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Concept

IP Addressing Formats and Exhaustion

An IP address is a logical address used to uniquely locate and route data to devices across different networks. This contrasts with a MAC address, which is a permanent hardware address burned into a network card used only within a local network segment.

IPv4 addresses (formatted like 192.168.1.5) provide approximately 4 billion possible unique addresses. As the number of connected devices grew globally, available IPv4 address space ran short. To address this limitation, IPv6 was introduced, utilizing much longer addresses to support a vastly larger number of devices across the Internet.

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Updated 2026-09-04

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Prep Sessions

Demystifying Network Architecture: Protocols, Addressing, and Packet Flow @ University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ch.3 Transmission and Routing Protocols - Demystifying Network Architecture: Protocols, Addressing, and Packet Flow @ University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Internet Protocol and Routing - Demystifying Network Architecture: Protocols, Addressing, and Packet Flow @ University of Michigan - Ann Arbor