TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet. It is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. TCP/IP specifies how data is exchanged over the internet by providing end-to-end communications that identify how it should be broken into packets, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received at the destination.
TCP/IP is made up of two main protocols: IP and TCP. IP is a low-level internet protocol that facilitates data communications over the internet. Its purpose is to deliver packets of data that consist of a header, which contains routing information, such as source and destination of the data, and the data payload itself. TCP, on the other hand, is a connection-oriented protocol that addresses numerous reliability issues in providing a reliable byte stream. It ensures that data arrives in-order, has minimal error, duplicate data is discarded, lost or discarded packets are resent, and includes traffic congestion control.
The TCP/IP model does not consider the specifics of formatting and presenting data and does not define additional layers between the application and transport layers as in the OSI model (presentation and session layers). According to the TCP/IP model, such functions are the realm of libraries and application programming interfaces.
In summary, TCP/IP is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet. It specifies how data is exchanged over the internet by providing end-to-end communications that identify how it should be broken into packets, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received at the destination. TCP/IP is made up of two main protocols: IP and TCP, which work together to ensure data is delivered to its intended destination within a network.
