Definition

• Wire protocol is a mechanism used to transmit data effectively from point to point in a network.
  
  

Function

• A wire protocol is necessary when one or more applications has to interoperate, or operate together, in a network. Wire protocol often refers to distributed object protocols, or applications whose software components are designed to work together but they reside in different processes in one computer or in multiple computers connected on a network.
  
  

Types

• Common types of wire protocols include SOAP and CORBA. SOAP, or Simple Object Access Protocol, is a means for a program running via one kind of operating system, such as Windows, to communicate with a program in another operating system, such as Linux, via the internet. CORBA, or the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is a standard set by the Object Management Group that supports multiple platforms. CORBA allows software components running on multiple computers and written in different computer languages to work together.