IP Address Class A, B, and C Network and Host Capacities
So far, I have introduced the concepts of IP address classes and showed how the classes relate to ranges of IP addresses. Of the five classes, D and E are dedicated to special purposes, so I will leave those alone for now. Classes A, B, and C are the ones actually assigned for normal (unicast) addressing purposes on IP internetworks, and therefore they are the primary focus of our continued attention.
As you've seen, the classes differ in the number of bits (and octets) used for the network ID compared to the host ID. The number of different networks possible in each class is a function of the number of bits assigned to the network ID, and likewise, the number of hosts possible in each network ...
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