A subnet mask is a 32-bit value made up of all 0s for the host bits and all 1s for the network bits. The subnet mask divides the IP address into network and host addresses in this fashion. A broadcast address is always assigned to the "255" address, while a network address is always assigned to the "0" address.
The benefits of IP Subnetting are: it makes the network more secure, provides a level of granularity on access, and it allows you to have different policies for different users in the same network.
IP Subnetting is used when we cannot fit all of our computers or routers on one single local area network or LAN, which leads us to divide our LAN into smaller networks.
IP addresses cannot be used to specify which subnet an IP packet should go to because they are limited to indicating the network and device address. Subnet masks are used by routers within a network to sort data into subnetworks.
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