TCP / IP closes 40 years. A few words about that.

Forty years ago, in September 40, DARPA published the final specifications of the TCP / IP protocol suite, which sets out the basic rules for how of the internet.

TCP / IP, TCP, IP, internet, protocol, protocol

While TCP / IP was not widely adopted until 1983, this milestone is important because the Internet was based on TCP / IP.

What is TCP / IP?

TCP / IP is a protocol suite consisting of two main protocols designed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), respectively.

The Internet Protocol (IP) defines the address and routing of packets, ie how data packets flow through the network. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) handles link building and ensures that data packets reach the right destination. The two protocols work together to create the foundations of the modern internet.

Why was TCP / IP created?

Before the internet, the Ministry of the US (through ARPA), created a computer network with the name ARPANET, which connected U.S. government and university computers across the country. ARPANET came online in 1969. Before TCP, ARPANET used a protocol that was called NCP (Network Control Program) for the between machines on the network.

According to the NCP / TCP transition plan ( RFC801 ) published in November 1981, the need for TCP / IP arose on several fronts. Increasingly, experimental computer networks were beginning to use radio and satellite connectors rather than physical cables.

Also, the organizations had created more and more local networks, ie groups of machines that communicated together in the same facility and not over long distances. The architects of ARPANET realized that the underlying protocols used at the time were "insufficient" to cover all these different and new types of networks.

ARPANET

At the same time, during the 1970s, companies such as IBM, DEC, AT&T, and Xerox had created their own proprietary, incompatible computer networks that hackedσαν την ανταλλαγή πληροφοριών. Έτσι, η σουίτα TCP/IP ήταν αξιοσημείωτη εργασία, επειδή αντιπροσώπευε μια μη ιδιόκτητη, χωρίς δικαιώματα, ανοικτή αρχιτεκτονική λύση που επέτρεπε στους υπολογιστές κάθε είδους να επικοινωνούν μέσω οποιουδήποτε μέσου, εφόσον το λογισμικό TCP/IP θα εφαρμοζόταν στο .

The development of TCP and IP was started in 1973 by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn. After the development, in the 1970s, DARPA (US Office of Advanced Defense Research Service) published TCP and IP specifications in the documents RFC 791 and 793, dated September 1981. These documents represented the first public introduction of the definitive TCP / IP framework.

How does TCP / IP work?

TCP and IP are two separate technologies that work hand-in-hand to achieve reliable connections through a heterogeneous (many different types of computers and connectors) computer network.

As mentioned earlier, the IP handles network address engines and how data blocks (called packages) reach the appropriate destination. TCP ensures that packets arrive at their destination without error, calling in advance to make sure there is a host to receive the information and, if the information is lost or corrupted along the way, retransmits the data until it gets there safely.

The architects of TCP / IP deliberately split the application of TCP and IP to make the network more flexible and modular. In fact, TCP can be replaced with a different protocol called UDP, which is faster but allows data loss in cases where 100% transmission accuracy is not necessary, such as a phone call or video transmission.

Network engineers refer to this modular design as'protocol stack' (protocol stack) and allows the manipulation of one or more protocols located at the lower layers of the stack, in the most appropriate way for the architecture of the local s. The upper layers can then operate on top of them to communicate with each other. In the case of the Internet, this stack typically consists of four layers:

  1. Link Level -Low-level protocols that work with a physical medium (such as Ethernet)
  2. Internet level - Routes packets (IP, for example)
  3. Transport Level - Creates and terminates connections (TCP, for example)
  4. Application Level - How people use the network (web, FTP, etc.)

The protocols that handle the web (such as HyperText Protocol, or HTTP) are at the Application Layer and operate on top of TCP and IP.

Thanks to this model, HTTP does not need to know how to create or break low-level connections. All of these are handled by protocols that are lower in the stack. This modular stack is a very flexible system and is why TCP / IP was so successful and why it still serves as the backbone of the internet today.

When was TCP / IP used?

While in development, TCP / IP began to be used experimentally as early as 1973. As its creators continued to refine protocols, Internet Protocol (IP) went from version 1 to version 4 by 1981, which is still is the IP version that is still widely used today.

Although DARPA introduced the first finalized version of the TCP and IP protocols (version 4) in September 1981, some ARPANETs continued to use previous ARPANET protocols (such as NCP) for some time. As with any established technology, change can take time, and network architects have followed a transitional period between NCP and TCP, which ended on 1 January 1983.

vinton cerf boardwatch

1 January 1983 is defined as' flag day ' (day when a dramatic change occurs in computing), and marked the beginning of widespread use of TCP/IP and the birth of the modern Internet. Even then, other network protocols remained widely in use, and it was not until the mid-1990s that TCP/IP became the clear 'winner' in what some call Protocol Wars.

The future of TCP / IP

Currently, most of the internet runs on version 4 of the Internet Protocol, called 'IPv4'. But there is a newer version called “IPv6”, introduced in 1998, which is making inroads very slowly. Among the most important features of IPv6 are for 128-bit addresses, allowing 340 trillion trillion trillion devices with unique IP addresses on the network.

In contrast, IPv4 supports 32-bit addresses, allowing more than 4,2 billion IP addresses. While 4,2 billion sounds like a lot, by 2021 we have already reached the limit of IPv4 addresses assigned.

Fortunately, IPv4 and IPv6 are interoperable (able to exchange and use information), so computer vendors, ISPs and authorities have some breathing space while slowly switching to IPv6. Even with all its improvements, IPv6 bases its architecture on the same research that Cerf and Evans started in 1973 and completed in 1981.

Happy birthday, TCP / IP!

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TCP / IP, TCP, IP, internet, protocol, protocol

Written by Dimitris

Dimitris hates on Mondays .....

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