IP Addressing
Unlike MAC addresses, IP addresses have a hierarchical structure and provide logical groupings so that IP addresses make packet routing possible on large internetworks.
IP addresses identify the network on which you reside and your computer’s specific address on that network. For example, if your IP address is 192.168.1.3, your computer is host 3 on network 192.168.1.0.
Since the IP address identifies both a network and a host, you can route communications through large networks, including the Internet.