IPv4 Datagram Format

IPv4 Datagram Format

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Recall that a network-layer packet is referred to as a datagram. We begin our study of IP with an overview of the syntax and semantics of the IPv4 datagrams. You might be thinking that nothing could be drier than the syntax and semantics of a packet’s bits. Nevertheless, the datagram plays a central role in the internet – every networking student and professional needs to see it, absorb it, and master it.

The IPv4 datagram format is shown in the figure below.

IPv4 Datagram Format

Version Number

These 4 bits specify the IP protocol version of the datagram. By looking at the version number, the router can determine how to interpret the remainder of the IP datagram. Different versions of IP use different datagram formats. The datagram format for the current version of IP, IPv4 is shown in the figure above. The datagram format for the new version of IP (IPv6) will be discussed later.

Header Length

Because an IPv4 datagram can contain a variable number of options (which are included in the IPv4 datagram header), these 4 bits are needed to determine where in the IP datagram the data actually begins. Most IP datagrams do not contain options, so the typical IP datagram has a 20-byte header.

Type of Service

The type of service (TOS) bits were included in the IPv4 header to allow different types of IP datagrams (for example, datagrams particularly requiring low delay, high throughput, or reliability) to be distinguished from each other. For example, it might be useful to distinguish real-time datagrams (such as those used by an IP telephony application) from non-real-time traffic (for example, FTP). The specific level of service to be provided is a policy issue determined by the router’s administrator.

Datagram Length

This is the total length of the IP datagram (header plus data), measured in bytes. Since this filed is 16 bits long, the theoretical maximum size of the IP datagram is 65,535 bytes. However, datagrams are rarely larger than 1,500 bytes.

Identifier, Flags, Fragmentation Offset

These three fields have to do with so-called IP fragmentation, a topic we will consider in depth shortly. Interestingly, the new version of IP, IPv6, does not allow fragmentation at routers.

Time-to-live

The time-to-live (TTL) field is included to ensure that datagrams do not circulate forever (due to, for example, a long-lived routing loop) in the network. This field is decremented by one each time the datagram is processed by a router. If the TTL field reaches 0, the datagram must be dropped.

Protocol

This field is used only when an IP datagram reaches its final destination. The value of this field indicates the specific transport-layer protocol to which the data portion of this IP datagram should be passed. For example, a value of 6 indicates that the data portion is passed to TCP, while a value of 17 indicates that the data is passed to UDP. For a list of all possible values, see [IANA Protocol Numbers 2012].

Note that the protocol number in the IP datagram has a role that is analogous to the role of the port number filed in the transport layer segment. The protocol number is the glue that binds the network and transport and application layers together.

Header Checksum

The header checksum aids a router in detecting bit errors in a received IP datagram. The header checksum is computed by treating each 2 bytes in the header as a number and summing these numbers using 1s and complement arithmetic.

The 1s complement of this sum, known as the internet checksum, is stored in the checksum field. A router computes the header checksum of each received IP datagram and detects an error condition if the checksum carried in the datagram header does not equal the computed checksum. Routers typically discard datagrams for which an error has been detected.

Note that the checksum must be recomputed and stored again at each router, as the TTL field, and possibly the options field as well, may change.

A question often asked at this point is, why does TCP/IP perform error checking at both the transport and network layers? There are several reasons for this repetition. First, note that only the IP header is checksummed at the IP layer, while the TCP/UDP checksum is computed over the entire TCP/UDP segment. Second, TCP/UDP and IP do not necessarily both have to belong to the same protocol stack. TCP can , in principle, run over a different protocol (for example ATM), and IP can carry data that will not be passed to TCP/UDP.

Source and Destination IP Addresses

When a source creates a datagram, it inserts its IP address into the source IP address field and inserts the address of the ultimate destination into the destination IP address field. Often the source host determines the destination address via a DNS lookup.

Options

The options fields allow an IP header to be extended. Header options were meant to be used rarely – hence the decision to save overhead by not including the information in options fields in every datagram header.

However, the mere existence of options does complicate matters – since datagram headers can be of variable length, one cannot determine a priori where the data filed will start. Also, since some datagrams may require options procession and others may not, the amount of time needed to process an IP datagram at a router can vary greatly.

These considerations become particularly important for IP processing in high-performance routers and hosts. For these reasons and others, IP options were dropped in the IPv6 header.

Data (Payload)

Finally, we come to the last and most important field. In most circumstances, the data field of the IP datagram contains the transport-layer segment (TCP or UDP) to be delivered to the destination. However, the data field can carry other types of data, such as ICMP messages.

Note that an IP datagram has a total of 20 bytes of header (assuming no options). If the datagram carries a TCP segment, then each (nonfragmented) datagram carries a total of 40 bytes of header (20 bytes of IP header plus 20 bytes of TCP header) along with the application-layer message.