Group Members:

Dula, Mark Jason

NETWORK PROTOCOLS
Network protocols incorporate all the processes, requirements and constraints of initiating and
accomplishing communication between computers, servers, routers and other network-enabled
devices. They must be confirmed and installed by the sender and receiver to ensure network/data
communication and apply to software and hardware nodes that communicate on a network.
Network protocols are developed and published by several groups according to certain industry
standards.
The most important ones include:
 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
 International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

The concept of a network protocol is used in the context of information technology to name the
regulations and criteria. Criteria that determine how the various components of a specific
interconnection system should communicate. It means that through this protocol, network
devices can exchange data.
 Typical Structure of Network Protocol:

The structure described in any one of a protocol data packet includes the important information
about data exchange package, such as:
1. The sender and receiver
2. The type of the packet (e.g. connect, disconnect or pure data)
3. The packet length
4. A checksum
This information is provided as a header to the payload data or attached as a preview. Moreover,
in some protocols; fixed packet sequences for the connection establishment and released are
described. These actions cause further traffic on the data lines – the so-called overhead. This
overhead is undesirable because it burdens the capacity, but due to more important tasks, making
the logs, usually it is used. With User Datagram Protocol (UDP), in the transport layer a minimal
overhead is available that does not ensure end-to-end if the transmission. In contrast, in the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the checksum for the test to verify the data is complete. If
the checksum does not meet expectations of the test algorithm, the data packet is disregarded and
requested again at the sending site.
 How Network Protocol Works:

Network protocols break larger processes into discrete, narrowly defined functions and tasks
across every level of the network. In the standard model, known as the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model, one or more network protocols govern activities at each layer in
the telecommunication exchange.
 Types of Network Protocols:
1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
2. Internet Protocol (IP)
3. User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
4. Post office Protocol (POP)
5. Simple mail transport Protocol (SMTP)
6. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
7. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
8. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
9. Telnet
10. Gopher

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) - TCP is a popular communication protocol which is used
for communicating over a network. It divides any message into series of packets that are sent
from source to destination and there it gets reassembled at the destination.
Internet Protocol (IP) - IP is designed explicitly as addressing protocol. It is mostly used with
TCP. The IP addresses in packets help in routing them through different nodes in a network until
it reaches the destination system. TCP/IP is the most popular protocol connecting the networks.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) - UDP is a substitute communication protocol to Transmission
Control Protocol implemented primarily for creating loss-tolerating and low-latency linking
between different applications.
Post office Protocol (POP) - POP3 is designed for receiving incoming E-mails.
Simple mail transport Protocol (SMTP) - SMTP is designed to send and distribute outgoing E-
Mail.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - FTP allows users to transfer files from one machine to another.
Types of files may include program files, multimedia files, text files, and documents, etc.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - HTTP is designed for transferring a hypertext among
two or more systems. HTML tags are used for creating links. These links may be in any form
like text or images. HTTP is designed on Client-server principles which allow a client system for
establishing a connection with the server machine for making a request. The server
acknowledges the request initiated by the client and responds accordingly.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) - HTTPS is abbreviated as Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol Secure is a standard protocol to secure the communication among two computers one
using the browser and other fetching data from web server. HTTP is used for transferring data
between the client browser (request) and the web server (response) in the hypertext format, same
in case of HTTPS except that the transferring of data is done in an encrypted format. So it can be
said that https thwart hackers from interpretation or modification of data throughout the transfer
of packets.
Telnet - Telnet is a set of rules designed for connecting one system with another. The connecting
process here is termed as remote login. The system which requests for connection is the local
computer, and the system which accepts the connection is the remote computer.
Gopher - Gopher is a collection of rules implemented for searching, retrieving as well as
displaying documents from isolated sites. Gopher also works on the client/server principle.

Implementing network protocols

In order for network protocols to work, they must be coded within software, either a part of the
computer's operating system (OS) or as an application, or implemented within the computer's
hardware. Most modern operating systems possess built-in software services that are prepared to
implement some network protocols. Other applications, such as web browsers, are designed with
software libraries that support whatever protocols are necessary for the application to function.
Furthermore, TCP/IP and routing protocol support is implemented in direct hardware for
enhanced performance.

Whenever a new protocol is implemented, it is added to the protocol suite. The organization of
protocol suites is considered to be monolithic since all protocols are stored in the same address
and build on top of one another.

Vulnerabilities of network protocols

One major vulnerability found in network protocols is that they are not designed for security.
Their lack of protection can sometimes allow malicious attacks, such as eavesdropping and cache
poisoning, to affect the system. The most common attack on network protocols is the
advertisement of false routes, causing traffic to go through compromised hosts instead of the
appropriate ones.
Network protocol analyzers have been designed and installed in response to these vulnerabilities.
Network protocol analyzers protect systems against malicious activity by
supplementing firewalls, anti-virus programs and anti-spyware software.