IPv4 Addresses in CIDR Format

The IETF has developed Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) addresses as a short to medium term fix for the shortage of IPv4 addresses. In addition, CIDR format was designed as a remedy to the lack of capacity of the global Internet routing tables. An IPv4 address with CIDR notation is 32 bits in length and has the same dotted decimal format. However, CIDR adds a prefix designation after the rightmost byte to define the network portion of the IPv4 address. For more information, refer to Designing Your CIDR IPv4 Addressing Scheme.