What Does /128, /64, /48 Mean in IP Addresses?

Answer: In IP addressing /128, /64, /48 are called network prefixes which are numbers, and ther are used to identify network portion of an IP address.

Basically network prefixes helps in identifying if an ip address belongs to the same address or not.prefix is shown after a slash, for example – ” /24 ” number tells how many bits are used for the network. A shorter prefix gives more addresses to devices but fewer networks ,while longer prefix number gives more networks but fewer addresses.

Applications of Network Prefixes

• Subnetting – Network prefixes divide big networks into smaller ones called subnets ,makes it easy to manage and assign IP addresses within an organization
• Security and access control – They are helpful in defining specific networks or subnets that are allowed or denied access to certain resources or services improving security
• IP address planning – they are used to assist in planning and organising IP address ranges for different networks they ensure efficient use of available addresses when setting up networks.