An IP address is a formatted 32-bit unsigned integer where each group of 8 bits is printed as a decimal number and the dot character '.' splits the groups. For example, the binary number 00001111 10001000 11111111 01101011 (spaces added for clarity) formatted as an IP address would be "15.136.255.107 ". A CIDR block is a format used to denote a specific set of IP addresses. It is a string consisting of a base IP address, followed by a slash, followed by a prefix length k. The addresses it covers are all the IPs whose first k bits are the same as the base IP address. For example, "123.45.67.89/20 " is a CIDR block with a prefix length of 20.