IP Header Protocol Version(4 bits) This is the first field in the protocol header. This field occupies 4 bits. This signifies the current IP protocol version being used. Most common version of IP protocol being used is version 4 while version 6 is out in market and fast gaining popularity. Header Length(4 bits) This field provides the length of the IP header. The length of the header is represented in 32 bit words. This length also includes IP options (if any). Since this field is of 4 bits so the maximum header length allowed is 60 bytes. Usually when no options are present then the value of this field is 5. Here 5 means five 32 bit words ie 5 *4 = 20 bytes. Type of service(8 bits) The first three bits of this field are known as precedence bits and are ignored as of today. The next 4 bits represent type of service and the last bit is left unused. The 4 bits that represent TOS are : minimize delay, maximize throughput, maximize reliability and minimize monetary cost. Total length(16 bits) This represents the total IP datagram length in bytes. Since the header length (described above) gives the length of header and this field gives total length so the length of data and its starting point can easily be calculated using these two fields. Since this is a 16 bit field and it represents length of IP datagram so the maximum size of IP datagram can be 65535 bytes. When IP fragmentation takes place over the network then value of this field also changes. There are cases when IP datagrams are very small in length but some data links like ethernet pad these small frames to be of a minimum length ie 46 bytes. So to know the exact length of IP header in case of ethernet padding this field comes in handy. Identification(16 bits) This field is used for uniquely identifying the IP datagrams. This value is incremented every-time an IP datagram is sent from source to the destination. This field comes in handy while reassembly of fragmented IP data grams. Flags(3 bits) This field comprises of three bits. While the first bit is kept reserved as of now, the next two bits have their own importance. The second bit represents the ‘Don’t Fragment’ bit. When this bit is set then IP datagram is never fragmented, rather its thrown away if a requirement for fragment arises. The third bit represents the ‘More Fragment’ bit. If this bit is set then it represents a fragmented IP datagram that has more fragments after it. In case of last fragment of an IP datagram this bit is not set signifying that this is the last fragment of a particular IP datagram. Fragment offset(13 bits) In case of fragmented IP data grams, this field contains the offset( in terms of 8 bytes units) from the start of IP datagram. So again, this field is used in reassembly of fragmented IP datagrams. Time to live(8 bits) This value represents number of hops that the IP datagram will go through before being discarded. The value of this field in the beginning is set to be around 32 or 64 (lets say) but at every hop over the network this field is decremented by one. When this field becomes zero, the data gram is discarded. So, we see that this field literally means the effective lifetime for a datagram on network. Protocol(8 bits) This field represents the transport layer protocol that handed over data to IP layer. This field comes in handy when the data is demultiplex-ed at the destination as in that case IP would need to know which protocol to hand over the data to. Header Checksum(16 bits) This fields represents a value that is calculated using an algorithm covering all the fields in header (assuming this very field to be zero). This value is calculated and stored in header when IP data gram is sent from source to destination and at the destination side this checksum is again calculated and verified against the checksum present in header. If the value is same then the datagram was not corrupted else its assumed that data gram was received corrupted. So this field is used to check the integrity of an IP datagram. Source and destination IP(32 bits each) These fields store the source and destination address respectively. Since size of these fields is 32 bits each so an IP address of maximum length of 32 bits can be used. So we see that this limits the number of IP addresses that can be used. To counter this problem, IP V6 has been introduced which increases this capacity. Options(Variable length) This field represents a list of options that are active for a particular IP datagram. This is an optional field that could be or could not be present. If any option is present in the header then the first byte is represented as follows : ITnotes.in
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 10:11:27 +0000
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