A 32-bit IP address uniquely identifies a single device on an IP network. The 32 binary bits are divided into the host and network sections by the subnet mask but they are also broken into four 8-bit octets. Because binary is challenging, we convert each octet so they are expressed in dot decimal.

What is 32 in an IP address?

Generally speaking, /32 means that the network has only a single IPv4 address and all traffic will go directly between the device with that IPv4 address and the default gateway. The device would not be able to communicate with other devices on the network.

What is a slash 32?

A /32 prefix is commonly referred to as a host route since it identifies a route to a specific IP host address. Since most (but not all) host computers don’t run routing protocols, we could create a host route on a router and then advertise it to other routers using a dynamic routing protocol.