Internet Protocol

The communications protocol underlying the Internet, IP allows large, geographically diverse networks of computers to communicate with each other quickly and economically over a variety of physical links; it is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. IP is the Layer 3, or network layer, protocol that contains addressing and control information that allows packets to be routed. IP is the most widely used networking protocol; it supports the idea of unique addresses for each computer on the network. IP is a connectionless, best-effort protocol; TCP reassembles the data after transmission. IP specifies the format and addressing scheme for each packet.