The Internet Protocol operates in Layer 3 of the OSI model, the network layer. IP is a connectionless protocol. There is no guarantee of delivery or acknowledgement of receipt, and it operates on a best-effort delivery of datagrams through an internetwork. The Internet Protocol has two functions, addressing and fragmentation. IP uses the addresses located in the internet header to deliver datagrams to their destination, and provides fragmentation and reassembly of datagrams to support data links with different maximum transmission unit sizes (2, 1.4).

IP uses a packet method because it is a connectionless protocol. An IP packet is compr

IP is the heart of internet protocols. It is responsible for the two basic functions of addressing and fragmentation. IP carries out theses responsibilities by using the addresses carried in the internet header to transmit the datagrams to their destinations, also known as routing, and by using the fields in the internet header to fragment and reassemble datagrams for transmission (2, 1.4). The internet protocol does not provide a reliable communication facility, but is the most popular open-system protocol because of its ability to communicate across any set of interconnected networks regardless of the hardware being used (1, 475).

IP addresses are divided into five different address classes: A, B, C, D, and E. Classes A, B, and C are issued for commercial use, where as D is multicast, and E is reserved (1,479). In Class A, the high order bit, which indicates the network class, is a 0, the next 7 bits are the network ID, and the remaining 24 bits are the host ID. The maximum number of networks is 27, and the maximum number of hosts is 224. The subnet mask, which is a 32-bit address mask used to indicate the bits of an IP address that are being used for the subnet address, is 255.0.0.0. In Class B, the high order two bits are 1 and 0, respectively, the next 14 bits are the network ID, and the remaining 16 bits are the host ID. The maximum number of networks is 214, and the maximum number of hosts is 216. The subnet mask for class B is 255.255.0.0. In Class C, th

Some topics in this essay:
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