IP address
An IP address serves two principal functions. It identifies the host, or more specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in the network, and thus the capability of establishing a path to that host. Its role has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."
The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host, and that of the destination host.
Address space
An address space usually provides (or allows) a partitioning to several regions according to the mathematical structure it has. In the case of total order, as for memory addresses, these are simply chunks. Some nested domain hierarchies appear in the case of directed ordered tree as for the Domain Name System or a directory structure; this is similar to the hierarchical design of postal addresses. In the Internet, for example, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocates ranges of IP addresses to various registries in order to enable them to each manage their parts of the global Internet address space.