ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 will turn attention to two methods that economize on the use of IP address space. The first method, referred to as Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), was developed as a mechanism to promote the more efficient allocation of IPv4 address space. It is also referred to as supernetting. The second method we will discuss, multicasting, was primarily developed as a mechanism to reduce the amount of network traffic by permitting users desiring to access a traffic flow to join a multicast group. However, because one flow replaces individual traffic flows, multicast can also be used to conserve the use of IP address space.
