typedef struct {
    char addr_ipv4[4];
} IPADDR_IPV4;
#include <stdlib.h>
// Function: To extract HEX value of IP address from string expression.
IPADDR_IPV4 parse_IPString(const char *str, u8 strlen) {
 IPADDR_IPV4 ipv4;
 char tmpBuf[4] = {0};
 u8 k;
 u8 inx = 0;
 u8 j = 0;
 // Dprintf("The ch_ip is:%s\n", ch_ip);
 for (k=0; k<strlen; k++) {
  if (str[k] != '.') {
   // Dprintf("k-inx: %d\n", k-inx);
   memcpy(&tmpBuf[k-inx], &str[k], 1);
  }
  else {
   inx = k + 1;
   // Dprintf("inx: %d, tmpBuf: %s\n", inx, tmpBuf);
   ipv4.addr_ipv4[j++] = strtol(tmpBuf, NULL, 10);
   memset(tmpBuf, 0, sizeof(tmpBuf));
   continue;
  }
  // Dprintf("tmpBuf: %s\n", tmpBuf);
  ipv4.addr_ipv4[j] = strtol(tmpBuf, NULL, 10);
 }
 // Dprintf("ipv4 is: ");
 // for (k=0; k<sizeof(ipv4.addr_ipv4); k++) {
 //  Dprintf("%d", ipv4.addr_ipv4[k]);
 // }
 // Dprintf("\n");
 return ipv4;
}

   char* ch_ip = NULL;
    IPADDR_IPV4 ipv4Addr;
    ch_ip = (char*)malloc(16);
    memset(ch_ip, 0, 16);

    // parse IP address
    ch_ip = getIPAddr();

    // convert IP address from string to HEX expression
    ipv4Addr = parse_IPString(ch_ip, strlen(ch_ip));