IP Addressing Fundamentals

Dissecting a Typical Communications Session

A “typical communications session” is a vague phrase that almost defies description. Depending on where you work and what technologies have been implemented, the typical network can have seemingly infinite variety. For the sake of example, let's assume that our network consists of Ethernet LANs that communicate via the TCP/IP protocol suite. We'll dissect this communications session within this technical context to better appreciate the active role of IP addresses.

We'll use a simple example throughout this chapter to demonstrate how the various network components interact and culminate in a successful communications session. The example uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to access the website ...