19 Project: Computing and Finding Subnets

In preparation for our subsequent project that finds routes across the network, we need to do some work in figuring out how IP addresses, subnet masks, and subnets all work together.

In this project we’ll put some of the work from the chapters into practice. We’ll:

• Write functions to convert dots-and-numbers IP addresses into single 32-bit values–and back again.

• Write a function that converts a subnet mask in slash notation into a single 32-bit value representing that mask.

• Write a function to see if two IP addresses are on the same subnet.

19.1 Restrictions

You may not use:

• Any functionality from the socket module.
• Any functionality from the struct module.
• Any functionality from the netaddr module.
• The .to_bytes() or .from_bytes() methods.

Keep it in the realm of your own home-cooked bitwise operations.

19.2 What To Do

Grab the skeleton code and other files in this ZIP archive¹⁰. This is what you’ll fill in for this project.

Implement the following functions in netfuncs.py:

• ipv4_to_value(ipv4_addr)
• value_to_ipv4(addr)
• get_subnet_mask_value(slash)
• ips_same_subnet(ip1, ip2, slash)
• get_network(ip_value, netmask)
• find_router_for_ip(routers, ip)

The descriptions of the functions are in the file in their respective docstrings. Be sure to pay special attention to the input and output types in the examples shown there.

Note that none of the functions need be more than 5-15 lines long. If you’re getting a much bigger function implementation, you might be off track.

19.3 Testing as you Go

I encourage you to write one function at a time and test it out by calling it with your own sample data before moving on to the next function.

You can add your own calls to the functions to help you verify that they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Use the inputs and outputs from the example comments for tests.

There is a function called my_tests() in netfuncs.py that will run instead of the default main function if you uncomment it.

If you uncomment my_tests(), you can run the program with:

python netfuncs.py

and see the output from that function.

Be sure to comment out my_tests() and run it with the included main code before you submit, as shown in the next section.

19.4 Running the Program

You’ll run it like this:

python netfuncs.py example1.json

It will read in the JSON data from the included example1.json and run your functions on various parts of it.

The output, included in example1_output.txt, should look exactly like this if everything is working correctly:

Routers:
     10.34.166.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.166.0
     10.34.194.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.194.0
     10.34.209.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.209.0
     10.34.250.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.250.0
      10.34.46.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.46.0
      10.34.52.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.52.0
      10.34.53.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.53.0
      10.34.79.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.79.0
      10.34.91.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.91.0
      10.34.98.1: netmask 255.255.255.0: network 10.34.98.0

IP Pairs:
   10.34.194.188    10.34.91.252: different subnets
   10.34.209.189    10.34.91.120: different subnets
   10.34.209.229    10.34.166.26: different subnets
   10.34.250.213    10.34.91.184: different subnets
   10.34.250.228    10.34.52.119: different subnets
   10.34.250.234     10.34.46.73: different subnets
     10.34.46.25   10.34.166.228: different subnets
    10.34.52.118     10.34.91.55: different subnets
    10.34.52.158     10.34.166.1: different subnets
    10.34.52.187    10.34.52.244: same subnet
     10.34.52.23    10.34.46.130: different subnets
     10.34.52.60    10.34.46.125: different subnets
    10.34.79.218     10.34.79.58: same subnet
     10.34.79.81    10.34.46.142: different subnets
     10.34.79.99    10.34.46.205: different subnets
    10.34.91.205    10.34.53.190: different subnets
     10.34.91.68    10.34.79.122: different subnets
     10.34.91.97    10.34.46.255: different subnets
    10.34.98.184     10.34.209.6: different subnets
     10.34.98.33   10.34.166.170: different subnets

Routers and corresponding IPs:
     10.34.166.1: ['10.34.166.1', '10.34.166.170', '10.34.166.228', '10.34.166.26']
     10.34.194.1: ['10.34.194.188']
     10.34.209.1: ['10.34.209.189', '10.34.209.229', '10.34.209.6']
     10.34.250.1: ['10.34.250.213', '10.34.250.228', '10.34.250.234']
      10.34.46.1: ['10.34.46.125', '10.34.46.130', '10.34.46.142', '10.34.46.205', '10.34.46.25', '10.34.46.255', '10.34.46.73']
      10.34.52.1: ['10.34.52.118', '10.34.52.119', '10.34.52.158', '10.34.52.187', '10.34.52.23', '10.34.52.244', '10.34.52.60']
      10.34.53.1: ['10.34.53.190']
      10.34.79.1: ['10.34.79.122', '10.34.79.218', '10.34.79.58', '10.34.79.81', '10.34.79.99']
      10.34.91.1: ['10.34.91.120', '10.34.91.184', '10.34.91.205', '10.34.91.252', '10.34.91.55', '10.34.91.68', '10.34.91.97']
      10.34.98.1: ['10.34.98.184', '10.34.98.33']

If you’re getting different output, try to look through the code and see what functions are being used with the incorrect output. Then test those in more detail in the my_tests() function.