Consider two hosts, A and B, which may belong to the same network or two different networks connected through a router. Recall the Internet protocol where a sender host sends packets directly to a destination if the sender finds the network ID of the destination host same as that of its own; otherwise, the sender sends packets to the router.
Let the IP addresses of A and B be $204.2 .3 .12$ and $204.2.3.131,$ respectively. If the subnet mask of A is $255.255 .255 .128$, which one of the following two options will A follow while communicating with B?
- A sends packet to B directly,
- A sends packet to B through the router.
Explain your answer (no marks will be awarded if justification is not given).
$\left[\right. \text{Use}: \left.(204)_{10}=(11001100)_{2} ;(131)_{10}=(10000011)_{2}\right]$
