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Novell adapted IPX from the Xerox* Network System (XNS*) Internet Datagram Protocol (IDP). IPX is a connectionless datagram protocol. Connectionless means that when a process running on a particular node uses IPX to communicate with a process on another node, no connection between the two nodes is established. Thus, IPX packets are addressed and sent to their destinations, but there is no guarantee or verification of successful delivery. Any packet acknowledgment or connection control is provided by protocols above IPX, such as SPX. Datagram means that each packet is treated as an individual entity, having no logical or sequential relation to any other packet.
As shown in Figure 1, IPX operates at the OSI Network layer. As a Network-layer protocol, IPX addresses and routes packets from one location to another on an IPX internetwork. IPX bases its routing decisions on the address fields in its header and on the information it receives from RIP or NLSP. IPX uses this information to forward packets to their destination node or to the next router providing a path to the destination node.
For more information about the IPX protocol, refer to
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