Overview of Transport Protocols

TCP/IP
TCP/IP is the actual communication standard used by the Internet.
It was developed by the U.S department of Defense in the 70's.
This network was developed by the military so it could serve as a contingent network incase a nuclear war broke out.
The network was however given to government agencies and universities for free.
Researchers and students at the respected universities incorporated the suite into the UNIX network operating systems on their computers.
They then developed higher-level protocols for FTP (File transfer protocol) SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and even browsing of documents in HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
These applications use the 'sockets' application-programming interface (API)
TCP/IP protocol suite is being used on LANs and WANs primarily because of its vigorous nature and the increasing need to use Internet technologies.
All network software vendors now include TCP/IP within their products.
Like Linux no one owns TCP/IP and anyone can contribute towards its development.