In a network, a wire protocol is the mechanism for transmitting data from point a to point b. The term is a bit confusing, because it sounds like layer 1 of the network, which physically places the bits "onto the wire." In some cases, it may refer to layer 1; however, it generally refers to higher layers, including Ethernet and ATM (layer 2) and even higher layer distributed object protocols such as SOAP, CORBA or RMI. See OSI model, communications protocol, data link protocol and distributed objects.上面这段话可以简要归结为以下几点：
- 是一种传输数据的机制；
- 不要从字面上将其理解为物理层上的协议；
- 通常情况下，wire protocol 被用于更高的层次上。