What is an IP
IP stands for “internet protocol” and references a data protocol that is used for communication across a network. A protocol, then, is a standard that governs the connection of that contact between two points on a network. Protocol also references a set of guidelines or rules that govern the aspects of the communication across the network.
IP, then, is what is known as a network layer protocol and is housed and governed in a data linkage known as Ethernet. Ethernet refers to what are essentially a family of computer properties and technologies used across local area networks or LANs.
Ethernet tends to provide unique global internet protocol addresses or IP addresses to users on the networks. IP is basically the tools of communication and the identity of a particular computer or network’s “global address.” IP is entirely concerned with where the data ends up whereas Ethernet references and is concerned with the actual next device in the next chain of communication.
To use the aforementioned example regarding a child’s telephone, the Ethernet would be concerned with the two cans more than it would be with the string.
The first version of IP to be used worldwide and widely deployed was IPv4. IPv4, as the name would suggest, was the fourth edition of internet protocol and is used on the internet along with IPv6. IPv6 and Ipv4 are actually the only forms of internet protocol to be utilized on the World Wide Web.
IPv4 is what is known as a “best effort delivery” protocol; there are not many service guarantees within IPv4 or any other IP for that matter. In fact, best effort delivery contains a number of notions that do not guarantee a level of quality for service customers or a level of reliability in terms of connectivity to any network.
The best comparison to this philosophy would be the post office. While no resources are left unused in the operation of delivering mail, there is no actualized guarantee as to when you mail will arrive.
IP has a lack of data guarantee, but it can also end up corrupting data, losing connectivity to a network or not granting it at all, doubling up on the arrival of some data connectivity pings to a network, and even losing some of the connection packets in the middle of a process.
It certainly does not seem very reliable. The comparison to IP data connectivity is to the post office. There are no guarantees that the message will arrive in any set period of time because of outside possibilities interfering, but as long as the address is right the mail will eventually make it to the right place.
These issues can be a concern for the newest technologies, including voip conference calls or voip systems.
IP, while seemingly complex, simply provides a set of rules and regulations in the world of technology that enables data the ability to transmit across a given network, going as far as to include voice over ip services.
This happens because the computers in the network have IP addresses and can function within the network’s regulations. IP governs these addresses and the involvement of the address with the regulations, transferring data around the network.