Internetprotokollaa

Internetprotokollaa, known in English as the Internet Protocol (IP), is the principal protocol in the Internet protocol suite for routing and addressing packets across networks. It provides a standardized method for delivering data from a source device to a destination device through interconnected networks, enabling global communication. In Finnish discussions the term internetprotokollaa is used to refer to IP as a concept and technology.

IP was developed in the ARPANET era. The first widely deployed version, IPv4, was defined in the Request for Comment 791 in 1981 and uses 32-bit addresses. To address long-term address exhaustion, IPv6 was developed, featuring 128-bit addresses and a redesigned header; it was formalized in RFC 8200 and related documents, with ongoing deployment since the 2010s.

IP is a best-effort, connectionless network layer protocol. It delivers datagrams containing payload data and routing information. Each IP packet includes a source and destination address; routers move packets toward their destination based on routing tables and algorithms. IPv4 supports fragmentation; IPv6 moves fragmentation to other layers and uses simplified headers. IP relies on upper-layer protocols such as TCP and UDP for end-to-end services.

Today IP supports global Internet routing with IPv4 coexistence via techniques such as network address translation (NAT) and ongoing IPv6 adoption to expand address space. Security for IP traffic is provided by upper layers or by IPsec in a VPN context, though IPsec is optional and not universally deployed at all times. The protocol remains foundational to modern networking.