A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more

entities of a communications system to transmit information via any

variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the
rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication and
possible error recovery methods. Protocols may be implemented
by hardware, software, or a combination of both.[1]

Communicating systems use well-defined formats for exchanging various

messages. Each message has an exact meaning intended to elicit a response
from a range of possible responses predetermined for that particular
situation. The specified behavior is typically independent of how it is to
be implemented. Communication protocols have to be agreed upon by the
parties involved.[2] To reach an agreement, a protocol may be developed into
a technical standard. A programming language describes the same for
computations, so there is a close analogy between protocols and
programming languages: protocols are to communication what programming
languages are to computations.[3] An alternate formulation states
that protocols are to communication what algorithms are to computation.[4]

Multiple protocols often describe different aspects of a single communication.

A group of protocols designed to work together is known as a protocol suite;
when implemented in software they are a protocol stack.

Internet communication protocols are published by the Internet Engineering

Task Force (IETF). The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
handles wired and wireless networking and the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) handles other types. The ITU-
T handles telecommunications protocols and formats for the public switched
telephone network (PSTN). As the PSTN and Internet converge, the standards
are also being driven towards convergence.

Communicating systems

[edit]

History

[edit]

Further information: Protocol Wars

The first use of the term protocol in a modern data-commutation context

occurs in April 1967 in a memorandum entitled A Protocol for Use in the NPL
Data Communications Network. Under the direction of Donald Davies, who
pioneered packet switching at the National Physical Laboratory in the United
Kingdom, it was written by Roger Scantlebury and Keith Bartlett for the NPL
network.[5][6][7][8][9]

On the ARPANET, the starting point for host-to-host communication in 1969

was the 1822 protocol, written by Bob Kahn, which defined the transmission
of messages to an IMP.[10] The Network Control Program (NCP) for the
ARPANET, developed by Steve Crocker and other graduate students
including Jon Postel and Vint Cerf, was first implemented in 1970.[11] The NCP
interface allowed application software to connect across the ARPANET by
implementing higher-level communication protocols, an early example of
the protocol layering concept.[12]

The CYCLADES network, designed by Louis Pouzin in the early 1970s was the
first to implement the end-to-end principle, and make the hosts responsible
for the reliable delivery of data on a packet-switched network, rather than
this being a service of the network itself.[13] His team was the first to tackle
the highly complex problem of providing user applications with a
reliable virtual circuit service while using a best-effort service, an early
contribution to what will be the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).[14][15][16]

Bob Metcalfe and others at Xerox PARC outlined the idea of Ethernet and
the PARC Universal Packet (PUP) for internetworking.[17]

Research in the early 1970s by Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf led to the formulation
of the Transmission Control Program (TCP).[18] Its RFC 675 specification was
written by Cerf with Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in December 1974, still a
monolithic design at this time.

The International Network Working Group agreed on a

connectionless datagram standard which was presented to the CCITT in 1975
but was not adopted by the CCITT nor by the ARPANET. [19] Separate
international research, particularly the work of Rémi Després, contributed to
the development of the X.25 standard, based on virtual circuits, which was
adopted by the CCITT in 1976.[20][21] Computer manufacturers
developed proprietary protocols such as IBM's Systems Network
Architecture (SNA), Digital Equipment Corporation's DECnet and Xerox
Network Systems.[22]

TCP software was redesigned as a modular protocol stack, referred to

as TCP/IP. This was installed on SATNET in 1982 and on the ARPANET in
January 1983. The development of a complete Internet protocol suite by
1989, as outlined in RFC 1122 and RFC 1123, laid the foundation for the
growth of TCP/IP as a comprehensive protocol suite as the core component of
the emerging Internet.[23]

International work on a reference model for communication standards led to

the OSI model, published in 1984. For a period in the late 1980s and early
1990s, engineers, organizations and nations became polarized over the issue
of which standard, the OSI model or the Internet protocol suite, would result
in the best and most robust computer networks. [24][25][26]

Concept

[edit]

The information exchanged between devices through a network or other

media is governed by rules and conventions that can be set out in
communication protocol specifications. The nature of communication, the
actual data exchanged and any state-dependent behaviors, is defined by
these specifications. In digital computing systems, the rules can be
expressed by algorithms and data structures. Protocols are to communication
what algorithms or programming languages are to computations. [3][4]

Operating systems usually contain a set of cooperating processes that

manipulate shared data to communicate with each other. This
communication is governed by well-understood protocols, which can be
embedded in the process code itself.[27][28] In contrast, because there is
no shared memory, communicating systems have to communicate with each
other using a shared transmission medium. Transmission is not necessarily
reliable, and individual systems may use different hardware or operating
systems.

To implement a networking protocol, the protocol software modules are

interfaced with a framework implemented on the machine's operating
system. This framework implements the networking functionality of the
operating system.[29] When protocol algorithms are expressed in a portable
programming language the protocol software may be made operating
system independent. The best-known frameworks are the TCP/IP model and
the OSI model.

At the time the Internet was developed, abstraction layering had proven to
be a successful design approach for both compiler and operating system
design and, given the similarities between programming languages and
communication protocols, the originally monolithic networking programs
were decomposed into cooperating protocols.[30] This gave rise to the concept
of layered protocols which nowadays forms the basis of protocol design. [31]

Systems typically do not use a single protocol to handle a transmission.

Instead they use a set of cooperating protocols, sometimes called a protocol
suite.[32] Some of the best-known protocol suites
are TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, X.25, AX.25 and AppleTalk.

The protocols can be arranged based on functionality in groups, for instance,

there is a group of transport protocols. The functionalities are mapped onto
the layers, each layer solving a distinct class of problems relating to, for
instance: application-, transport-, internet- and network interface-functions.
[33]
To transmit a message, a protocol has to be selected from each layer. The
selection of the next protocol is accomplished by extending the message
with a protocol selector for each layer.[34]

Types

[edit]

There are two types of communication protocols, based on their

representation of the content being carried: text-based and binary. [35]

Text-based

[edit]

A text-based protocol or plain text protocol represents its content

in human-readable format, often in plain text encoded in a machine-readable
encoding such as ASCII or UTF-8, or in structured text-based formats such
as Intel hex format, XML or JSON.

The immediate human readability stands in contrast to native binary

protocols which have inherent benefits for use in a computer environment
(such as ease of mechanical parsing and improved bandwidth utilization).

Network applications have various methods of encapsulating data. One

method very common with Internet protocols is a text oriented
representation that transmits requests and responses as lines of ASCII text,
terminated by a newline character (and usually a carriage return character).
Examples of protocols that use plain, human-readable text for its commands
are FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), early
versions of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and the finger protocol.[36]
Text-based protocols are typically optimized for human parsing and
interpretation and are therefore suitable whenever human inspection of
protocol contents is required, such as during debugging and during early
protocol development design phases.

Binary

[edit]

A binary protocol utilizes all values of a byte, as opposed to a text-based

protocol which only uses values corresponding to human-readable characters
in ASCII encoding. Binary protocols are intended to be read by a machine
rather than a human being. Binary protocols have the advantage of
terseness, which translates into speed of transmission and interpretation. [37]

Binary have been used in the normative documents describing modern

standards like EbXML, HTTP/2, HTTP/3 and EDOC.[38] An interface in
UML[39] may also be considered a binary protocol.

Basic requirements

[edit]

Getting the data across a network is only part of the problem for a protocol.
The data received has to be evaluated in the context of the progress of the
conversation, so a protocol must include rules describing the context. These
kinds of rules are said to express the syntax of the communication. Other
rules determine whether the data is meaningful for the context in which the
exchange takes place. These kinds of rules are said to express
the semantics of the communication.

Messages are sent and received on communicating systems to establish

communication. Protocols should therefore specify rules governing the
transmission. In general, much of the following should be addressed: [40]

Data formats for data exchange

Digital message bitstrings are exchanged. The bitstrings are divided in fields
and each field carries information relevant to the protocol. Conceptually the
bitstring is divided into two parts called the header and the payload. The
actual message is carried in the payload. The header area contains the fields
with relevance to the operation of the protocol. Bitstrings longer than
the maximum transmission unit (MTU) are divided in pieces of appropriate
size.[41]
Address formats for data exchange

Addresses are used to identify both the sender and the intended receiver(s).
The addresses are carried in the header area of the bitstrings, allowing the
receivers to determine whether the bitstrings are of interest and should be
processed or should be ignored. A connection between a sender and a
receiver can be identified using an address pair (sender address, receiver
address). Usually, some address values have special meanings. An all-1s
address could be taken to mean an addressing of all stations on the network,
so sending to this address would result in a broadcast on the local network.
The rules describing the meanings of the address value are collectively
called an addressing scheme.[42]

Address mapping

Sometimes protocols need to map addresses of one scheme on addresses of

another scheme. For instance, to translate a logical IP address specified by
the application to an Ethernet MAC address. This is referred to as address
mapping.[43]

Routing

When systems are not directly connected, intermediary systems along

the route to the intended receiver(s) need to forward messages on behalf of
the sender. On the Internet, the networks are connected using routers. The
interconnection of networks through routers is called internetworking.

Detection of transmission errors

Error detection is necessary on networks where data corruption is possible. In

a common approach, a CRC of the data area is added to the end of packets,
making it possible for the receiver to detect differences caused by
corruption. The receiver rejects the packets on CRC differences and arranges
somehow for retransmission.[44]

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement of correct reception of packets is required for connection-

oriented communication. Acknowledgments are sent from receivers back to
their respective senders.[45]

Loss of information - timeouts and retries

Packets may be lost on the network or be delayed in transit. To cope with

this, under some protocols, a sender may expect an acknowledgment of
correct reception from the receiver within a certain amount of time. Thus,
on timeouts, the sender may need to retransmit the information. [a] In case of
a permanently broken link, the retransmission has no effect, so the number
of retransmissions is limited. Exceeding the retry limit is considered an error.
[46]

Direction of information flow

Direction needs to be addressed if transmissions can only occur in one

direction at a time as on half-duplex links or from one sender at a time as on
a shared medium. This is known as media access control. Arrangements
have to be made to accommodate the case of collision or contention where
two parties respectively simultaneously transmit or wish to transmit. [47]

Sequence control

If long bitstrings are divided into pieces and then sent on the network
individually, the pieces may get lost or delayed or, on some types of
networks, take different routes to their destination. As a result, pieces may
arrive out of sequence. Retransmissions can result in duplicate pieces. By
marking the pieces with sequence information at the sender, the receiver
can determine what was lost or duplicated, ask for necessary
retransmissions and reassemble the original message. [48]

Flow control

Flow control is needed when the sender transmits faster than the receiver or
intermediate network equipment can process the transmissions. Flow control
can be implemented by messaging from receiver to sender. [49]

Queueing

Communicating processes or state machines employ queues (or "buffers"),

usually FIFO queues, to deal with the messages in the order sent, and may
sometimes have multiple queues with different prioritization.

Protocol design

[edit]

Systems engineering principles have been applied to create a set of common

network protocol design principles. The design of complex protocols often
involves decomposition into simpler, cooperating protocols. Such a set of
cooperating protocols is sometimes called a protocol family or a protocol
suite,[32] within a conceptual framework.
Communicating systems operate concurrently. An important aspect
of concurrent programming is the synchronization of software for receiving
and transmitting messages of communication in proper sequencing.
Concurrent programming has traditionally been a topic in operating systems
theory texts.[50] Formal verification seems indispensable because concurrent
programs are notorious for the hidden and sophisticated bugs they contain.
[51]
A mathematical approach to the study of concurrency and communication
is referred to as communicating sequential processes (CSP).[52] Concurrency
can also be modeled using finite-state machines, such as Mealy and Moore
machines. Mealy and Moore machines are in use as design tools in digital
electronics systems encountered in the form of hardware used in
telecommunication or electronic devices in general. [53][better source needed]

The literature presents numerous analogies between computer

communication and programming. In analogy, a transfer mechanism of a
protocol is comparable to a central processing unit (CPU). The framework
introduces rules that allow the programmer to design cooperating protocols
independently of one another.

Layering

[edit]

The TCP/IP model or Internet layering scheme

and its relation to some common protocols.

In modern protocol design, protocols are layered to form a protocol stack.

Layering is a design principle that divides the protocol design task into
smaller steps, each of which accomplishes a specific part, interacting with
the other parts of the protocol only in a small number of well-defined ways.
Layering allows the parts of a protocol to be designed and tested without
a combinatorial explosion of cases, keeping each design relatively simple.

The communication protocols in use on the Internet are designed to function

in diverse and complex settings. Internet protocols are designed for
simplicity and modularity and fit into a coarse hierarchy of functional layers
defined in the Internet Protocol Suite.[54] The first two cooperating protocols,
the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP) resulted
from the decomposition of the original Transmission Control Program, a
monolithic communication protocol, into this layered communication suite.

The OSI model was developed internationally based on experience with

networks that predated the internet as a reference model for general
communication with much stricter rules of protocol interaction and rigorous
layering.

Typically, application software is built upon a robust data transport layer.

Underlying this transport layer is a datagram delivery and routing
mechanism that is typically connectionless in the Internet. Packet relaying
across networks happens over another layer that involves only network link
technologies, which are often specific to certain physical layer technologies,
such as Ethernet. Layering provides opportunities to exchange technologies
when needed, for example, protocols are often stacked in
a tunneling arrangement to accommodate the connection of dissimilar
networks. For example, IP may be tunneled across an Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM) network.

Protocol layering

[edit]

Figure 3. Message flows using a protocol suite.

Black loops show the actual messaging loops, red loops are the effective
communication between layers enabled by the lower layers.

Protocol layering forms the basis of protocol design. [31] It allows the
decomposition of single, complex protocols into simpler, cooperating
protocols.[54] The protocol layers each solve a distinct class of communication
problems. Together, the layers make up a layering scheme or model.
Computations deal with algorithms and data; Communication involves
protocols and messages; So the analog of a data flow diagram is some kind
of message flow diagram.[4] To visualize protocol layering and protocol suites,
a diagram of the message flows in and between two systems, A and B, is
shown in figure 3. The systems, A and B, both make use of the same protocol
suite. The vertical flows (and protocols) are in-system and the horizontal
message flows (and protocols) are between systems. The message flows are
governed by rules, and data formats specified by protocols. The blue lines
mark the boundaries of the (horizontal) protocol layers.

Software layering

[edit]

Figure 5: Protocol and software layering. The

software modules implementing the protocols are represented by cubes. The
information flow between the modules is represented by arrows. The (top
two horizontal) red arrows are virtual. The blue lines mark the layer
boundaries.

The software supporting protocols has a layered organization and its

relationship with protocol layering is shown in figure 5.

To send a message on system A, the top-layer software module interacts with

the module directly below it and hands over the message to be
encapsulated. The lower module fills in the header data in accordance with
the protocol it implements and interacts with the bottom module which
sends the message over the communications channel to the bottom module
of system B. On the receiving system B the reverse happens, so ultimately
the message gets delivered in its original form to the top module of system
B.[55]
Program translation is divided into subproblems. As a result, the translation
software is layered as well, allowing the software layers to be designed
independently. The same approach can be seen in the TCP/IP layering. [56]

The modules below the application layer are generally considered part of the
operating system. Passing data between these modules is much less
expensive than passing data between an application program and the
transport layer. The boundary between the application layer and the
transport layer is called the operating system boundary. [57]

Strict layering

[edit]

Strictly adhering to a layered model, a practice known as strict layering, is

not always the best approach to networking. [58] Strict layering can have a
negative impact on the performance of an implementation. [59]

Although the use of protocol layering is today ubiquitous across the field of
computer networking, it has been historically criticized by many
researchers[60] as abstracting the protocol stack in this way may cause a
higher layer to duplicate the functionality of a lower layer, a prime example
being error recovery on both a per-link basis and an end-to-end basis. [61]

Design patterns

[edit]

Commonly recurring problems in the design and implementation of

communication protocols can be addressed by software design patterns.[62][63]
[64][65][66]

Formal specification

[edit]

Popular formal methods of describing communication syntax are Abstract

Syntax Notation One (an ISO standard) and augmented Backus–Naur
form (an IETF standard).

Finite-state machine models are used to formally describe the possible

interactions of the protocol.[67][68] and communicating finite-state machines[69]

Protocol development

[edit]
For communication to occur, protocols have to be selected. The rules can be
expressed by algorithms and data structures. Hardware and operating
system independence is enhanced by expressing the algorithms in a portable
programming language. Source independence of the specification provides
wider interoperability.

Protocol standards are commonly created by obtaining the approval or

support of a standards organization, which initiates the standardization
process. The members of the standards organization agree to adhere to the
work result on a voluntary basis. Often the members are in control of large
market shares relevant to the protocol and in many cases, standards are
enforced by law or the government because they are thought to serve an
important public interest, so getting approval can be very important for the
protocol.

The need for protocol standards

[edit]

The need for protocol standards can be shown by looking at what happened
to the Binary Synchronous Communications (BSC) protocol invented by IBM.
BSC is an early link-level protocol used to connect two separate nodes. It was
originally not intended to be used in a multinode network, but doing so
revealed several deficiencies of the protocol. In the absence of
standardization, manufacturers and organizations felt free to enhance the
protocol, creating incompatible versions on their networks. In some cases,
this was deliberately done to discourage users from using equipment from
other manufacturers. There are more than 50 variants of the original bi-sync
protocol. One can assume, that a standard would have prevented at least
some of this from happening.[29]

In some cases, protocols gain market dominance without going through a

standardization process. Such protocols are referred to as de facto standards.
De facto standards are common in emerging markets, niche markets, or
markets that are monopolized (or oligopolized). They can hold a market in a
very negative grip, especially when used to scare away competition. From a
historical perspective, standardization should be seen as a measure to
counteract the ill-effects of de facto standards. Positive exceptions exist; a de
facto standard operating system like Linux does not have this negative grip
on its market, because the sources are published and maintained in an open
way, thus inviting competition.

Standards organizations
[edit]

Some of the standards organizations of relevance for communication

protocols are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO),
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF). The IETF maintains the protocols in use on the Internet. The
IEEE controls many software and hardware protocols in the electronics
industry for commercial and consumer devices. The ITU is an umbrella
organization of telecommunication engineers designing the public switched
telephone network (PSTN), as well as many radio communication systems.
For marine electronics the NMEA standards are used. The World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) produces protocols and standards for Web technologies.

International standards organizations are supposed to be more impartial than

local organizations with a national or commercial self-interest to consider.
Standards organizations also do research and development for standards of
the future. In practice, the standards organizations mentioned, cooperate
closely with each other.[70]

Multiple standards bodies may be involved in the development of a protocol.

If they are uncoordinated, then the result may be multiple, incompatible
definitions of a protocol, or multiple, incompatible interpretations of
messages; important invariants in one definition (e.g., that time-to-
live values are monotone decreasing to prevent stable routing loops) may
not be respected in another.[71]

The standardization process

[edit]

In the ISO, the standardization process starts off with the commissioning of a
sub-committee workgroup. The workgroup issues working drafts and
discussion documents to interested parties (including other standards
bodies) in order to provoke discussion and comments. This will generate a lot
of questions, much discussion and usually some disagreement. These
comments are taken into account and a draft proposal is produced by the
working group. After feedback, modification, and compromise the proposal
reaches the status of a draft international standard, and ultimately
an international standard. International standards are reissued periodically to
handle the deficiencies and reflect changing views on the subject. [72]

OSI standardization
[edit]

OSI model
by layer

hide

7. Application layer

 NNTP

 SIP

 SSI

 DNS

 FTP

 Gopher

 HTTP (HTTP/3)

 NFS

 NTP

 SMPP

 SSH

 SMTP

 SNMP

 Telnet

 DHCP

 NETCONF

 more....

hide

6. Presentation layer

 MIME

 XDR
  ASN.1

 ASCII

 TLS

 PGP

hide

5. Session layer

 Named pipe

 NetBIOS

 SAP

 PPTP

 RTP

 SOCKS

 X.225[73]

hide

4. Transport layer

 TCP

 UDP

 SCTP

 DCCP

 QUIC

 SPX

hide

3. Network layer

 IP

 IPv4

 IPv6
  ICMP (ICMPv6)

 IPsec

 IGMP

 IPX

 IS-IS

 AppleTalk

 X.25

 PLP

hide

2. Data link layer

 ATM

 ARP

 SDLC

 HDLC

 CSLIP

 SLIP

 GFP

 PLIP

 IEEE 802

 LLC

 MAC

 L2TP

 Frame Relay

 ITU-T G.hn DLL

 PPP

 X.25 LAPB
  Q.922 LAPF

hide

1. Physical layer

 RS-232

 RS-449

 ITU-T V-Series

 I.430

 I.431

 PDH

 SONET/SDH

 PON

 OTN

 DSL

 IEEE 802

 IEEE 1394

 ITU-T G.hn PHY

 USB

 Bluetooth

 X.21

 v

 t

 e

A lesson learned from ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, was that
protocols need a framework to operate. It is therefore important to develop a
general-purpose, future-proof framework suitable for structured
protocols (such as layered protocols) and their standardization. This would
prevent protocol standards with overlapping functionality and would allow
clear definition of the responsibilities of a protocol at the different levels
(layers).[74] This gave rise to the Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI
model), which is used as a framework for the design of standard protocols
and services conforming to the various layer specifications. [75]

In the OSI model, communicating systems are assumed to be connected by

an underlying physical medium providing a basic transmission mechanism.
The layers above it are numbered. Each layer provides service to the layer
above it using the services of the layer immediately below it. The top layer
provides services to the application process. The layers communicate with
each other by means of an interface, called a service access point.
Corresponding layers at each system are called peer entities. To
communicate, two peer entities at a given layer use a protocol specific to
that layer which is implemented by using services of the layer below. [76] For
each layer, there are two types of standards: protocol standards defining how
peer entities at a given layer communicate, and service standards defining
how a given layer communicates with the layer above it.

In the OSI model, the layers and their functionality are (from highest to
lowest layer):

 The Application layer may provide the following services to the

application processes: identification of the intended communication
partners, establishment of the necessary authority to communicate,
determination of availability and authentication of the partners,
agreement on privacy mechanisms for the communication, agreement
on responsibility for error recovery and procedures for ensuring data
integrity, synchronization between cooperating application processes,
identification of any constraints on syntax (e.g. character sets and data
structures), determination of cost and acceptable quality of service,
selection of the dialogue discipline, including required logon and logoff
procedures.[77]

 The presentation layer may provide the following services to the

application layer: a request for the establishment of a session, data
transfer, negotiation of the syntax to be used between the application
layers, any necessary syntax transformations, formatting and special
purpose transformations (e.g., data compression and data encryption).
[78]

 The session layer may provide the following services to the

presentation layer: establishment and release of session connections,
normal and expedited data exchange, a quarantine service which
 allows the sending presentation entity to instruct the receiving session
entity not to release data to its presentation entity without permission,
interaction management so presentation entities can control whose
turn it is to perform certain control functions, resynchronization of a
session connection, reporting of unrecoverable exceptions to the
presentation entity.[79]

 The transport layer provides reliable and transparent data transfer in a

cost-effective way as required by the selected quality of service. It may
support the multiplexing of several transport connections on to one
network connection or split one transport connection into several
network connections.[80]

 The network layer does the setup, maintenance and release of network
paths between transport peer entities. When relays are needed,
routing and relay functions are provided by this layer. The quality of
service is negotiated between network and transport entities at the
time the connection is set up. This layer is also responsible for network
congestion control.[81]

 The data link layer does the setup, maintenance and release of data
link connections. Errors occurring in the physical layer are detected
and may be corrected. Errors are reported to the network layer. The
exchange of data link units (including flow control) is defined by this
layer.[82]

 The physical layer describes details like the electrical characteristics of

the physical connection, the transmission techniques used, and the
setup, maintenance and clearing of physical connections. [83]

In contrast to the TCP/IP layering scheme, which assumes a connectionless

network, RM/OSI assumed a connection-oriented network. [84] Connection-
oriented networks are more suitable for wide area networks and
connectionless networks are more suitable for local area networks.
Connection-oriented communication requires some form of session and
(virtual) circuits, hence the (in the TCP/IP model lacking) session layer. The
constituent members of ISO were mostly concerned with wide area networks,
so the development of RM/OSI concentrated on connection-oriented
networks and connectionless networks were first mentioned in an addendum
to RM/OSI[85][86] and later incorporated into an update to RM/OSI. [87]

At the time,[when?] the IETF had to cope with this and the fact that the Internet
needed protocols that simply were not there.[citation needed] As a result, the IETF
developed its own standardization process based on "rough consensus and
running code".[88] The standardization process is described by RFC 2026.

Nowadays, the IETF has become a standards organization for the protocols in
use on the Internet. RM/OSI has extended its model to include connectionless
services and because of this, both TCP and IP could be developed into
international standards.[citation needed]

Wire image

[edit]

Main article: Wire data

The wire image of a protocol is the information that a non-participant

observer is able to glean from observing the protocol messages, including
both information explicitly given meaning by the protocol, but also inferences
made by the observer.[89] Unencrypted protocol metadata is one source
making up the wire image, and side-channels including packet timing also
contribute.[90] Different observers with different vantages may see different
wire images.[91] The wire image is relevant to end-user privacy and
the extensibility of the protocol.[92]

If some portion of the wire image is not cryptographically authenticated, it is

subject to modification by intermediate parties (i.e., middleboxes), which can
influence protocol operation.[90] Even if authenticated, if a portion is not
encrypted, it will form part of the wire image, and intermediate parties may
intervene depending on its content (e.g., dropping packets with particular
flags). Signals deliberately intended for intermediary consumption may be
left authenticated but unencrypted.[93]

The wire image can be deliberately engineered, encrypting parts that

intermediaries should not be able to observe and providing signals for what
they should be able to.[94] If provided signals are decoupled from the
protocol's operation, they may become untrustworthy. [95] Benign network
management and research are affected by metadata encryption; protocol
designers must balance observability for operability and research against
ossification resistance and end-user privacy.[92] The IETF announced in 2014
that it had determined that large-scale surveillance of protocol operations is
an attack due to the ability to infer information from the wire image about
users and their behaviour,[96] and that the IETF would "work to mitigate
pervasive monitoring" in its protocol designs; [97] this had not been done
systematically previously.[97] The Internet Architecture Board recommended in
2023 that disclosure of information by a protocol to the network should be
intentional,[98] performed with the agreement of both recipient and sender,
[99]
authenticated to the degree possible and necessary, [100] only acted upon
to the degree of its trustworthiness,[101] and minimised and provided to a
minimum number of entities.[102][103] Engineering the wire image and
controlling what signals are provided to network elements was a "developing
field" in 2023, according to the IAB.[104]

Ossification

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Main article: protocol ossification

Protocol ossification is the loss of flexibility, extensibility and evolvability

of network protocols. This is largely due to middleboxes that are sensitive to
the wire image of the protocol, and which can interrupt or interfere with
messages that are valid but which the middlebox does not correctly
recognize.[105] This is a violation of the end-to-end principle.[106] Secondary
causes include inflexibility in endpoint implementations of protocols. [107]

Ossification is a major issue in Internet protocol design and deployment, as it

can prevent new protocols or extensions from being deployed on the
Internet, or place strictures on the design of new protocols; new protocols
may have to be encapsulated in an already-deployed protocol or mimic the
wire image of another protocol.[108] Because of ossification, the Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) are the only
practical choices for transport protocols on the Internet,[109] and TCP itself has
significantly ossified, making extension or modification of the protocol
difficult.[110]

Recommended methods of preventing ossification

include encrypting protocol metadata,[111] and ensuring that extension points
are exercised and wire image variability is exhibited as fully as possible;
[112]
remedying existing ossification requires coordination across protocol
participants.[113] QUIC is the first IETF transport protocol to have been
designed with deliberate anti-ossification properties. [89]

Taxonomies

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Classification schemes for protocols usually focus on the domain of use and
function. As an example of domain of use, connection-oriented
protocols and connectionless protocols are used on connection-oriented
networks and connectionless networks respectively. An example of function
is a tunneling protocol, which is used to encapsulate packets in a high-level
protocol so that the packets can be passed across a transport system using
the high-level protocol.

A layering scheme combines both function and domain of use. The dominant
layering schemes are the ones developed by the IETF and by ISO. Despite
the fact that the underlying assumptions of the layering schemes are
different enough to warrant distinguishing the two, it is a common practice to
compare the two by relating common protocols to the layers of the two
schemes.[114] The layering scheme from the IETF is called Internet
layering or TCP/IP layering. The layering scheme from ISO is called the OSI
model or ISO layering.

In networking equipment configuration, a term-of-art distinction is often

drawn: The term protocol strictly refers to the transport layer, and the
term service refers to protocols utilizing a protocol for transport. In the
common case of TCP and UDP, services are distinguished by port numbers.
Conformance to these port numbers is voluntary, so in content inspection
systems the term service strictly refers to port numbers, and the
term application is often used to refer to protocols identified through
inspection signatures.