A communications protocol that contains a network address and a device address. The routable protocol allows packets to be forwarded from one network to another, which at home is between the user's local network and the Internet. The global standard routable protocol is TCP/IP. Other routable protocols used in the past were
AppleTalk,
SNA,
IPX,
XNS and
DECnet. Contrast with
non-routable protocol. See
TCP/IP and
routing protocol.