The-TCP-IP IP protocol for Linux Systems

The IP protocol provides unreliable, non-connected datagram delivery services.

Unreliable (unreliable): The IP protocol does not guarantee that datagrams will successfully reach the destination, it only provides transport services. When some kind of error occurs, the IP protocol discards the datagram. The reliability of the transmission is entirely provided by the upper layer protocol.

No connection (connectionless): The IP protocol handles each datagram independently of each other. This also means that IP datagrams can be received in the order they are sent. If the sending direction receiver sends two consecutive datagrams (first A, then B), each datagram can choose a different route, so B may arrive before a arrives.

The-TCP-IP IP protocol for Linux Systems