GATE CS 2003 Q27 — Fragmentation and IP Addressing, IPv4, CIDR

Let us analyze each statement to determine its validity under the Internet Protocol (IP):

• Statement A is TRUE: A computer (such as a router or a multihomed host) connected to multiple networks or having multiple network interfaces can have multiple IP addresses.
• Statement B is TRUE: IP is a connectionless, packet-switched network protocol. Each packet is routed independently, meaning packets from the same source to the same destination can follow different paths depending on network conditions and routing table updates.
• Statement C is TRUE: The Time-to-Live (TTL) field in the IPv4 header (or Hop Limit in IPv6) is decremented by $1$ at each router (hop). If this value reaches $0$ before the packet reaches its destination, the packet is discarded to prevent infinite routing loops.
• Statement D is FALSE: IP supports Source Routing (both Strict Source Routing and Loose Source Routing options in the IP header). This allows the source host to specify the exact path or a list of intermediate routers that the packet must traverse, overriding the default routing decisions of intermediate routers.

Since Statement D is false, it is the correct answer.