How many hosts can be accommodated in a /28 subnet?

To determine the number of hosts that can be accommodated in a subnet, we need to understand how subnetting works and the relationship between the subnet mask and the number of available host addresses.

A /28 subnet means that the first 28 bits of the IP address are designated as the network portion, and the remaining 32 - 28 = 4 bits are designated for host addresses. In binary, a /28 subnet looks like this:

Copy codeNNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNHHHHHH

Where N represents the network bits and H represents the host bits.

Now, with 4 bits for host addresses, we have 2^4 possible combinations (because each bit can be 0 or 1). However, two combinations are reserved: an all-zeros combination and an all-ones combination.

So, the number of usable host addresses in a /28 subnet is 2^4 - 2 = 14.

Therefore, in a /28 subnet, you can accommodate 14 hosts.

The number of hosts is calculated using the formula 2^(number of host bits) - 2, where the subtraction of 2 accounts for the network and broadcast addresses, which cannot be assigned to individual hosts.