Computer networking application protocols

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Computer networking application protocols travel over computer networking end-to-end protocols]] to provide services meaningful to application program]]s residing in the endpoints. The application protocols differ in the kind of information they transfer (e.g., self-contained messages, file transfer|computer file]]s, remote procedure call]]s, spoken language]], etc.). Note well that these are not directly accessible to a human user. To draw an analogy to postal mail, a person can drop an envelope into a mailbox, but has no access either to the mechanism between mailbox and post office, or post office to post office.

Application protocols also differ in their expectations of the performance end-to-end service below them. The application protocol may provide security, expect certain security services from the end-to-end or computer networking internetwork protocols]] over which they run, or both.

Classes of information transfer

Message

Messages are self-contained units of data, which may contain other types of data.

Message handling protocols are analogous to postal protocols. Different protocols run among mail clients that provide a human interface; message transfer agents analogous to post offices, possibly at multiple levels of a hierarchy; and message stores, analogous to temporary mailboxes.

The major IETF message transfer paradigms and protocols include:

  • Mail client to mail server: Post Office Protocol version 3]] (POP3), in which the messages are transferred to the client, and Internet Mail Access Protocol]] (IMAP), in which copies of the messages go to the client but the master copies remain on the server, They use a client-server]] model
  • Mail transfer agent to mail transfer agent: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol]] (SMTP) exchanges messages, on a peer-to-peer]] model, among mail transfer agent]]s that either are part of mail servers, or pure mail exchangers.

See messaging application protocols]] for further detail

File

Files are sequences of units of data.

Structured data

Remote procedure calls

Character- or bit-oriented interaction

Directory services

Network management services

Expectations of the end-to-end service

Performance

They may be tolerant or intolerant of impairments such as:

  • Latency
  • Bit errors
  • Packet loss
  • Sequencing of packets

Security

  • Endpoint authentication]]
    • Client authentication
    • Server authentication
    • Peer authentication
  • Data integrity
    • Atomic integrity]]
    • Sequential integrity]]
  • Content confidentiality]]
  • Traffic flow confidentiality]]
  • Nonrepudiation]]