Final answer:
The question involves calculating the subnet mask for a subnet of 10.0.0.0/25 to provide at least 50 assignable IP addresses. A /26 subnet (10.0.0.0/26) is required to meet the student's requirement, providing 62 usable IPs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question pertains to subnetting a given network address space to create multiple subnets that satisfy specific requirements. Given the address space 10.0.0.0/25, we can calculate the necessary subnet mask that will allow us to create a subnet capable of providing at least 50 assignable IP addresses for subnet A. Each IP address is made up of 32 bits, and a subnet mask indicates which portion of the address represents the network and which part represents the hosts within that network.
To accommodate at least 50 hosts, we calculate the subnet size needed. We need 50 host addresses plus the network address and the broadcast address, requiring a total of 52 addresses. A subnet that can handle 50 hosts needs 6 host bits (26 = 64 hosts) because 25 = 32 is not sufficient. Therefore, we must use a subnet mask that leaves 6 bits for host addresses, which translates to a subnet mask of /26 (32 - 6 = 26 bits for the network).
Using this subnet mask, we split the subnet 10.0.0.0/25 into two subnets: 10.0.0.0/26 and 10.0.0.64/26. Subnet A, 10.0.0.0/26, will indeed provide 62 usable IP addresses (64 total minus 2 for network and broadcast addresses), comfortably accommodating the requirement of 50 assignable IP addresses.