is important to learn these lessons, both good and bad, for the sake of future protocols. For example, IPv6 benefited by using some of the ideas in IPX and CLNP. And although the world seems to have converged around IPv4, the other protocols exist, and it's good to have them documented somewhere.

The major difference among all the connectionless network layer protocols is the size ...

Get Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches and Internetworking Protocols, Second Edition 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.