Is direct IP packet transfer possible?

Question

As far as I know, in order to carry IP packets, we need a link protocol. Is there any exception of this?

Answer 1

Some tunnel protocols can be seen as exceptions. IP tunnels encapsulate an IP packet into another one. At the end a link protocol is needed to carry the resulting packet, but not directly to handle the first one.

You can take a look at IP in IP, 6in4 or 4in6.