Communication Protocols and Standards

What does Communication Protocol mean?

Communication protocols are formal descriptions of digital message formats and rules. They are
required to exchange messages in or between computing systems. Communication protocols are
important in telecommunications systems and other systems because they create consistency and
universality for the sending and receiving of messages.

Communications protocols can cover authentication, error detection and correction, and
signaling. They can also describe the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of analog and
digital communications.

Communications protocols are implemented in hardware and software. There are thousands of
communications protocols that are used everywhere in analog and digital communications.
Computer networks cannot exist without them.

The Key Elements of Protocol are:

1. Syntax: This is the structure or format of DATA. It means the order in which they are
presented e.g. 8 bits address of the sender, 8 bits address of the receiver, and the rest of
the bits are the actual message being sent.
2. Semantics: The meaning of each section of the bits. It is how a particular pattern is
interpreted and what action to be taken based on the interpretation e.g. does an address
identify the route to be taken or the final destination of the message?
3. Timing: When Data should be sent and how fast they can be sent. For example If a
sender is sending Data at a speed of 100 Mbs but the receiver can only process Data at
only 1 Mbs, the transmission will overload the reciver and some Data will be lost

Standards: Are created by Cooperation of Standard Committees and Government Regulatory

Agencies.
1. ISO: International Organization of Standardization
2. ITU: International Telecommunication Union
3. ANSI: American National Standard Institute
4. IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
5. EIA: Electronics Industry Association

Internet Standards: Thoroughly tested specification that is useful to and adhered to by those
who work with the Internet.
Before successful transmission can take place, networked communications devices have to agree
on many physical aspects of the data that is to be exchanged. Rules defining data transmissions
are called "protocols."

There are many properties of a transmission that a protocol can define. For example, properties
addressed with protocols may include:

Packet size.
Transmission speed.
Error correction types.
Handshaking and synchronization techniques.
Address mapping.
Acknowledgment processes.
Flow control.
Packet sequence controls.
Routing.
Address formatting.
Popular protocols include: File Transfer Protocol (FTP), TCP/IP, User Datagram Protocol
(UDP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Post Office Protocol (POP3), Internet Message
Access Protocol (IMAP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

More About Communications Protocols

In a largely unregulated digital environment, communications protocols create rules.

For example, on the Internet, the types of communications protocols created by groups like the
World Wide Web Consortium or W3C and the Internet engineering task force or IETF help to
provide universal operations and limit various kinds of liability and vulnerabilities in these
technologies.

One good example is authentication protocols. The authentication protocols work against things
like distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other common methods by which errant
hackers can hobble vast networks or compromise or confuse network traffic.

When HTTP becomes HTTPS or the widespread use of SSL certificates becomes the norm, this
is what's intended by those establishing those types of communications protocols. The protocols
work to “harden” systems against various kinds of abuse inherently, and that’s a big part of their
value.

Other communications protocols govern the use of data packets in global network trajectories,
which for its part sometimes resembles particle physics. It's not like an open faucet where you
just have a free stream of information flowing from one point to another.

Between the sender and receiver, the message consists of granular, discrete units, where each
individual data packet has its own header, core information and routing trajectory. All of this has
to be synchronized and choreographed in detailed ways, and that's where communications
protocols have such a powerful reach and such an important role.
In addition, the communication protocols that are used depend on the underlying technology
itself. So as the technology advances, so do the protocols. That's why you'll see Internet
protocols evolving into successive versions of themselves, and why we’ll likely see much
different communication protocols in tomorrow's advancing networks.

The Internet of Things promises to drive demand for new evolving communications protocols as
ever wider sets of devices get connected to a global network.