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Internet Protocol
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This article is about a specific protocol technology. For the entire set of Internet related protocols,
Contents
see Internet Protocol Suite.
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The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used for
Current events
communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork Internet Protocol Suite
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using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP. Application Layer
Interaction
IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the BGP · DHCP · DNS · FTP · HTTP ·
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Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering IMAP · IRC · LDAP · MGCP · NNTP ·
Community portal NTP · POP · RIP · RPC · RTP · SIP ·
distinguished protocol datagrams (packets) from the source
Recent changes
host to the destination host solely based on their addresses. SMTP · SNMP · SSH · Telnet ·
Contact Wikipedia TLS/SSL · XMPP ·
For this purpose the Internet Protocol defines addressing
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methods and structures for datagram encapsulation. The
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first major version of addressing structure, now referred to Transport Layer
Toolbox as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is still the dominant
TCP · UDP · DCCP · SCTP · RSVP ·
protocol of the Internet, although the successor, Internet
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Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed actively
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Languages worldwide.
Internet Layer
Afrikaans
Contents [hide]
IP (IPv4, IPv6) · ICMP · ICMPv6 ·
1 Services provided by IP
Беларуская IGMP · IPsec ·
2 Reliability
Bosanski (more)
3 IP addressing and routing
Български
4 Version history Link Layer
Català
5 Reference diagrams ARP/InARP · NDP · OSPF ·
Česky
6 See also Tunnels (L2TP) · PPP · Media Access
Dansk
7 References Control (Ethernet, DSL, ISDN, FDDI) ·
Deutsch (more)
8 External links
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Esperanto Services provided by IP [edit]

The Internet Protocol is responsible for addressing hosts and routing datagrams (packets) from a
Français
source host to the destination host across one or more IP networks. For this purpose the Internet
Galego
Protocol defines an addressing system that has two functions. Addresses identify hosts and provide a
logical location service. Each packet is tagged with a header that contains the meta-data for the
Hrvatski
purpose of delivery. This process of tagging is also called encapsulation.
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska IP is a connectionless protocol and does not need circuit setup prior to transmission.
Italiano
‫עברית‬ Reliability [edit]

The design principles of the Internet protocols assume that the network infrastructure is inherently
unreliable at any single network element or transmission medium and that it is dynamic in terms of
Latina
availability of links and nodes. No central monitoring or performance measurement facility exists that

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Latviešu
tracks or maintains the state of the network. For the benefit of reducing network complexity, the
Magyar
intelligence in the network is purposely mostly located in the end nodes of each data transmission,
Македонски
cf. end-to-end principle. Routers in the transmission path simply forward packets to the next known
local gateway matching the routing prefix for the destination address.
As a consequence of this design, the Internet Protocol only provides best effort delivery and its
Nederlands
service can also be characterized as unreliable. In network architectural language it is a connection-
less protocol, in contrast to so-called connection-oriented modes of transmission. The lack of
日本語
reliability allows any of the following fault events to occur:
Norsk (bokmål)
Norsk (nynorsk) data corruption
Piemontèis lost data packets
Polski duplicate arrival
Português out-of-order packet delivery; meaning, if packet 'A' is sent before packet 'B', packet 'B' may arrive
Română before packet 'A'. Since routing is dynamic and there is no memory in the network about the path
Русский of prior packets, it is possible that the first packet sent takes a longer path to its destination.
Shqip The only assistance that the Internet Protocol provides in Version 4 (IPv4) is to ensure that the IP
packet header is error-free through computation of a checksum at the routing nodes. This has the
Simple English side-effect of discarding packets with bad headers on the spot. In this case no notification is required
Slovenčina to be sent to either end node, although a facility exists in the Internet Control Message Protocol
Soomaaliga (ICMP) to do so.
Српски / Srpski
IPv6, on the other hand, has abandoned the use of IP header checksums for the benefit of rapid
Srpskohrvatski /
Српскохрватски forwarding through routing elements in the network.
Basa Sunda The resolution or correction of any of these reliability issues is the responsibility of an upper layer
Suomi protocol. For example, to ensure in-order delivery the upper layer may have to cache data until it can
Svenska be passed to the application.
In addition to issues of reliability, this dynamic nature and the diversity of the Internet and its
components provide no guarantee that any particular path is actually capable of, or suitable for
Українська
performing the data transmission requested, even if the path is available and reliable. One of the
technical constraints is the size of data packets allowed on a given link. An application must assure
Tiếng Việt
that it uses proper transmission characteristics. Some of this responsibility lies also in the upper layer
protocols between application and IP. Facilities exist to examine the maximum transmission unit
Yorùbá
(MTU) size of the local link, as well as for the entire projected path to the destination when using
語
IPv6. The IPv4 internetworking layer has the capability to automatically fragment the original
中
datagram into smaller units for transmission. In this case, IP does provide re-ordering of fragments
delivered out-of-order.[1]
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is an example of a protocol that will adjust its segment size to
be smaller than the MTU. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) disregard MTU size thereby forcing IP to fragment oversized datagrams. [2]

IP addressing and routing [edit]

Perhaps the most complex aspects of IP are IP addressing and routing. Addressing refers to how
end hosts become assigned IP addresses and how subnetworks of IP host addresses are divided
and grouped together. IP routing is performed by all hosts, but most importantly by internetwork
routers, which typically use either interior gateway protocols (IGPs) or external gateway protocols
(EGPs) to help make IP datagram forwarding decisions across IP connected networks.

Version history [edit]

In May 1974, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) published a paper entitled "A

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Internet Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection." [3] The paper's authors, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn,
described an internetworking protocol for sharing resources using packet-switching among the
nodes. A central control component of this model was the "Transmission Control Program" (TCP) that
incorporated both connection-oriented links and datagram services between hosts. The monolithic
Transmission Control Program was later divided into a modular architecture consisting of the
Transmission Control Protocol at the connection-oriented layer and the Internet Protocol at the
internetworking (datagram) layer. The model became known informally as TCP/IP, although formally it
was henceforth referenced as the Internet Protocol Suite.
The Internet Protocol is one of the determining elements that define the Internet. The dominant
internetworking protocol in the Internet Layer in use today is IPv4; with number 4 assigned as the
formal protocol version number carried in every IP datagram. IPv4 is described in RFC 791 (1981).
The successor to IPv4 is IPv6. Its most prominent modification from Version 4 is the addressing
system. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses (c. 4 billion, or 4.3 × 10 9 , addresses) while IPv6 uses 128-bit
addresses (c. 340 undecillion, or 3.4 × 10 38 addresses). Although adoption of IPv6 has been slow, as
of June 2008, all United States government systems have demonstrated basic infrastructure support
for IPv6 (if only at the backbone level).[4]
Version numbers 0 through 3 were development versions of IPv4 used between 1977 and
1979.[citation needed] Version number 5 was used by the Internet Stream Protocol (IST), an
experimental stream protocol. Version numbers 6 through 9 were proposed for various protocol
models designed to replace IPv4: SIPP (Simple Internet Protocol Plus, known now as IPv6), TP/IX
(RFC 1475 ), PIP (RFC 1621 ) and TUBA (TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses, RFC 1347 ).
Version number 6 was eventually chosen as the official assignment for the successor Internet
protocol, subsequently standardized as IPv6.
A humorous Request for Comments that made an IPv9 protocol center of its storyline was published
on April 1, 1994 by the IETF. [5] It was intended as an April Fool's Day joke. Other protocol proposals
named "IPv9" and "IPv8" have also briefly surfaced, though these came with little or no support from
the wider industry and academia.[6]

Reference diagrams [edit]

Sample encapsulation of application data from UDP to a

Link protocol frame

Internet Protocol Suite in operation between

two hosts connected via two routers and the
corresponding layers used at each hop

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See also [edit]

Outline of the Internet IANA IP fragmentation

List of Internet topics Internet IP packet
All IP Internet Protocol Suite IPv4
ATM Internet Stream Protocol IPv6
Connectionless protocol ip - the ip structure for the C TCP and UDP port numbers
Flat IP programming language TDM
Geolocation software IP address Transmission Control
Protocol

References [edit]

1. ^ Siyan, Karanjit. Inside TCP/IP, New Riders Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-56205-714-6
2. ^ Basic Journey of a Packet
3. ^ Vinton G. Cerf, Robert E. Kahn, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication", IEEE
Transactions on Communications, Vol. 22, No. 5, May 1974 pp. 637-648
4. ^ CIO council adds to IPv6 transition primer , gcn.com
5. ^ RFC 1606 : A Historical Perspective On The Usage Of IP Version 9. April 1, 1994.
6. ^ Theregister.com

External links [edit]

Internet Protocol at the Open Directory Project

Look up internet protocol in
RFC 791
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part
IP Technology Basics
Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part IP Technology Details
Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part IPv6
IPv6.com - Knowledge Center for Next Generation Internet IPv6

Categories: Internet Protocol | Internet Layer protocols

This page was last modified on 24 August 2010 at 15:20.

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