Internet Protocols: Functions, Version History And Reliability

Abstract –

Stands for ‘Internet Protocol.’ IP provides a standard set of rules for sending and receiving data over the Internet. It allows devices running on different platforms to communicate with each other as long as they are connected to the Internet. In order for an Internet-connected host to be recognized by other devices, it must have an IP address. This may be either an IPv4 or IPv6 address, but either way it uniquely defines a device on the Internet. The Internet Protocol also provides basic instructions for transferring packets between devices. However, it does not actually establish the connection or define the ordering of the packets transmitted. These aspects are handled by the Transmission Control Protocol, which works in conjunction with the Internet Protocol to transfer data between systems on the Internet. For this reason, connections between Internet-connected systems are often called ‘TCP/IP’ connections.

Keywords —

ttl,ipopts,sameip,id,geoip,fragoffset etc.

I. Introduction

The Internet Protocol provides the basic unit of data transfer, provides addressing, routing, and fragmentation. The Internet Protocol resides at the network layer and sends and receives blocks of data called datagrams received from upper-layer software. IP feeds these datagrams to its attached data link layer which sends and receives these datagrams as a series of packets. A datagram is analogous to a first-class letter sent in the Post. In general, it will reach its destination but there is no formal acknowledgment that the letter was received as there would be with either registered or certified mail. IP utilizes a ‘best effort’ or ‘connectionless’ delivery service between source and destination addresses. It is connectionless because there was no formal session established between the source and destination before the data was sent. Packets can be lost as they traverse the network or networks thereby corrupting datagrams. It is not the responsibility of IP to guarantee the delivery of messages and, therefore, IP is frequently termed an unreliable delivery service. That may be a little harsh of criticism of IP but it is the responsibility of the transport layer and not the network layer to guarantee end-to-end message delivery. IP is simply responsible for the addressing and routing of datagrams.

II. Abstract

A. Functions

Internet contributes to effective communication and exchanges information between people around the world in the easiest and fastest way. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is a protocol that allocates addresses to each device for recognition and dispreads packets on the Internet. Over the years the IP has been changed because of user’s requirements. The first IP has been used broadly is IPV4 (Internet Protocol version 4) but it has encountered some problems with the growth of the number of users who use the Internet. Internet Protocol version 6 is the next generation of Internet Protocol which has been used globally. IPv6 eliminates the most important problems of IPv4. This study briefly investigates the key features of IPv4 and IPv6.

B. Version History

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published a paper entitled ‘A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication’. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, described an internetworking protocol for sharing resources using packet-switching among network nodes. A central control component of this model is the ‘Transmission Control Program’ that incorporated both connection-oriented links and datagram services between hosts. The monolithic Transmission Control Program was divided into a modular architecture consisting of the Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram Protocol at the transport layer and the Internet Protocol at the internet layer. This model became to known as the Department of Defense (DoD) Internet Model and Internet protocol suite, and informally as TCP/IP.

IP versions 0 to 3 were experimental versions, used between 1973 and 1978.[3] The Internet Experiment Note (IEN) documents describe versions of the Internet Protocol prior to the modern version of IPv4:

IEN 2 (Comments on Internet Protocol and TCP), dated August in something around 1777 which describes the need to separate the TCP and Internet Protocol functionalities (which were previously combined.) It also proposes the first version of the IP header, using 0 for the version field.

IEN 26 (A Proposed New Internet Header Format), dated February 1978 describes a version of the IP header that uses a 1-bit version field.

IEN 28 (Draft Internetwork Protocol Description Version 2), dated February 1978 describes IPv2.

IEN 41 (Internetwork Protocol Specification Version 4), dated June 1978 describes the first protocol to be called IPv4. The IP header is different from the modern IPv4 header.

IEN 44 (Latest Header Formats), dated June 1978 describes another version of IPv4, also with a header different from the modern IPv4 header.

IEN 54 (Internetwork Protocol Specification Version 4), dated September 1978 is the first description of IPv4 using the header that would be standardized in RFC 760.

The dominant internetworking protocol in the Internet Layer in use is IPv4; the number 4 is the protocol version number carried in every IP datagram. IPv4 is described in RFC 791 (1981).

Version number 5 was used by the Internet Stream Protocol, an experimental streaming protocol.[3]

The successor to IPv4 is IPv6. IPv6 was a result of several years of experimentation and dialog during which various protocol models were proposed, such as TP/IX (RFC 1475), PIP (RFC 1621) and TUBA (TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses, RFC 1347). Its most prominent difference from version 4 is the size of the addresses. While IPv4 uses 32 bits for addressing, yielding c. 4.3 billion (4.3×109) addresses, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses providing ca. 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.[4]

The assignment of the new protocol as IPv6 was uncertain until due diligence revealed that IPv6 had not yet been used previously.[5] Other Internet Layer protocols have been assigned version numbers,[6] such as 7 (IP/TX), 8 and 9 (historic). Notably, on April 1, 1994, the IETF published an April Fools’ Day joke about IPv9.[7] IPv9 was also used in an alternate proposed address space expansion called TUBA.[8].

C. Abbreviations and Acronyms

• TCP: Transmission Control Protocol.
• IP: Internet Protocol.
• IEEE: Institute of Electrical ans Electronics Engineers.
• IEN: Internet Experiment Note.
• IPv4/IPv6: Internet Protocol version 4/ Internet Protocol version.
• UDP: User Datagram Protocol.
• RFC: Request for Comments.
• IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force.

IP (‘eye-pea’) is actually part of a longer abbreviation — TCP/IP. That stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. (We’ll call it IP for short.)

IP stands for ‘Internet Protocol.’ A protocol is a guideline that must be followed in a set, specific way.

IP is actually networking software. It comes with your computer and it makes make it possible for you to interact with the Internet.

IP is the language of the Internet (so to speak): All IP networking software is identical throughout the world; that’s why a computer in China can communicate with a computer in Canada.

IP is universal. No matter what kind of computer or networking hardware you’re using, the IP processes work the same.

IP is versatile. Any computer, laptop or desktop, or printer on a network has IP software (and therefore an IP address).

The TCP/IP Protocols are actually a set (or stack) of protocols that work in sequence. Think of the set as a team of the robot—soldiers who receive, handle and disburse data.

The Internet Protocol is at the heart of the network connectivity. It is also where IP address activity gets processed.

Merits of TCP/IP model

1. It is scalable.
2. Client/server architecture.
3. Supports a number of routing protocols.
4. Can be used to establish a connection between two computers.

Demerits of TCP/IP

1. In this, the transport layer does not guarantee the delivery of packets.
2. The model cannot be used in any other application.
3. Replacing protocol is not easy.
4. It has not clearly separated its services, interfaces, and protocols.

D. Reliability

When (and if) IP networks start achieving the magic “five 9s” of availability already achieved in legacy ATM and TDM networks, carriers might start countenancing radical simplification of their network architectures – a simplification that will lead to big improvements in profitability. For a kickoff, if the average router was out of commission for less than five minutes every year (which is what 99.999% availability means), then carriers might be able to abandon their current practice of deploying routers in pairs – one acting as a hot standby for the other. And that’s just for starters. If router networks hardly ever went wrong, carriers might also start giving serious thought to eliminating whole layers of the underlying infrastructure, such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) equipment. On top of that, it might encourage them to move towards the idea of carrying all types of media – voice, data, and video – over a common IP backbone. That equates to being able to roll out new services (and generate new revenues) at the same time as cutting costs

III. Units

bit: unit of digital information/ data size.

byte: derived from bit, 1 byte= 8 bits.

Conclusion

Computers are useless unless they perform some service. Red Hat Linux machines come ready to perform many services, making them powerful choices for Internet application servers. IP addresses and ports form the foundation for these Internet services. To help users, the Domain Name System assigns names to IP addresses, and Linux itself assigns names to ports.

Finally, servers may operate as either standalone or transient; deciding which method a particular server should use is a frequent administrator concern.

References

1. Charles M. Kozierok, The TCP/IP Guide
2. Cerf, V.; Kahn, R. (1974). ‘A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication’ (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Communications. 22 (5): 637–648. doi:10.1109/TCOM.1974.1092259. ISSN 1558-0857. The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations.
3. J. F. Kurose and W. R. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet.
4. L.L. Peterson and B. S. Davie, Computer Networks: A System Approach.
5. Andrew S.Tanenbaum, Computer Networks
6. Douglas E. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets
7. D. Bertsekas & R. Gallager, Data Networks.
8. S. Keshav, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking.
9. J. Walrand & P. Varaiya, High-Performance Communication Networks