ABSTRACT
When two parties communicate, there is a need for a mechanism to manage communication flow and provide consistent interpretation of messages between the two parties. This requirement extends to the communications between computers. Data transmission protocols provide a means to allow computers to properly exchange and interpret data messages in a computer network. To achieve that, data transmission protocols define rules for message exchange and structures for message formatting. A computer network is a complex system, which relies on a collection of data transmission protocols to operate, with each data transmission protocol providing some specific functions. In this entry, we describe the general principles of data transmission protocol design, the Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model, the transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) suite, and various commonly used data transmission protocols in the modern computer networks.
