Illustrated TCP/IP by Matthew G. Naugle Wiley Computer Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 0471196568   Pub Date: 11/01/98

Chapter 27
The Internet Protocol (IP)

Now that the introductions are over, let’s get into the technical details of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The main goal of IP is to provide interconnection of subnetworks (the interconnection of networks, explained later) to form an internet in order to pass data.

The IP protocol provides four main functions:

1.  basic unit for data transfer,

2.  addressing,

3.  routing, and

4.  fragmentation of datagrams.