Overview of Network Addressing Schemes

On the HP-UX 11i v2 Release, Hewlett-Packard offers several types of addressing schemes. Table 6-1 “Comparison of Subnet and Supernet Addressing Schemes” below shows the advantages and disadvantages of each type of scheme.

Table 6-1 Comparison of Subnet and Supernet Addressing Schemes

Address Type

Advantages

Disadvantages

Fixed-Length Subnet Addressing

Simplicity

- same netmask across network

- same size subnets across the network

Inefficiency & Inflexibility

- waste of address space

- same size subnets across the network

- cannot grow subnet beyond the fixed size

Variable-Length Subnet Addressing

Efficiency & Flexibility

- address space allocated according to projected size of subnets

- variability in subnet size

- expandability in subnet size

- grow subnet by changing subnet mask only

Complexity

- keeping track of subnet ranges

- keeping track of netmasks

Supernet Addressing

Simplicity

- same netmask across subnets

- no gateway configuration for networks

Network Impact

- performance. Network bandwidth is shared by all nodes in the supernet.

- requires bridges if the supernet is spread across multiple physical networks




	NOTE: If you are already using the fixed-length addressing scheme and do not need extra addressing space, then it is recommended that you not convert your network to one of the new addressing schemes.

Refer to the “Subnet Addresses” subsection for information on fixed-length and variable-length addressing.

Technical documentation