Types of Network Protocols and Their Uses

The world of communication has become possible, popular, and accessible now, because of the ability to share data resources between two devices that may be physically located at a longer distance, but are connected via the same network or the Internet. Network Protocol provides a certain set of rules that need to be followed during the data transmission between the two devices of a network. It helps to communicate with two devices even when the devices are not similar in terms of structure, network, or design. The Network Protocols are designed according to the need of an organization to perform a specific task.

Types of Network Protocols

The OSI model is generally used to communicate via a network or the Internet. There are totally seven layers in the OSI model. The Primary functions of the network protocol are to perform secured connections, network management, and network communication. Protocols are meant to make the connection between devices. The Network protocols are divided into three ways namely

• Network Communication such as Ethernet

• Network Management such as SMTP

• Network Security such as secure shell

Network Communication

In Network Communication the information, file, and folders are transferred between two devices. Communication can be both analog and digital. Technology is emerged a lot these decades to get easy access to devices and people like smart homes and cloud technology using this protocol. The File transfer protocol is used when transferring files or media from one device to another.

The purpose of routing protocol is to get the perfect path through the network, maintaining stability, simplicity, and flexibility. It establishes the connection between routers and other devices. The Data transmission between two devices via the Internet uses internet protocol.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is used by the application layer of the OSI model. The request is sent from the client end to the server end until it responds. As it uses the final layer of the OSI model, it directly communicates with the software applications like browsers. It is the most widely used protocol for using the Internet.

UDP

User Datagram Protocol is mainly used for transferring a small amount of data that does not need any acknowledgment from the receiver. It works mainly on fast data transmission rather than on the accuracy of transferring the data without errors. There are two fields in the UDP they are header and data respectively.

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol provides complete services in the transport layer. TCP is used for the secure transmission of data between the client and the server which is a connection-oriented service that carries the data in the form of packets that are broken into smaller parts called segments. These Segments are numbered accordingly for identification at the receiver end. Based on the sequence number, TCP collects all the segments and rearranges them into proper data.

BGP

Border Gateway Protocol follows the path vector routing protocol. The Internet is composed of networks and they are broken into smaller ones called Autonomous networks (AS). BGP is implemented on the Internet that works based on data routing. BGP finds the shortest path for data packet transfer.

IRC

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is basically the protocol used to chat online on the internet using the installed software and uses to transmit files and messages on time. To use this facility, one must install an IRC program in the system.

Network Management Protocols

Using the Network management protocol, we will have a secured and efficient network performance. Management Protocol provides a certain set of rules, policies, and conditions to be used across the network. It helps to manage and access the networks for any industrial use.

SNMP

In Simple Network Management Protocol, we can handle the network devices such as servers, computers, switches, and routers. SNMP is an application layer protocol and its basic components of them are namely an SNMP manager, Management Information Base (MIB), Managed devices, and the agent. These components are fond of monitoring the device using a network protocol.

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocols are mainly used for determining the errors in the network and reporting the errors and it is a connectionless protocol. ICMP generates an error when any two devices cannot connect to the Internet.

Network Security Protocol

The main objective of security protocol is to have secured data transmit and no corruption occurs. And detects and avoids unauthorized users to access the network.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer Protocol’s responsibility is to protect the system and also the sensitive data. It provides the communication between client and server and also between two servers.

SFTP

In Secure File Transfer Protocol, the client and server are authenticated for encryption, and then only the files or folders are transferred between the devices.

HTTPS

HTTPS stands for Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol and it provides a secure connection between the browser and the server. Using this protocol, we can protect them from attackers.

Network Protocols are used by the organization to have secure communication, to manage the network and most probably the security of the network. It is inbuilt software in some systems and needs installation when protocols are not available. TCP and IP can be implemented for small businesses and startups. Besides the functions and uses of network protocols, they also possess some disadvantages of being attacked by the common attack like being routed to false advertisement.