* IPv4 Header

Format

Communication Network (IT-503)

0876IT141017 Harshdeep Singh

0876IT141018 Himani Jain

*Topics
* Introduction
* IPv4 Address
* Addressing
* IPv4 Header Format
* Header Format
* Header Fields explanation

*Introduction
The presentation explains briefly about the Internet
Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address and its header format.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of
the Internet Protocol (IP) more over with the enhancement
in technology and growth over the time, it has been
extended to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).IPv4 is a
connectionless protocol and has a 32-bit address that
uniquely and universally defines the connection of a device
to the Internet.

*IPv4 Address
* An IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and universally

defines the connection of a device (for example, a computer or a

router) to the Internet.
* Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of
the Internet Protocol (IP).
* It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking
methods in the Internet, and was the first version deployed for
production in the ARPANET in 1983.
* IPv4 is a connectionless protocol for use on packetswitched networks.
* Includes data integrity, are addressed by an upper layer transport
protocol, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

*Addressing
* IPv4 uses 32-bit (four-byte) addresses, which limits the address

space to 4294967296 (232) addresses. This limitation stimulated the

development of IPv6 in the 1990s, which has been in commercial
deployment since 2006.
* Because of the demand of the growing Internet, the small address space
finally suffered exhaustion on February 3, 2011, after having been
significantly delayed by classful network design, Classless Inter-Domain
Routing, and network address translation (NAT).
* IPv4 reserves special address blocks for private networks (~18 million
addresses) and multicast addresses (~270 million addresses).

*IPv4 Header Format

*Internet Protocol being a layer-3 protocol (OSI) takes data
Segments from layer-4 (Transport) and divides it into
packets. IP packet encapsulates data unit received from
above layer and add to its own header information.

*The encapsulated data is referred to as IP Payload. IP

header contains all the necessary information to deliver the

packet at the other end.

* Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth revision in the

development of the Internet Protocol (IP) and it is the first version of the
protocol to be widely deployed. IPv4 is a data-oriented protocol to be
used on a packet switched internetwork (e.g., Ethernet). It is a best effort
delivery protocol in that it does not guarantee delivery, nor does it
assure proper sequencing, or avoid duplicate delivery. These aspects are
addressed by an upper layer protocol (e.g. TCP, and partly by UDP).
IPv4 does, however, provide data integrity protection through the use of
packet checksums.

Header Format
0

4
version

IPv4
Packet
Format

8
HLen

12

19

TOS

Identifier
TTL

16

24

28

31

Length
Flag

Protocol

Offset fragmentation
Checksum

Source IP Address
Destination IP Address
Options (if any)
Data

Header

The header fields are discussed below:

* Version : (always set to the value 4 in the current version of IP)

* IP Header Length : (number of 32 -bit words forming the

header, usually five)

* Type of Service (ToS) : now known as Differentiated Services
Code Point (DSCP) (usually set to 0, but may indicate
particular Quality of Service needs from the network, the DSCP
defines the way routers should queue packets while they are
waiting to be forwarded).
* Size of Datagram : (in bytes, this is the combined length of the
header and the data)

*Identification : ( 16-bit number which together with the

source address uniquely identifies this packet - used during

reassembly of fragmented datagrams)
*Flags : (a sequence of three bits (one of the 3 bits is
unused) used to control whether routers are allowed
to fragment a packet (i.e. the Don't Fragment, DF, flag),
and to indicate the parts of a packet to the receiver)
*Fragmentation Offset : (a byte count from the start of the
original sent packet, set by any router which performs IP
router fragmentation)
*Time To Live : (Number of hops /links which the packet
may be routed over, decremented by most routers - used to
prevent accidental routing loops)

*Protocol : (Service Access Point (SAP) which indicates the

type of transport packet being carried (e.g. 1 = ICMP; 2=
IGMP; 6 = TCP; 17= UDP).
*Header Checksum : (A 1's complement checksum inserted
by the sender and updated whenever the packet header is
modified by a router - Used to detect processing errors
introduced into the packet inside a router or bridge where
the packet is not protected by a link layer cyclic
redundancy check. Packets with an invalid checksum are
discarded by all nodes in an IP network)
*Source Address : (the IP address of the original sender of
the packet)

*Destination Address : (the IP address of the final

destination of the packet)

*Options : (not normally used, but, when used, the IP

header length will be greater than five 32-bit words to

indicate the size of the options field)

*Conclusion
We hereby would like to show our special gratitude &
thanks towards our teacher Mr. Prashant Panse Sir
for inspiring us towards the subject and allotting us a
presentation on the topic (Internet Protocol version 4
Header Format). This presentation made us sorted
with the basics of IPv4 addressing and also with the
field under its header.

Thank you