What is TCP/IP and how does it work? Define packet switching in the course of your response.

What will be an ideal response?

Student responses will vary, but should be drawn from the following information from the text.

Short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, TCP/IP is a network protocol that defines how messages (data) are routed from one end of a network to the other, ensuring the data arrives correctly. TCP/IP describes rules for dividing messages into small pieces, called packets; providing addresses for each packet; checking for and detecting errors; sequencing packets; and regulating the flow of messages along the network.

TCP/IP has been adopted as the network standard for Internet communications. Thus, all hosts on the Internet follow the rules defined in this standard. Internet communications also use other standards, such as the Ethernet standard, as data is routed to its destination.

When a computer sends data over the Internet, the data is divided into packets. Each packet contains the data, as well as the recipient (destination), the origin (sender), and the sequence information used to reassemble the data at the destination. Each packet travels along the fastest individual available path to the recipient's computer or mobile device via routers. This technique of breaking a message into individual packets, sending the packets along the best route available, and then reassembling the data is called packet switching.