protocol
When used in computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication, and data transfer between two computing devices. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the lowest level, a protocol defines a hardware connection.
The wide-spread use and expansion of protocols is both a prerequisite to the Internet, and a major contributor to its power and success. The Transmission Control Protocol (or TCP) was the first of these, and the term TCP-IP refers to an important collection of the most used protocols. Most communication protocols are established in the RFC documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF.
Object-oriented programming has extended the use of the term to include the protocol used for connections and communication between objects.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, and uses material from the Wikipedia article "protocol".