ICANN Acronyms and Terms
Type in the acronym or term you are looking for in the Search bar below.
In addition to English, translated versions of acronyms and terms are also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Links for each language are located in the top right of the page.
Click the first letter of the term you are looking for to search alphabetically.
Do you have feedback on the definitions or the terms? Send us an email to: acronymsandterms@icann.org.
I
Internet Protocol(IP)
The set of rules that govern how devices communicate over the Internet. The Internet Protocol specifies the format of the packets that devices use to transmit messages through the network. It also specifies the addressing scheme that routers use to transmit messages to their destinations.
Two versions of the Internet Protocol are currently in popular use: Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).