Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is the core protocol in the TCP/IP protocol suite. IPv4 works at the network layer in the TCP/IP model. This layer corresponds to the network layer in the Open System Interconnection Reference Model (OSI RM). The network layer provides connectionless data transmission. Each IP datagram is transmitted independently.
IPv4 is used on the network layer between the data link layer and the transport layer. IPv4 shields the differences at the link layer and provides a uniform format for the data packets transmitted at the transport layer.