Question

One student has designed a new transport-layer protocol, NTLP, that is completely different from the TCP or UDP. He then creates a packet that has a physical-layer header, a data-link-layer header, and an IP header. This packet contains the NTLP header and the application data payload. The packet is sent to the destination IP address as indicated in the IP header. Will this packet be delivered to the destination IP address indicated in the IP header?

Answer 1

Answer: YES

Explanation: In the layered OSI model, each layer is independent from the others, communicating only with his counterpart in the other end of the link. So, the IP protocol (network layer) will be responsible of delivering the packets to the destination IP address indicated in the IP packet, ignoring the transport layer header, that is treated as application payload for the IP layer.

This is the reason that allows to use TCP, UDP or any other transport protocol throughout the Internet, for instance.

Answer 2

That packet will definitely be delivered to the destination IP address, due in part to the layer's independency of the layered OSI model.

As the 4th layer of the OSI model, approved by the organization in charge of developing and promote internet standards and protocols, the IETF, the transport layer protocol helps transferring data between systems using network layer services transparently.

In such OSI model, each layer communicates with its peer or equivalent exclusively in the other end of the link, and the IP protocol will ignore the transport layer header, thus delivering the packets to the destination IP address.