Theoretical network protocol with ports higher than 65535 [closed]

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to settle an argument at work. Is it possible, in theory, to create a network protocol with ports higher than 65535 and get it approved by IANA ?

if not, why not ?

Answer 1

Yes. It is possible to create one with an arbitrary number of ports.

Getting it approved by IANA (and IETF, ISO and whoever else are concerned) is just a matter of getting enough people to use your wonderful new invention. Which is extremely unlikely but not theoretically impossible.

Answer 2

If you are using TCP or UDP on top of IP, then no. Both TCP and UDP only use 16 bits for the port number. If you are using some other protocol suite such as IPX/SPX, then it depends on that protocol. If you are making your own protocol, then you can do whatever you want. Getting it approved by IANA is a different story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol

2^16 = 65536 different ports

Since computer numbers start counting at 0, this leaves 65535 as the max.