Start at the hardware/IP layer. Easiest would be serial port for the hardware, and there are at least two methods of sending IP over serial, SLIP and PPP---the

Start at the hardware/IP layer. Easiest would be serial port for the hardware, and there are at least two methods of sending IP over serial, SLIP and PPP---there are documents out there that describe how those work. Then work on IP. IP itself is fairly easy---it's just best effort and IP options are just that---options. Then ICMP. Once you have that, then you can at least ping the device. UDP is the next easiest to implement, it's just portnumbers to an otherwise IP packet.