Supernetwork

Supernetting within the Internet serves as a strategy to avoid fragmentation of the IP address space by using a hierarchical allocation system that delegates control of segments of address space to regional Internet registries.

Supernetting has helped address the increasing size of routing tables as the Internet has expanded.

Supernetting in large, complex networks can isolate topology changes from other routers.

A company that operates 150 accounting services in each of 50 districts has a router in each office connected with a Frame Relay link to its corporate headquarters.

However, if a hierarchical addressing system is implemented with supernetting, then each district has a centralized site as an interconnection point.

The determination of the summary route on a router involves the recognition of the number of highest-order bits that match all addresses.

A router has the following networks in its routing table: Firstly, the addresses are converted to binary format and aligned in a list: Secondly, the bits at which the common pattern of digits ends are located.

In another example, an ISP is assigned a block of IP addresses by a regional Internet registry (RIR) of 172.1.0.0 to 172.1.255.255.