IPX

The term IPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange. It is a routing protocol that is used in the networking world. It is being excessively used and utilized for small networks as well as for larger networks. History tells us that this particular type of protocol is being developed by Novell. The major reason for development of this protocol was that it was necessary and essential for Novell net ware networks, however, apart from that this protocol can also be utilized and implemented on other products as well that are present in the market, hence making it a versatile product or technology.

The primary and basic function of this routable protocol is that offers and provides the support to all the layers of OSI model. By making use of the connectionless datagram service, this routable protocol is by far the most fast, efficient, effective communication medium. However, in the today world the use of this protocol is decreasing rapidly due to the emergence of the TCP/IP protocol. The reason that the TCP/IP is becoming more popular than the IPX is that it allows multiple network protocols to run at the same time, while doing the same task with the IPX is kind of difficult, however, many organizations today are still using the IPX protocol along with the TCP/IP protocol, to increase their efficiency and output.

With reference to the addressing of this IPX, the logical networks present are assigned a 32 bit unique number in hexadecimal. When the network address of the IPX is compared with the IP, then one sees that these two are conceptually identical, and moreover the nodes address in the IPX has the same meaning as the bits of the IP address with netmask bits set to 0. When it comes to the routing part, then again the way the routing table is made is similar to the IP.