A message starts on your phone or laptop. The network divides it into packets before sending it onward.
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Each packet pairs a header with a payload. The header carries origin and destination IP addresses; the payload carries the data itself.
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A router reads the destination IP, compares it with routing-table prefixes, then forwards the packet using the longest matching prefix.
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TCP uses sequence numbers to reorder data, acknowledgments to confirm receipt, and retransmission to repair loss. The destination then reassembles the original data.
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The system-level takeaway: packet headers guide each hop, while TCP turns separately delivered pieces into one ordered data stream at the destination.
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