How do computer networks operate and why has the Internet been successful? A large part of the answer to both of these questions is what is known as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite of computer communication protocols, more commonly referred to as TCP/IP. As late as the mid-1980s, there were many "islands" of computer networks that could not communicate with each other. These networks were limited in size and speed, and the technologies on which they were based used closed proprietary standards, meaning that they could not communicate with each other. TCP/IP has changed everything; what exists now is a fast, worldwide, and single network based on open standards: the Internet.

TCP/IP is the defining interoperability protocol for connecting computers to one another upon which the Internet is built. The creators of the TCP/IP protocol suite recognized...