Intro' to the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.

Preamble

TCP/IP stands for `Transport Control Protocol / Internet Protocol', the two protocols that form the core of the suite. The suite consists of a number of protocols, most of which are administrative and are therefore often ignored when discussing Applied Networking, or Network Programming. This talk will discuss the core protocols, as well as a few of the other, less well known, protocols.

TCP/IP is an internetworking protocol, so I suppose it makes sense to consider what a internet consists of.

Internets

Note that I'm not talking about THE Internet. When I refer to the Internet I'll always be careful to capitalise it.

While the largest tcp/ip network is the Internet, and the Internet is an internet, internetworking is a solution to a problem that existed on a much smaller scale long before the Internet reached its current size.

The problem internetworking solves is two fold.

No single physical network technology is adequate in all situations.
We want applications, and users, on disparate physical networks to be able to talk to each other.

TCP/IP achive this by careful abstraction of the physical network infrastructure. Provided the phyisical network is functioning correctly, I can setup a TCP/IP to work over the network without any reference to the underlying technology. I can also connect from my machine, across ethernet, to FDDI, over ATM, via satelite or modem link without any thought to what particular physical means are used to move my data across the network. << Contents >>

Andrae Muys