An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that electronic devices are using for identifying and communicating to each other on a computer network by using the TCP/IP Protocol. The TCP/IP is the most famous and most commonly used protocol for communication among electronic devices over Internet.
These network devices may be routers, switches, computers, infrastructure servers (e.g., NTP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, etc.), printers, Internet fax machines, and some telephones. That can have its own address which is unique within the specific computer network.
The IP address is used as a locator for particular computer network to find network device. It is not intended, however, to act as an identifier that always uniquely identifies a particular device. In current practice, an IP address is less likely to be an identifier, due to technologies such as Dynamic assignment and Network address translation.
