What Is Internet Protocol Suite and What It Mainly Contains

What Is Internet Protocol Suite

Internet protocol suite is a conceptual model from the aspect of abstract, which contains a set of communication protocols utilized in the Internet. It is similar to computer networks. If you want to interconnect your TCP/IP network with other networks, you are required to get a unique IP network number.

If hosts on your network are going to take part in the Internet domain name system (DNS), you must get and register a unique domain name. To get more details about Internet protocol suite, please keep reading this post of MiniTool.

You may also like this: ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol): Definition, Application

Main Protocols in the Internet Protocol Suite

The Internet protocol suite is well-known as TCP/IP. That’s because the main protocols of Internet protocol suite are the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). What are they? Well, the following content will introduce them briefly.

• Internet Protocol (IP): It is the primary communication protocol for the Internet protocol suite, which is often used for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. The routing feature of IP makes internetworking become possible and then it builds up Internet.
• The Internet protocol is responsible for delivering packets from the source host to the destination host on the basis of IP addresses in the packet headers. Given to that fact, IP defines packets structures that seal the data to be sent.
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): It is also one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It develops from the initial network implementation where it carries out the Internet protocol. TCP offers reliable, ordered, as well as error-checked delivery of a stream of octets between applications running on hosts.
• The TCP is connection between client and server, which is built before data can be sent. However, you should note that the server has to listen for connection requests from client before the establishment of the connection.

Recommended reading: An Overview of HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)

The Layers of Internet Protocol Suite

The TCP/IP suit takes up the middle five layers of the 7-layer open system interconnection model.
The TCP/IP layered scheme combines multiple OSI layers. From an implementation point of view, the TCP/IP stack encapsulates the network layer (OSI layer 3) and the transport layer.

As for the physical layer, the data-link layer (OSI layer 1 and 2, respectively) and the application layer (OSI layer 7) at the top that is viewed as non-TCP/IP-specific. What’s more, TCP/IP can be adapted to multiple different physical media types.

-image from networkencyclopedia.com

With the Internet protocol suite, you can start the end-to-end data communication to specify how the data is packetized, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received. Generally speaking, this feature is organized into 4 abstraction layers, which classify all associated protocols based on the scope of networking involved.

From the lowest to the highest position, the layers are listed as follow.

• The link layer (including communication methods for data remaining in the single network segment)
• The Internet layer (offering Internetworking between independent networks)
• The transport layer (addressing the host-to-host communication)
• The application layer (providing process-to-process data exchange for applications)

Bottom Line

What is Internet protocol suite and what are the main components of this suite? Read here, you may have found the answers. Though the Internet protocol suite is complicated, you will have a basic understanding after reading the article. Here comes the end of the post.