question about protocol existence

Actually when you ask any computer science student ,what is meant by a protocol they will immediately answer that it is a set of rules that computers(hosts or nodes) will follow in order to establish a communication between them .But when you asked where it lies and whether it is a software or a hardware they get confused.The same thing happened to me.
ok I will straightaway go into my topic ,
My sir asked this above question "where will be protocol loacted and whether it is a software or a hardware?"
I told that protocol will be located as a hardware in networkinterface card since it manages the data link layer and physical layer and also it will be located as a piece of software as a part of os .
whether My answer is correct? In that case protocol will exist as a software as well as hardware .
But My sir asked tell me only one whether it's a software or a hardware.
also he asked other than tcp/ip can we use any other protocol i told we can use netbios also .please clarify me guys

Replies

  • Morningdot Hablu
    Morningdot Hablu
    up to what i know

    A layer 1 protocol will run in hardware and is usually firmware. The examples would be T1-DS1, E1, OC-3, OC-48, etc. In your computer the Layer 1 is handled by your Network Interface Card.
    A layer 2 protocol such as Ethernet, will run partly in hardware, your NIC and partly in software. Or it may run in hardware or software. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) uses Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) to route the cells, but will use software for the Adaptation Layers.

    A layer 3 Protocol will run on your computer, but will be software a layer 3 Protocol would be Internet Protocol (IP). A layer 4 protocol will run on your computer but will be mainly software for the Internet the two most common protocols are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which is used for such things as data transmission and will give you a reliable transmission (error detection and sequence numbers so that missing data can be retransmitted) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) which is used for voice and video and gives you unreliable transmission, which means that any data that is damaged is discarded and not retransmitted.

    So it is hard to give a definite answer when the question is asked unless you detail which protocol you are discussing.

    let me know if you gone with computer network subject.
    it's my next sem subject.
  • Ashraf HZ
    Ashraf HZ
    mohit007kumar00
    So it is hard to give a definite answer when the question is asked unless you detail which protocol you are discussing.
    This is true. I guess looking at it semantically, it would be "software" since we are dealing with signals containing information rather than electrical parameters. Though this is not the answer I'd give to your teacher 😛

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