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Internet Protocol Suite
The Internet Protocol Suite (also known as TCP/IP) is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. The name comes from two of the most important protocols included in: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which was the first two networking protocols defined in this standard.
The Internet Protocol Suite, like many protocol suites, may be viewed as a set of layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data, and provides a well-defined service to the upper layer protocols based on using services from some lower layers. Upper layers are logically closer to the user and deal with more abstract data, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into forms that can eventually be physically transmitted.
The concept of layers
The TCP/IP suite uses encapsulation to provide abstraction of protocols and services. Such encapsulation usually is aligned with the division of the protocol suite into layers of general functionality. In general, an application (the highest level of the model) uses a set of protocols to send its data down the layers, being further encapsulated at each level.
The TCP/IP suite uses encapsulation to provide abstraction of protocols and services. Such encapsulation usually is aligned with the division of the protocol suite into layers of general functionality. In general, an application (the highest level of the model) uses a set of protocols to send its data down the layers, being further encapsulated at each level.
This may be illustrated by an example network scenario, in which two Internet host computers communicate across local network boundaries constituted by their internetworking gateways (routers).
The functional groups of protocols and methods are the Application Layer, the Transport Layer, the Internet Layer, and the Link Layer. It should be noted that this model was not intended to be a rigid reference model into which new protocols have to fit in order to be accepted as a standard.
IP
Internet protocol is a "best effort" system, meaning that no packet of information sent over it is assured to reach its destination in the same condition it was sent. Often other protocols are used in tandem with the Internet protocol for data that for one reason or another must have extremely high fidelity.
The current version of the Internet protocol (IPv4) allows for in excess of four billion unique addresses. This number is reduced drastically, however, by the practice of webmasters taking addresses in large blocks, the bulk of which remain unused. There is a rather substantial movement to adopt a new version of the Internet protocol (IPv6), which would have two to the one-hundred twenty-eighth power of unique addresses. This number can be represented roughly by a three with thirty-nine zeroes after it.
The reason such a virtually unlimited set of Internet protocol addresses is desirable is because of the onset of small wireless devices. In the past it seemed that four billion addresses would be more than enough, but addresses were used only by computers at the time. In the future, it is conceivable that for every human being on earth there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of devices communicating via wireless networks, each needing its own address in the Internet protocol.
Most human users do not utilize IP addresses directly, instead using words to access the servers and computers they wish to visit. Inputted domain names are connected to their Internet protocol addresses through the domain name system (DNS), which keeps a record of all domain names and the IP address they are related to.
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