Exercise 04

1. Describe the IP protocol. What is DNS?

IP Protocol is one of the protocols working in the Internet Layer of the OSI Model. Function of the protocol is to provide routing function across multiple networks. IP Protocol is implemented not only at the end systems but also at router where data is routed across different networks from source to destination (Stallings, 2005).

DNS is Domain Name System. Individual machines/devices are connected to Internet via LAN switches/ routers or directly. Each of the devices/host machines connected to Internet must have a unique IP address in 32-bit numeric format for identification. IP address consists of two parts, network number and host number. Network number identifies the network on the internet whereas host number identifies a unique host on that network. However IP addresses in numeric format are hard to be memorized. The Domain Name System (DNS) is to translate the IP address of devices from human-readable hostnames to numeric addresses. Host/device are grouped together as domains and assigned with domain names. Domains are organized hierarchically (Stallings, 2005, p.88)