Introduction to Protocols

In computing world, a protocol is a set of instructions or rules that governs communication between two networking devices. These could be two computers or other network devices. Protocols can be implemented both by hardware and software.

A protocol may be used to define the communication behavior while a standard may be used to define the structure of information transmission or exchange between two end points.

The OSI Model was used as a reference model till 1996, but later on the Internet Model also known as TCP/IP model took over and stands as Internet reference model. This model has only five layers as opposed to the original OSI model’s 7 layers but all the five layers are named after the OSI model layers though are different in responsibilities.