Brief Idea About Protocols
A protocol is a mutually agreed-upon format for doing something. With regard to computers, it most commonly refers a set of rules (i.e., a standard) that enables computers to connect and transmit data to one another; this is also called a communications protocol.
A protocol can be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the very least, it must define the rate of transmission (e.g., in bits per second), whether transmission is to be synchronous or asynchronous, and whether data is to be transmitted in half-duplex or full-duplex mode.
Protocols define issues such as data representation (i.e., how data is stored), error control (i.e., error detection and recovery), data compression methods, signaling, authentication, how the sending device will indicate that it has finished, and how the receiving device will indicate it has received the message.
Low-level protocols define the electrical and physical characteristics. High-level protocols deal with the formatting of data. TCP (transmission control protocol) and IP (Internet protocol) are examples of high-level network protocols. The main protocol for transmitting web pages is HTML (hypertext markup language), and the main protocol for transmitting e-mail is SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol).
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet. When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain. That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is specified. Because a message is divided into a number of packets, each packet can, if necessary, be sent by a different route across the Internet. Packets can arrive in a different order than the order they were sent in. The Internet Protocol just delivers them. It's up to another protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to put them back in the right order.
IP is a connectionless protocol, which means that there is no continuing connection between the end points that are communicating. Each packet that travels through the Internet is treated as an independent unit of data without any relation to any other unit of data. (The reason the packets do get put in the right order is because of TCP, the connection-oriented protocol that keeps track of the packet sequence in a message.) In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model, IP is in layer 3, the Networking Layer.
The most widely used version of IP today is Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). However, IP Version 6 (IPv6) is also beginning to be supported. IPv6 provides for much longer addresses and therefore for the possibility of many more Internet users. IPv6 includes the capabilities of IPv4 and any server that can support IPv6 packets can also support IPv4 packets.
The Internet protocol suite is the set of protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. A protocol stack is a layered set of protocols which work together to provide a set of network functions. In a protocol stack, each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data and provides a well-defined service to the higher layers.
The Internet protocol suite is sometimes called the TCP/IP protocol suite, after the two most important protocols in it: the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the Internet protocol (IP). These were also the first two protocols in the suite to be developed.
There are other types of computer-related protocols. For example, security protocols, or cryptographic protocols, perform security-related functions and apply cryptographic methods
A protocol can be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the very least, it must define the rate of transmission (e.g., in bits per second), whether transmission is to be synchronous or asynchronous, and whether data is to be transmitted in half-duplex or full-duplex mode.
Protocols define issues such as data representation (i.e., how data is stored), error control (i.e., error detection and recovery), data compression methods, signaling, authentication, how the sending device will indicate that it has finished, and how the receiving device will indicate it has received the message.
Low-level protocols define the electrical and physical characteristics. High-level protocols deal with the formatting of data. TCP (transmission control protocol) and IP (Internet protocol) are examples of high-level network protocols. The main protocol for transmitting web pages is HTML (hypertext markup language), and the main protocol for transmitting e-mail is SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol).
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet. When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain. That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is specified. Because a message is divided into a number of packets, each packet can, if necessary, be sent by a different route across the Internet. Packets can arrive in a different order than the order they were sent in. The Internet Protocol just delivers them. It's up to another protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to put them back in the right order.
IP is a connectionless protocol, which means that there is no continuing connection between the end points that are communicating. Each packet that travels through the Internet is treated as an independent unit of data without any relation to any other unit of data. (The reason the packets do get put in the right order is because of TCP, the connection-oriented protocol that keeps track of the packet sequence in a message.) In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model, IP is in layer 3, the Networking Layer.
The most widely used version of IP today is Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). However, IP Version 6 (IPv6) is also beginning to be supported. IPv6 provides for much longer addresses and therefore for the possibility of many more Internet users. IPv6 includes the capabilities of IPv4 and any server that can support IPv6 packets can also support IPv4 packets.
The Internet protocol suite is the set of protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. A protocol stack is a layered set of protocols which work together to provide a set of network functions. In a protocol stack, each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data and provides a well-defined service to the higher layers.
The Internet protocol suite is sometimes called the TCP/IP protocol suite, after the two most important protocols in it: the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the Internet protocol (IP). These were also the first two protocols in the suite to be developed.
There are other types of computer-related protocols. For example, security protocols, or cryptographic protocols, perform security-related functions and apply cryptographic methods
