Protocol stack (TCP/IP)
The protocol Stack:
In TCP/IP’s most basic level, a computer network is simply a series of connections between computers which allow them to communicate. The scope, size, speed, content and reliability of the network depending on its protocols suite and implementation. Protocols are pre-established means of communication. The term TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) actually refers to a whole family of protocols, of which TCP and IP are just two. Following figure contains the standard “stack” diagram of TCP/IP. Rather than make protocols monolithic (which would mean ftp, telnet, and gopher would each have a full network protocol implementation, including separate copies of kernel code for the devices each protocol uses), the designers of TCP/IP broke the job of a full network protocol suite into a number of tasks. Each layer corresponds to a different facet of communication. Conceptually, it is useful to envision TCP/IP as a stack. In implementations, programmers often blur the layers for increased performance.
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:08 am
The basic four layers of TCP/IP are
Link Layer - lowest level of the protocol stack.
Network Layer - This is where the Internet Protocol and the Internet Control Message Protocol, among others, reside.
Transport Layer - There are two protocols at the transport layer: the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the user datagram protocol (UDP).
Application Layer - This is where the user interacts with the network.