Internet Protocol

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The Internet^[1] Protocol (IP) is a vital technology that fuels the internet. This protocol establishes the regulations for transmitting data over a network. It handles the assignment of addresses to host interfaces, the encapsulation of data into ‘datagrams’, and the routing of these datagrams across different networks. IP employs a unique packet structure and addressing scheme. A key feature of its operation is the sourcing and targeting of IP addresses. Over time, the IP has evolved through several versions, such as IPv4 and IPv6, with the latter offering expansive 128-bit addresses. Despite being deemed unreliable due to network infrastructure, the IP strives to deliver ‘best-effort delivery’. It also contributes to the management of link capacity and data transmission, including data packet sizes. As the years pass, the security and evolution of IP have emerged as crucial aspects, with ongoing initiatives to tackle vulnerabilities and suggest improvements.

Terms definitions

1. ↑ Internet ( Internet ) The Internet, a global network of interconnected computer systems, utilizes standardized communication protocols, predominantly TCP/IP, to connect devices across the globe. The term 'Internet' has its roots in the 1849 term 'internetted' and was later adopted by the US War Department in 1945. The inception of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s when computer scientists developed time-sharing systems, which eventually led to the creation of ARPANET in 1969. The Internet operates autonomously, without any central control, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages its primary name spaces. It has revolutionized traditional communication methods and has seen an exponential growth, with the number of internet users growing by 20% to 50% every year. In 2019, more than half of the global population was using the Internet. The Internet protocol suite, comprising TCP/IP and four conceptual layers, directs internet packets to their intended destinations. Fundamental services such as email and Internet telephony function on the Internet. The World Wide Web, an extensive network of interconnected documents, serves as a crucial element of the Internet.

Internet Protocol (Wikipedia)

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.

IP has the task of delivering packets from the source host to the destination host solely based on the IP addresses in the packet headers. For this purpose, IP defines packet structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered. It also defines addressing methods that are used to label the datagram with source and destination information.

IP was the connectionless datagram service in the original Transmission Control Program introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, which was complemented by a connection-oriented service that became the basis for the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The Internet protocol suite is therefore often referred to as TCP/IP.

The first major version of IP, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), is the dominant protocol of the Internet. Its successor is Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), which has been in increasing deployment on the public Internet since around 2006.

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