Internet Technology Considerations

Abstract

The Internet protocol, IP, is one of a large number of network layer protocols. Clearly the explosive growth of the Internet alone makes IP an important factor in considering business strategy and evolution. There are, however, underlying reasons why IP has gained the status that it has. It is also important to realize that the limitations and weaknesses traditionally attributed to the Internet (congested, insecure, etc) are not necessarily intrinsic weaknesses of the TCP/IP protocol suite

• IP is an internetworking protocol, which is designed to operate over almost all underlying networks. Therefore, there is no requirement for a homogeneous end-to-end infrastructure. End-stations may use a variety of cheap interface cards (e.g. Ethernet), but the core network may be comprised of vastly different technologies.

• IP is connectionless, meaning that end-to-end connections do not have to be established before data can be sent. This is well suited to short-lived communications, but can also support long-lived connections (via TCP).

• IP networks are highly scalable, with a uniformly accepted addressing scheme.

• IP is service-independent, in that a wide range of application types are supported by a single, modular protocol suite. This means that new services are extremely easy to deploy, without requiring extensive changes to end-stations or network stacks.