FA22433
30 September 2021
A broadcast address is an IP address that is used to target all systems on a specific subnet network instead of single hosts.
In other words broadcast address allows information to be sent to all machines on a given subnet rather than to a specific machine.
The broadcast address of any IP address can be calculated by taking the bit compliment of the subnet mask, sometimes referred to as the reverse mask and then applying it with a bitwise OR calculation to the IP address in question.
Example:
If the IP address is 192.168.12.220 and subnet mask as 255.255.255.128 then broadcast address can be deduced in following manner.
IP Address: 11000000.10101000.00001100.11011100
Reverse Mask: 00000000.00000000.00000000.01111111
Bitwise OR ----------------------------------------------------------
Broadcast Address: 11000000.10101000.00001100.11111111
