TCP/IP Overview

1207 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the role of tcp/ip in topologies

TCP/IP Overview

When designing networked applications one key protocol stands out as the foundation for making it possible. That protocol is TCP/IP. There are many protocols out there that allow two applications to communicate. What makes TCP/IP a nice protocol is that it allows applications on two physically separate computers to talk. What makes TCP/IP great is that it can do with two computers across a room or across the world. In this paper I will show you how TCP/IP allows a wide array of computer hardware to work together without ever having to knowing what the other machine is or how it even works. At the same time you will learn how it allows information to find its way around the world in a faction of a second without knowing in advance how to get there.

Before we go too far it should be noted that TCP/IP is really two protocols. The first is the Transmission Control Protocol or TCP. The second protocol is IP which stands for Internet Protocol. These two combined provide the basis for the virtual level of most of the networks we use today. The roots of the protocols reach back into the 1970’s. At that time networks were built by wires connecting one computer to the next directly. This is called direct connect. If you wanted information to get to a computer that yours was not direct connected to you would have to create a bridge on a common machine you are both connected to. This way messages you send in one connection are transferred in the computer to the other connection and sent to the computer you were trying to talk to. This is sometimes called a gateway.

In 1973 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tasked two engineers to design a way for information to travel more easily between these early netw...

... middle of paper ...

...ackages.

This protocol pair is the work horse of the modern internet. According to Microsoft this is “largely because of its ability to connect together networks of different sizes and systems of different types.” ("Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics" September 23, 2011) Before TCP/IP came along machines had to be compatible at a physical level in order for them to pass messages between each other. Now the physical level has been abstracted and messages travel at a logical layer. The physical layer is still present but it is now a solved problem space allowing developers to focus more on the applications. This has become the real success story of TCP/IP.

Works Cited

Microsoft Inc., "Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics." Last modified September 23, 2011. Accessed September 24, 2011. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/164015.

Show More
Related

  • Unit 33 P3 Case Study

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    The internet works on the basis that some computers act as ‘servers’. These computers offer services for other computers that are accessing or requesting information, these are known as ‘clients’. The term “server” may refer to both the hardware and software (the entire computer system) or just the software that performs the service. For example, Web server may refer to the Web server software in a computer that also runs other applications or it may refer to the computer system dedicated only to the Web server applicant. For example, a large Web site could have several dedicated Web servers or one very large Web server.

    Read More

  • Nt1310 Unit 6 Essay

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    With an IPv4 network, all the work consisting of network renumbering and assigning of new address schemes would had been done manually. Another useful feature of IPv6 is the multi-homing technique. It allows simultaneous connections which are established to two ISPs. Compared to IPv4, IPv6 has a much simpler packet header structure, which is designed to minimize the time and efforts that go in to header processing. IPv6 offers better end-to-end connectivity than its predecessor IPv4. The most exciting applications to emerge in todays world is peer-to-peer applications such as multi-player online games, video-conferencing (streaming), file sharing and

    Read More

  • Nt1310 Unit 7

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    What does TCP mean? TCP is a set of rules that governs the delivery of data over the internet or other network that uses the Internet Protocol, and sets up a connection between the sending and receiving computers.

    Read More

  • Nt1310 Unit 7

    441 Words  | 1 Pages

    IP – 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.

    Read More

  • National Security vs. the Right to Privacy

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    User Communications. Dartmouth College, Department of Computing Services. "Computer and Network Policy."  BlitzMail Bulletin. Wed, 15 Nov 2000 13:36:45.

    Read More

  • Sputnik Essay

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the launch of Sputnik in 1957 the U.S. became aware of the growing threat to National Security and Intelligence. In February 1958, by order of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), a division of the Department of Defense (DoD) was established. Then on February 7, 1958 DoD Directive 5105.15 was signed (Darpa web site, 2014). Its primary purpose was to maintain U.S technological superiority over potential adversaries and to develop new technology for the United States military (Mallia, 2013). With ARPAs increased responsibilities and fast pace environment the agency need a better way to stay connected and share “packets” of information. The agency started to experiment with inter-office connections. In late 1969 those efforts paid off and the first “Advanced Research Projects ...

    Read More

  • Networking Topologies and TCP/IP Protocol

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    It just doesn't get much simpler than the physical bus topology when it comes to connecting nodes on a Local Area Network (LAN). The most common implementation of a linear bus topology is IEEE 802.3 Ethernet. All devices in a bus topology are connected to a single cable called the bus, backbone, or ether. The transmission medium has a physical beginning and an end. All connections must be terminated with a resistor to keep data transmissions from being mistaken as network traffic. The terminating resistor must match the impedance of the cable.

    Read More

  • Challenge End to End Arguments

    686 Words  | 2 Pages

    [3] The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols by David D. Clark [M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science]

    Read More

  • The Transition From IPv4 to IPv6

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    Each day, millions of people around the world get on some sort of device that connects them to the internet where the answers they seek, or trying to seek, are there for the taking. However, since there are probably around a billion devices that connect to the internet, there must be a routing system in place to direct certain information to the devices that request it. Computers and devices have a system in place to direct pieces of information, called packets, to the right place. This system stack is based on four layers with the top layer being the application related, the second layer being transport, the third layer being the network layer, and lastly the physical layer. Each part has a specific process which helps deliver the message to the right device. Specifically, the networking layer will be looked upon as it relates to the address of the device.

    Read More

  • intro to networking and the tcp/ip stack

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    SLIP is a TCP/IP protocol used for communication between two machines that are previously configured for communication with each other. For example, your Internet server provider may provide you with a SLIP connection so that the provider's server can respond to your requests, pass them on to the Internet, and forward your requested Internet responses back to you. A better service is provided by the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). Point-to-Point Protocol is a protocol for communication between two computers using a serial interface, typically a personal computer connected by phone line to a server. For example, your Internet server provider may provide you with a PPP connection so that the provider's server can respond to your requests, pass them on to the Internet, and forward your requested Internet responses back to you. PPP uses the Internet protocol and is designed to handle others. It is sometimes considered a member of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. Relative to the OSI reference model, PPP provides layer 2 (data-link layer) service. Essentially, it packages your computer's TCP/IP packets and forwards them to the server where they can actually be put on the Internet. PPP is a full-duplex protocol that can be used on various physical media, including twisted pair or fiber optic lines or satellite transmission. PPP is usually preferred over the earlier standard SLIP because it can handle synchronous as well as asynchronous communication. PPP can share a line with other users and it has error detection that SLIP lacks. Where a choice is possible, PPP is preferred.

    Read More

  • TCP/Ip Application Layers Analysis

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this report I will be talking about different application layers and the protocols within them I will also be explaining what TCP/IT is and how it links back to the application layers.

    Read More

  • Questions Regarding the TCP/IP Network Model

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    TCP/IP is a network model which enables the communication across the Internet. The most fundamental protocol on which the Internet is built. This is made up of the 2 common networking protocols, TCP, for Transmission Control Protocol, and IP, for Internet Protocol. TCP maintains and handles packet flow linking the systems and IP protocol has the ability to handle the routing of packets. However The TCP/IP stack consists of 5 layers first being application layer, the transport layer, then the network layer, the link layer and finally the physical layer. The assignment focuses on the three middle layers and is divided into five parts. Firstly explaining how the TCP and UDP the most vital protocols needed to deliver and communicate.

    Read More

  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of Ipv6

    2146 Words  | 5 Pages

    Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) was introduced by International Engineering Task Force (IETF) is 1981 via RFC 791 as a feasible solution to connect computers for communication. With a 32 bit address space covering 2^32 addresses, it was considered sufficient to provide an IP address to all users over the world. But with the requirement of IP for various technologies like sensor networks, Radio Frequency Identifiers (RFID), cell phones, home appliances, and, automobiles resulted in the depletion of the IPv4 address space (Marsan, 2011) and the emergence of IPv6 in 1995 via RFC 1885 and later RFC 2460 in 1998. IPv6 provides certain advantages over IPv4, such as larger address space, better routing table manageability, address auto-configuration, and better security features as compared to IPv4 (C...

    Read More

  • Network Topologies

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... middle of paper ... ... TCP/IP operates at levels 3 and 4 of the OSI model.

    Read More

  • The Internet

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds. The objective was to develop communication protocols which would allow networked computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked packet networks. This was called the Internetting project and the system of networks which emerged from the research was known as the "Internet." The system of protocols which was developed over the course of this research effort became known as the TCP/IP Protocol Suite, after the two initial protocols developed: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). (I got my information for the history of the internet at www.isoc.org In 1986, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the development of the NSFNET which, today, provides a major backbone communication service for the Internet. With its 45 megabit per second facilities, the NSFNET carries on the order of 12 billion packets per month between the networks it links. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Energy contributed additional backbone facilities in the form of the NSINET and ESNET respectively. In Europe, major international backbones such as NORDUNET and others provide connectivity to over one hundred thousand computers on a large number of networks. Commercial network providers in the U.S. and Europe are beginning to offer Internet backbone and access support on a competitive basis to any interested parties.

    Read More

More about TCP/IP Overview

Open Document