Point-to-Point Protocol
The Point-to-Point Protocol (usually given as the abbreviation, PPP), is a low-level protocol intended for use in carrying packets over point-to-point links - principally (originally) serial lines (both asynchronous serial lines and synchronous serial lines).
It has since been adopted in numerous other applications/environments, including SONET, MPLS, and Ethernet (where PPP is used to gain access to capabilities available under PPP, such as authentication).
PPP includes an extensible 'Link Control Protocol' (LCP), to perform a variety of actions such as configuring and testing the link. It also includes a family of 'Network Control Protocols' (NCPs), one for each protocol family carried over the link, which are used to establish and configure the carriage of packets in that protocol family.
It was created as part of the TCP/IP suite, and first defined in RFC 1134 (below). It was intended to replace the fairly widely-used SLIP.
External links
- Point-to-Point Protocol: A proposal for multi-protocol transmission of datagrams over Point-to-Point links - original version (RFC-1134); contains informative content on the background and rationale
- The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) - latest revision (RFC-1661)
- The PPP Compression Control Protocol (CCP) (RFC-1962)
- PPP in Frame Relay (RFC-1973)
- A Method for Transmitting PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE) (RFC-2516)
- PPP over SONET/SDH (RFC-2615)
- The PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP) (RFC-1332)
