Five LANs do not fit the supplied allocation
A fictional organization receives only the IPv 4 block 192.0.2.0/24 for a classroom planning exercise. Five separate ordinary broadcast LANs each require fifty usable host addresses. The exercise reserves the first address of each subnet for its network identifier and the last for directed broadcast, and it does not use point-to-point /31 links. One planner proposes five /26 subnets because each provides sixty-two usable host addresses. Another says variable-length subnet masking can squeeze the fifth identical-size subnet into the same parent block. Neither proposal is a live public-address assignment. The task is to compare the required aligned address blocks with the stated capacity, identify the shortfall and communicate what must change before equipment is configured. No additional address range is silently available.
1. Calculate the space requirement and determine whether VLSM solves it.
Read the worked answer
Each fifty-host LAN needs at least 64 addresses, hence /26 under the stated model. Five require 320 addresses, while a /24 contains 256. VLSM cannot make five equal requirements fit this allocation.
2. What should be recorded rather than configured?
Read the worked answer
Record the shortfall, assumptions and required larger allocation or revised segmentation/host requirements. Verify any replacement block and overlaps before implementation; do not invent a fifth range outside the approved parent.