Communications Protocols and Network Programming
A communications protocol is a set of rules for exchanging information over a network. It is typically a protocol stack (also see the OSI model), which is a "stack" of protocols, in which each protocol uses the protocol below it. An important example of a protocol stack is HTTP running over TCP over IP over IEEE 802.11 (TCP and IP are members of the Internet Protocol Suite, and IEEE 802.11 is a member of the Ethernet protocol suite). This stack is used between the wireless router and the home user's personal computer when the user is surfing the web.
Communication protocols have various properties, such as whether they are connection-oriented or connectionless, whether they use circuit mode or packet switching, or whether they use hierarchical or flat addressing.
There are many communication protocols, a few of which are described below.
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