What Are Protocols?

The telecommunications industry has adopted standards called protocols to rectify the problem of conflicting procedures. The word protocol comes from the areas of diplomacy and etiquette. For instance, at a dinner party in the elegant home of a family on the social register, the protocol in effect may be formal attire, impeccable table manners, and remaining at the table until beckoned to the parlor by the host or hostess. In the communications field, protocols have comparable roles.

A communications protocol  is a collection of procedures to establish, maintain and terminate transmission between devices. Protocols specify how devices will physically connect to a network, how data will be packaged for transmission, how data will be packaged for transmission, how receiver devices will acknowledge signals from sender devices (a process called band shaking), how errors will be handled, and so on. Just as people need to agree upon set of rules to communicate effectively, machines also need a common set of rules to help them get along with one another.

Protocols are found in all types of networks. How many protocols are there ? Thousands.