The protocol stack or network stack is an implementation of a computer networking protocol suite or protocol family. Some of these terms are used interchangeably but strictly speaking, the suite is the definition of the communication protocols, and the stack is the software implementation of them.
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol (IP). Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of octets (bytes) between applications running on hosts communicating via an IP network. Major internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email, remote administration, and file transfer rely on TCP, which is part of the Transport Layer of the TCP/IP suite. SSL/TLS often runs on top of TCP.
In computer networking, the transport layer is a conceptual division of methods in the layered architecture of protocols in the network stack in the Internet protocol suite and the OSI model. The protocols of this layer provide end-to-end communication services for applications. It provides services such as connection-oriented communication, reliability, flow control, and multiplexing.
The data link layer, or layer 2, is the second layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. This layer is the protocol layer that transfers data between nodes on a network segment across the physical layer. The data link layer provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network entities and may also provide the means to detect and possibly correct errors that can occur in the physical layer.
An application layer is an abstraction layer that specifies the shared communications protocols and interface methods used by hosts in a communications network. An application layer abstraction is specified in both the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) and the OSI model. Although both models use the same term for their respective highest-level layer, the detailed definitions and purposes are different.
This page provides an index of articles thought to be Internet or Web related topics.
Wireless transaction protocol (WTP) is a standard used in mobile telephony. It is a layer of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) that is intended to bring Internet access to mobile phones. WTP provides functions similar to TCP, except that WTP has reduced amount of information needed for each transaction. WTP runs on top of UDP and performs many of the same tasks as TCP but in a way optimized for wireless devices, which saves processing and memory cost as compared to TCP.
IEEE 802.20 or Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) was a specification by the standard association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for mobile broadband networks. The main standard was published in 2008. MBWA is no longer being actively developed.
In distributed computing, General Inter-ORB Protocol (GIOP) is the message protocol by which object request brokers (ORBs) communicate in CORBA. Standards associated with the protocol are maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG). The current version of GIOP is 2.0.2. The GIOP architecture provides several concrete protocols, including:
- Internet InterORB Protocol (IIOP) — The Internet Inter-Orb Protocol is an implementation of the GIOP for use over the Internet, and provides a mapping between GIOP messages and the TCP/IP layer.
- SSL InterORB Protocol (SSLIOP) — SSLIOP is IIOP over SSL, providing encryption and authentication.
- HyperText InterORB Protocol (HTIOP) — HTIOP is IIOP over HTTP, providing transparent proxy bypassing.
- Zipped InterORB Protocol (ZIOP) — A zipped version of GIOP that reduces the bandwidth usage
Connection-oriented communication is a network communication mode in telecommunications and computer networking, where a communication session or a semi-permanent connection is established before any useful data can be transferred. The established connection ensures that data is delivered in the correct order to the upper communication layer. The alternative to connection-oriented transmission is connectionless communication, for example the datagram mode communication used by Internet Protocol (IP) and User Datagram Protocol, where data may be delivered out of order, since different network packets are routed independently and may be delivered over different paths.
Performance-enhancing proxies (PEPs) are network agents designed to improve the end-to-end performance of some communication protocols. PEP standards are defined in RFC 3135 and RFC 3449.
Unwired Australia Pty Ltd was an Australian company dedicated to fixed wireless telecommunications network offering carrier grade Internet services. They provided coverage in Melbourne and Sydney. As of 8 March 2010 Unwired had 52,320 customers and 97 employees. The technology used by Unwired was provided by American manufacturer Navini Networks and Venturi Wireless Solutions.
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the protocol. Introduced in 1999, WAP achieved some popularity in the early 2000s, but by the 2010s it had been largely superseded by more modern standards. Almost all modern handset internet browsers now fully support HTML, so they do not need to use WAP markup for web page compatibility, and therefore, most are no longer able to render and display pages written in WML, WAP's markup language.
In computing, Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced in 2007/2008 a new networking stack named Next Generation TCP/IP stack, to improve on the previous stack in several ways. The stack includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as a complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after a change in settings. The new stack, implemented as a dual-stack model, depends on a strong host-model and features an infrastructure to enable more modular components that one can dynamically insert and remove.
Skyhook is a location technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in location positioning, context, and intelligence. Founded in 2003, Skyhook originally began by geolocating Wi-Fi access points. It has since then has been focusing on hybrid positioning technology, which incorporates with Wi-Fi, GPS, cell towers, IP address, and device sensors to improve device location.
In telecommunications, a proprietary protocol is a communications protocol owned by a single organization or individual.
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchronization of communication and possible error recovery methods. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of both.
The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a computer networking communications protocol in the transport layer of the Internet protocol suite. Originally intended for Signaling System 7 (SS7) message transport in telecommunication, the protocol provides the message-oriented feature of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), while ensuring reliable, in-sequence transport of messages with congestion control like the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Unlike UDP and TCP, the protocol supports multihoming and redundant paths to increase resilience and reliability.
Hybrid Access Networks refer to a special architecture for broadband access networks where two different network technologies are combined to improve bandwidth. A frequent motivation for such Hybrid Access Networks to combine one xDSL network with a wireless network such as LTE. The technology is generic and can be applied to combine different types of access networks such as DOCSIS, WiMAX, 5G or satellite networks. The Broadband Forum has specified an architecture as a framework for the deployment of such converged networks.
