IP Addressing
IP addressing is a fundamental networking concept that involves assigning unique numerical identifiers (IP addresses) to devices on a network to enable communication and data routing. It operates at the network layer of the OSI model and is essential for identifying source and destination endpoints in data transmission. IP addresses come in two main versions: IPv4 (32-bit) and IPv6 (128-bit), with IPv6 designed to address the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.
Developers should learn IP addressing when working on network-related applications, cloud services, or distributed systems to understand how devices communicate over the internet or local networks. It is crucial for tasks like configuring servers, implementing security measures (e.g., firewalls), and debugging connectivity issues in web development, IoT, or backend services. Mastery of IP addressing helps in designing scalable and efficient network architectures.