IP Header

IP Header

IP Header

Version

(4 bits)
Version: Identifies the version of IP used to generate the datagram. For IPv4, this is of course the number 4. The purpose of this field is to ensure compatibility between devices that may be running different versions of IP. In general, a device running an older version of IP will reject datagrams created by newer implementations, under the assumption that the older version may not be able to interpret the newer datagram correctly.

IHL

(4 bits)
Internet Header Length (IHL): Specifies the length of the IP header, in 32-bit words. This includes the length of any options fields and padding. The normal value of this field when no options are used is 5 (5 32-bit words = 5*4 = 20 bytes). Contrast to the longer Total Length field below.