What Is A Protocol?

INTRODUCTION

A protocol is an agreed upon communications standard used on a network that can surpass different computer hardware and operating system technologies, allowing computers of all types to communicate with each other as if they were all the same type. Without communication protocols, we would have no networks.

TYPES OF PROTOCOLS

Although there have been numerous protocol standards introduced over the years, only a few are widely used. These include:

NetBEUI (Microsoft)
IPX/SPX (Novell)
Appletalk (Apple)
TCP/IP (the protocol that drives the Internet)
Each protocol has its plusses and minuses: NetBEUI is extremely easy to implement, but it can not be used to connect different networks. TCP/IP is also easy to set up, very powerful and is the most popular protocol in use but it relies on an ever-shrinking pool of IP addresses to connect systems to the public Internet. Appletalk is an Apple only protocol that is falling out of favor with everybody including Apple and IPX/SPX, originally introduced by Novell and implemented on Novell networks just has not been able to compete with TCP/IP despite it’s reliability and once huge popularity. Many companies run several protocols at the same time on the same network, although on a busy network, this can lead to an unnecessary waste of network bandwidth and is not recommended unless it is a necessity for connectivity sake.

Close Window