The Challenge of Managing an Address Space

On the surface, addressing serves a very logical and necessary function. A network address allows each device connected to a network to be uniquely identified. This is the basis for accurately forwarding data to its intended destination. However critical and necessary this function is, it is not the sole purpose of an addressing system. Addressing also directly affects the efficiency with which a network operates and its potential for scalability.

A network's scalability is also a direct function of how well-designed and -implemented that network's addressing system is. An addressing system that is either poorly designed or poorly implemented has a distinct impact on a network's operating efficiency, ...

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