Which statement best describes the benefit of hierarchical addressing?

• A. It increases routing table size
• B. It enables efficient routing by organizing addresses into levels
• C. It eliminates the need for subnetting
• D. It reduces the number of networks

Answer: (B)

Organizing addresses into levels lets routers forward traffic using a network prefix rather than matching every individual address. When addresses share a common prefix, a single routing entry can cover all those destinations, which enables route aggregation. This means routers can advertise and use a summary route that represents many subnets under a larger network, shrinking the amount of routing information that must be stored and searched. As networks grow, hierarchical addressing keeps forwarding decisions fast and the routing table manageable, making the network scalable. For example, an ISP can advertise one broader prefix that encompasses many subnets, letting downstream routers rely on that summary until more detail is needed.