Introduction
Every individual or organization, and everywhere in the world follow a set of rules to run their life, organization, society, culture or community. If you look at your life or a military organization or an educational institute or a corporate organization or a cook or any other industry or individual or even wild animals in the forest, they all follow something on their own grounds.
This is necessary to run a particular system in a proper way and these rules make a foundation of something to be followed or to do something in a certain way, which will also act as an example for others in the future. Of course, these rules can be amended anytime as per the requirements or even new protocols can be created.
What is a Protocol?
A Protocol is a set of rules that govern something to be simple. Everywhere in this world, we have a protocol either officially declared or not. Every person follow a protocol of their own goals or thoughts in their life. You must have heard of word “Protocol“ somewhere or the other. It’s nothing but what we discussed above.
What is a Network?
A network is group of system or device that are connected to each other, and allow them to share information and resources.
What is a Network Protocol?
Now guess, what could be a Network Protocol? Obviously, an approved/agreed set of rules that define how system or device communicate to each other on a network. It specifies how data is sent, transported, received and processed between multiple devices despite their internal & structural differences.
Types of Network Protocol
The network protocols are broadly categorized into 4 types:
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Communication Network Protocols
These protocols make the foundation of data transmission and information flow in computer networks. To ensure that communication is seamless and reliable, they specify the norms defining how data will be formatted, sent and received between networks.
Below are few most prominent Communication Network Protocols:
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
It ensures how data is broken down into packets before sending and reassembled at the destination. It also establishes connection between the sender and the receiver. It’s a very reliable communication protocol and slow compared to UDP as it requires handshaking and acknowledgement for establishing the connection. Used for applications where data reliability is most important such as live streaming.
IP (Internet Protocol)
It defines the IP address of the destination device or application, and responsible for data communications over the internet. It basically is responsible for routing the data across the networks.
Note: TCP and IP both work together to send data between the devices.
HTTP ( Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
It defines the rules that allows a client such as a web browser to communicate with the web server. It is one of the primary way to transmit data over the internet. It sits on top of TCP to facilitate web browsing.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
It defines the rules for translation of IP addresses to the MAC addresses. It’s used to connect devices on a LAN (Local Area Network).
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
It defines the rules that allow transfer of emails over the internet. Used by email clients and servers to send and relay messages.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
It sends data packets over the internet directly to the destination without establishing a connection first. It’s less reliable but faster compared to TCP. It operates on top of IP. Used for time-sensitive applications like video streaming, online gaming and DNS lookups.
Routing Network Protocols
These protocols ensure what is the best route for the data packets to travel through the network. They guarantee effective data routing and delivery.
Below are the well known Routing Network Protocols:
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
It helps in maintaining the stability of the internet by exchanging the routing information between various autonomous systems or service providers. Used in applications such as ISP (Internet Service Provider) networks, Enterprise networks, CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and Data center networks.
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Protocol
It calculates the shortest route path between the destinations. Commonly used in Enterprise networks.
Security Network Protocols
These protocols ensures secured data transfer over the internet or network. They also define the network’s data security measures against unauthorized attempts to access to review data, and primarily rely on encryption to protect data.
Below are the most popular Security Network Protocols:
SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security)
This protocol is used to create a secure connection between a web browser and a web server. User to protect data in transit from theft and tampering. Maintains data integrity and confidentiality.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
It’s used to protect the data sent between a user and a website. Uses SSL/TLS certificates to encrypt the data ensuring the secured and authentic connection. Used in cases where a user is submitting sensitive information.
Management Network Protocols
These protocols outline the procedures that monitor, maintain and manage the network. Also used to distribute these requirements across the network for reliable communication and diagnose connection between a server and a client.
Below are the few Management Network protocols:
DNS (Domain Name System)
This protocol allows users to access a web application using the host name instead of an IP address. Used in various websites, email servers and for marketing campaigns.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
It assigns IP addresses to the devices on a network, and helps make network management easier. Used for IP address pool, Dynamic allocation or Automatic IP address assignment.
FTP ( File Transfer Protocol)
It allows users to transfer files between the devices. Used in Web development, Cloud storage, System updates or backups, Corporate data exchange and Disaster recovery. Can be used with SSL/TLS for secured transfer.
ICMP ( Internet Control Message Protocol)
It helps to diagnose and inform the network communication issues. Used by network devices like Routers to send Error messages and Report operational information.
SNMP ( Simple Network Management Protocol)
It’s also used to monitor and manage the networks. Used to Detect faults, Configure devices, Respond to changes/events, and Monitor the Firewall.
POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3)
It allows email clients to download emails from an email server. It’s most common email protocol in use.
Telnet
It allows computers to communicate with each other. Used by Remote login, File transfer, Network Management, and Debugging and testing.
There are lot more protocols but we have discussed a few of them here.
OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Model
We saw what are Network protocols, how are they categorized and what are the common protocols used for network communication. But, how does the communication between the different standalone systems happen over the network?
For this, ISO (International organization of Standardization) published a conceptual model called OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model in 1984, which consists of 7 layers where each layer has specific responsibilities, that basically provides a standard for different computer systems to be able to communicate with each other.
The 7 layers of this model as as follows:
Physical Layer
This layer refers to the physical device communication medium such as fiber-optic cables or air. The data is transferred in the form of bits i.e., 1 and 0. It includes standards for technologies related with the channels such as Bluetooth, NFC, and data transmission speeds.
Data Link Layer
This layer works to connect two machines across a network where physical layer already exists. The data is transferred in the form of data frames/packets. This layer is further split into two: MAC (Media Access Control) and LLC (Logical Link Control).
Network Layer
This layer provides standards for routing, forwarding and addressing across the multiple connected network of machines. Basically, it manages the data flow over the network. IP (IPv4 or IPv6) is the main network protocol that falls under this layer.
Transport Layer
This layer ensures the reliability and effectiveness of the data communication. It ensures that the data is received in proper order or is without packet losses. TCP and UDP are the commonly used protocols that fall under this layer.
Session Layer
This layer is responsible for coordination between two separate applications in a session. Commonly used protocols under this layer are NFS (Network File System) and SMB (Server Message Block).
Presentation Layer
This layer tells about the format, structure and syntax of the data sent and received by the applications. Popular formats are JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), CSV (Comma Separated Values), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), etc.
Application Layer
This layer is concerned about the application itself and the communication methods it uses. For ex. Browsers can communicate using HTTP or HTTPS; Email clients can communicate using POP3 or SMTP.
Summary
In this article, we learned about the network protocols, various commonly used protocols and the OSI Model in details. There are a lot many more protocols existing for different kind of communications over the network, but we don’t need to know each one of them unless we have a requirements to do so.
Indeed, we must keep learning and exploring new things so will keep exploring more on Network protocols.
At last, I would request you to provide your genuine feedback on this article, and do highlight the mistakes.
Please explore my other articles as well. Thank you so much for reading this article till the end.