Address pool

An address pool is a set of IP addresses assigned by IANA or an organisation tied to it.

These address pools are assigned primarily in three classes, enumerated A, B and C. A class A network is actually never assigned in practice; there are only 254 such usable networks containing 16,777,214 available client IP addresses. Class B is somewhat smaller, having 65,534 networks and the same amount of hosts. This is suitable for larger entities. Class C address pools are the most common and allow for 254 hosts. 16,777,214 class C networks could be assigned. Note that only one network is assigned, so that if an entity was assigned a class C address, they would be able to host 254 clients on one network. The other 16,777,216 or so prefixes would not be usable by them.

An additional two classes, D and E, have been assigned by IANA for "experimental use".

It is important to note that because of IP routing and NAT, each IP address can be used more than once.