RFCs and Protocol Suites — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

RFC stands for Request for Comments. The first RFCs, starting with RFC 1 in April 1969, were engineers putting an idea out and asking each other to look it over. Today an RFC is where a protocol is defined: engineers build to it, so that independently built products work together. When a source and a blog disagree, go back to the RFC. An RFC is never edited once it is published. A standard grows by new RFCs: one may update an earlier one, or replace it, and its header says so. RFC 2460 (December 1998) defined IPv6 and says "Obsoletes: 1883"; RFC 8200 (July 2017) says "Obsoletes: 2460" and is the IPv6 specification today. Not every RFC is a standard: each says what it is, and some, like the April Fools' RFC 1149 about carrier pigeons, are jokes. A protocol suite is a group of protocols designed to work with each other, but not necessarily with protocols from other suites. Suites came from different companies, countries and eras: Apple and Novell built their own, for example. TCP/IP was built by many organizations together and is the suite the internet runs on. Some protocols interface across suites, as NetBIOS does over TCP.

What you'll learn

Use RFCs as the primary source for a protocol: settle a disagreement from the RFC, follow an "Obsoletes" line to the current RFC, and recognize that a standard grows by new RFCs rather than by editing old ones
Explain what a protocol suite is: protocols designed to work with each other, but not necessarily with protocols from another suite, and why TCP/IP is the suite most networks use today

Aligned to

CompTIA Network+

1.4 Explain common networking ports, protocols, services, and traffic types.

1.1 Explain concepts related to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model.

Cisco CCST Networking

1.5 Describe common network applications and protocols

1.1 Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks

ISC2 CC

4.1 Understand network security

Key terms

Request for Comments: A formally published document from the IETF that defines standards, protocols, and best practices governing internet technologies and IP addressing.
Protocol Suite: A collection of protocols designed to work together as a group, enabling interoperable communication across layers of a network stack.
TCP/IP: The suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet.
Protocol: A set of rules governing the format and transmission of data between devices.

Topics

Request For Comments Protocol Suite Tcp Ip Protocol Interactive Predict

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