Monday, 29 June 2015

Protocols used in Networking

                            Protocols Used In Networking

      

  

In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication, and data transfer between computing endpoints. In its simplest form, a protocol can be defined as the rules governing the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the lowest level, a protocol defines the behavior of a hardware connection.While protocols can vary greatly in purpose and sophistication.



                                                                 The widespread use and expansion of communications protocols is both a prerequisite for the Internet, and a major contributor to its power and success. The pair of Internet Protocol (or IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (or TCP) are the most important of these, and the term TCP/IP refers to a collection (or protocol suite) of its most used protocols. Most of the Internet's communication protocols are described in the RFC documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (or IETF).

The protocol stack denotes a specific combination of protocols that work together, a reference model is a software architecture that lists each layer and the services each should offer. The classic seven-layer reference model is the OSI model, which is used for conceptualizing protocol stacks and peer entities. This reference model also provides an opportunity to teach more general software engineering concepts like hiding, modularity, and delegation of tasks. This model has endured in spite of the demise of many of its protocols (and protocol stacks) originally sanctioned by the ISO.
The protocols in human communication are separate rules about appearance, speaking, listening and understanding. All these rules, also called protocols of conversation, represent different layers of communication. They work together to help people successfully communicate. The need for protocols also applies to network devices. Computers have no way of learning protocols, so network engineers have written rules for communication that must be strictly followed for successful host-to-host communication. These rules apply to different layers of sophistication such as which physical connections to use, how hosts listen, how to interrupt, how to say good-bye, and in short how to communicate, what language to use and many others. These rules, or protocols, that work together to ensure successful communication are grouped into what is known as a protocol suite.