ICMP

Definition: ICMP is a network protocol useful in Internet Protocol (IP) network management and administration. ICMP is a required element of IP implementations. ICMP is a control protocol, meaning that it does not carry application data, but rather information about the status of the network itself. ICMP can be used to report:

• errors in the underlying communications of network applications
• availability of remote hosts
• network congestion

Perhaps the best known example of ICMP in practice is the ping utility, that uses ICMP to probe remote hosts for responsiveness and overall round-trip time of the probe messages. ICMP also supports traceroute, that can identify intermediate "hops" between a given source and destination.

Also Known As: Internet Control Message Protocol