Introduction to the Internet Protocols

Computer Science Facilities Group

RUTGERS

The State University of New Jersey

3 July 1987

This is an introduction to the Internet networking protocols (TCP/IP). It includes a summary of the facilities available and brief descriptions of the major protocols in the family.

Copyright (C) 1987, Charles L. Hedrick. Anyone may reproduce this document, in whole or in part, provided that: (1) any copy or republication of the entire document must show Rutgers University as the source, and must include this notice; and (2) any other use of this material must reference this manual and Rutgers University, and the fact that the material is copyright by Charles Hedrick and is used by permission.

Unix is a trademark of AT&T Technologies, Inc.

Table of Contents

1. What is TCP/IP?
2. General description of the TCP/IP protocols
   1. The TCP level
   2. The IP level
   3. The Ethernet level
3. Well-known sockets and the applications layer
   1. An example application: SMTP
4. Protocols other than TCP: UDP and ICMP
5. Keeping track of names and information: the domain system
6. Routing
7. Details about Internet addresses: subnets and broadcasting
8. Datagram fragmentation and reassembly
9. Ethernet encapsulation: ARP
10. Getting more information

This document is a brief introduction to TCP/IP, followed by advice on what to read for more information. This is not intended to be a complete description. It can give you a reasonable idea of the capabilities of the protocols. But if you need to know any details of the technology, you will want to read the standards yourself. Throughout the text, you will find references to the standards, in the form of "RFC" or "IEN" numbers. These are document numbers. The final section of this document tells you how to get copies of those standards.