|  | 10.2 | Path Determination
| 10.2.4 | Comparing flat and hierarchical addressing

The function of the network layer is to find the best path through the network. To accomplish this, it uses two addressing methods - flat addressing and hierarchical addressing. A flat addressing scheme assigns a device the next available address. There is no thought given to the structure of the addressing scheme. An example of a flat addressing scheme would be military identification numbering system, or a birth identification numbering system. MAC addresses function in the same manner. A vendor is given a block of addresses; the first half of each address is for the vendor's code, the rest of the MAC address is a number that has been sequentially assigned.

The postal system ZIP codes are a good example of hierarchical addressing. In the ZIP code system the address is determined by the location of the building, not by a randomly assigned number. The addressing scheme that you will use throughout this course is Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. IP addresses have a specific structure and are not randomly assigned.

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