communication protocol

A communications protocol is a formal description of digital message formats and the rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications.

Protocols may include signaling, authentication and error detection and correction capabilities.

A protocol defines the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication, and the specified behaviour is typically independent of how it is to be implemented. A protocol can therefore be implemented as hardware or software or both.

While there is no generally accepted formal definition of "protocol" in computer science,^{[citation needed]} an informal definition, based on the previous, could be "a description of a set of procedures to be followed when communicating". In computer science the word algorithm is a synonym for the word procedure so a protocol is to communications what an algorithm is to mathematics.
Communicating systems use well-defined formats for exchanging messages. Each message has an exact meaning intended to provoke a defined response of the receiver. A protocol therefore describes the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication. A programming language describes the same for computations, so there is a close analogy between protocols and programming languages: protocols are to communications what programming languages are to computations.^[1] (A more linguistical reader might appreciate this similar analogy: protocols are to communications what grammar is to writing.)
The communications protocols in use on the Internet are designed to function in very complex and diverse settings. To ease design, communications protocols are structured using a layering scheme as a basis. Instead of using a single universal protocol to handle all transmission tasks, a set of cooperating protocols fitting the layering scheme is used.^[2]

Figure 2. The TCP/IP model or Internet layering scheme and its relation to some common protocols.

The layering scheme in use on the Internet is called the TCP/IP model. The actual protocols are collectively called the Internet protocol suite. The group responsible for this design is called the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Obviously the number of layers of a layering scheme and the way the layers are defined can have a drastic impact on the protocols involved. This is where the analogies come into play for the TCP/IP model, because the designers of TCP/IP employed the same techniques used to conquer the complexity of programming language compilers (design by analogy) in the implementation of its protocols and its layering scheme.^[3]
Communications protocols have to be agreed upon by the parties involved. To reach agreement a protocol is developed into a technical standard.