The following diagram illustrates the place of the internet protocol in the protocol hierarchy:
+------+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
|Telnet| | FTP | | TFTP| ... | ... |
+------+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| | | |
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| TCP | | UDP | ... | ... |
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| | |
+--------------------------+----+
| Internet Protocol & ICMP |
+--------------------------+----+
|
+---------------------------+
| Local Network Protocol |
+---------------------------+
Protocol Relationships
Figure 1.
Internet protocol interfaces on one side to the higher level host-to-host protocols and on the other side to the local network protocol. In this context a "local network" may be a small network in a building or a large network such as the ARPANET.