The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (also known as network packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet.

IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering datagrams from the source host to the destination host solely based on the addresses. For this purpose, IP defines datagram structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered. It also defines addressing methods that are used to label the datagram source and destination.

Historically, IP was the connectionless datagram service in the original Transmission Control Program introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, the other being the connection-oriented 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 is increasing in use.

Function[link]

The Internet Protocol is responsible for addressing hosts and routing datagrams (packets) from a source host to the destination host across one or more IP networks. For this purpose the Internet Protocol defines an addressing system that has two functions: identifying hosts and providing a logical location service. This is accomplished by defining standard datagrams and a standard addressing system.

Datagram construction[link]

Sample encapsulation of application data from UDP to a Link protocol frame

Each datagram has two components, a header and a payload. The IP header is tagged with the source IP address, destination IP address, and other meta-data needed to route and deliver the datagram. The payload is the data to be transported. This process of nesting data payloads in a packet with a header is called encapsulation.

IP addressing and routing[link]

Perhaps the most complex aspects of IP are IP addressing and routing. Addressing refers to how end hosts are assigned IP addresses and how subnetworks of IP host addresses are divided and grouped. IP routing is performed by all hosts, but most importantly by routers, which typically use either interior gateway protocols (IGPs) or external gateway protocols (EGPs) to decide how to move datagrams among networks.

IP routing is also common in local networks. For example, Ethernet switches sold today support IP multicast.^[1] These switches use IP addresses and Internet Group Management Protocol for control of the multicast routing but use MAC addresses for the actual routing.

Reliability[link]

The design principles of the Internet protocols assume that the network infrastructure is inherently unreliable at any single network element or transmission medium and that it is dynamic in terms of availability of links and nodes. No central monitoring or performance measurement facility exists that tracks or maintains the state of the network. For the benefit of reducing network complexity, the intelligence in the network is purposely mostly located in the end nodes of each data transmission, cf. end-to-end principle. Routers in the transmission path simply forward packets to the next known local gateway matching the routing prefix for the destination address.

As a consequence of this design, the Internet Protocol only provides best effort delivery and its service is characterized as unreliable. In network architectural language it is a connection-less protocol, in contrast to so-called connection-oriented modes of transmission. The lack of reliability permits various error conditions, such as data corruption, packet loss and duplication, as well as out-of-order packet delivery. Since routing is dynamic for every packet and the network maintains no state of the path of prior packets, it is possible that some packets are routed on a longer path to their destination, resulting in improper sequencing at the receiver.

The only assistance that IPv4 provides regarding unreliability is to ensure that the IP packet header is error-free. A routing node calculates a checksum for a packet. If the checksum is bad, the routing node discards the packet. The routing node does not have to notify either end node, although the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) allows such notification. In contrast, IPv6 abandons checksums in favor of faster routing.

Upper layer protocols are responsible for resolving reliability issues. For example, an upper layer protocol may cache data to make sure that it is in the correct order, before giving the data to an application.

In addition to issues of reliability, the dynamic nature and the diversity of the Internet and its components provide no guarantee that any particular path is actually capable of, or suitable for, performing the data transmission requested, even if the path is available and reliable. One of the technical constraints is the size of data packets allowed on a given link. An application must assure that it uses proper transmission characteristics. Some of this responsibility lies also in the upper layer protocols between application and IP. Facilities exist to examine the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size of the local link, as well as for the entire projected path to the destination when using IPv6. The IPv4 internetworking layer has the capability to automatically fragment the original datagram into smaller units for transmission. In this case, IP does provide re-ordering of fragments delivered out-of-order.^[2]

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is an example of a protocol that will adjust its segment size to be smaller than the MTU. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) disregard MTU size, thereby forcing IP to fragment oversized datagrams.^[3]

Version history[link]

In May 1974, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) published a paper entitled "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication."^[4] The paper's authors, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, described an internetworking protocol for sharing resources using packet-switching among the nodes. A central control component of this model was the "Transmission Control Program" (TCP) that incorporated both connection-oriented links and datagram services between hosts. The monolithic Transmission Control Program was later divided into a modular architecture consisting of the Transmission Control Protocol at the connection-oriented layer and the Internet Protocol at the internetworking (datagram) layer. The model became known informally as TCP/IP, although formally referenced as the Internet Protocol Suite.

The Internet Protocol is one of the elements that define the Internet. The dominant internetworking protocol in the Internet Layer in use today is IPv4; the number 4 is the protocol version number carried in every IP datagram. IPv4 is described in RFC 791 (1981).

The successor to IPv4 is IPv6. Its most prominent modification from version 4 is the addressing system. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses (c. 4 billion, or 4.3×10⁹, addresses) while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses (c. 340 undecillion, or 3.4×10³⁸ addresses). Although adoption of IPv6 has been slow, as of June 2008, all United States government systems have demonstrated basic infrastructure support for IPv6 (if only at the backbone level).^[5]

IP versions 0 to 3 were development versions of IPv4 and were used between 1977 and 1979.^{[citation needed]} Version 5 was used by the Internet Stream Protocol, an experimental streaming protocol. Version numbers 6 through 9 were proposed for various protocol models designed to replace IPv4: SIPP (Simple Internet Protocol Plus, known now as IPv6), TP/IX (RFC 1475), PIP (RFC 1621) and TUBA (TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses, RFC 1347).

Other protocol proposals named IPv9 and IPv8 briefly surfaced, but have no support.^[6]

On April 1, 1994, the IETF published an April Fool's Day joke about IPv9.^[7]

Vulnerabilities[link]

This section requires expansion.

The Internet Protocol is vulnerable to a variety of attacks. A thorough vulnerability assessment, along with proposed mitigations, was published in 2008,^[8] and is currently being pursued within the IETF.^[9]

See also[link]

	Computer networking portal
	Computer Science portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up internet protocol in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Internet Protocol at the Open Directory Project
• RFC 791
• Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part IP Technology Basics
• Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part IP Technology Details
• Data Communication Lectures of Manfred Lindner - Part IPv6
• IPv6.com - Knowledge Center for Next Generation Internet IPv6