Chapter 3 - The Internet and TCP/IP

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Internet and its related protocols. Internet interconnects individual, autonomous computer networks, and enables them to function and appear as a single, global network.. An overview of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and its relationship to the Internet is provided. TCP/IE is a formal protocol suite that is primarily based on two sub-protocols: (1) TCP, an Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) layer-4 protocol and (2) IP, an OSI layer-3 protocol. TCP/IP's history is tied to the development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which initially was based on a protocol called the Network Control Protocol (NCP). Various TCP/IP concepts are presented. These include network layer, transport layer, and application layer protocols such as IP, TCP, User Data Protocol (UDP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), the Post Office Protocol (POP), Internet Message Access Protocol, (IMAP), TELNET, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Internet addressing schemes including IPv4 and IPv6, sub-netting, and name resolution are also discussed.