7 OSI MODEL

1. PHYSICAL LAYER
 The physical layer consists of electronic circuitry, media, and connectors. The cable wiring
standards and physical topology are also part of the physical layer
 The physical layer standards address three functional areas in the network.
1. Physical Components
2. Encoding
3. Signaling
4. Multiplexing strategy
 The physical components are the electronic hardware devices, media, and other connectors
that transmit the signals that represent the bits. Hardware components such as NICs,
interfaces and connectors, cable materials, and cable designs are all specified in standards
associated with the physical layer. The various ports and interfaces on a Cisco 1941 router
are also examples of physical components with specific connectors and pinouts resulting
from standards.
 The data in the physical layer is referred to as BITS.
 There are many different international and national organizations, regulatory government
organizations, and private companies involved in establishing and maintaining physical layer
standards. For instance, the physical layer hardware, media, encoding, and signaling
standards are defined and governed by these standards organizations:

- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

- Telecommunications Industry Association/Electronic Industries Association
(TIA/EIA)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- National telecommunications regulatory authorities including the Federal
Communication Commission (FCC) in the USA
- European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

NOTES:
o The physical layer must generate the electrical, optical, or wireless signals that represent the
"1" and "0" on the media. The way that bits are represented is called the signaling method.
The physical layer standards must define what type of signal represents a "1" and what type
of signal represents a "0". This can be as simple as a change in the level of an electrical
signal or optical pulse. For example, a long pulse might represent a 1 whereas a short pulse
might represent a 0.
o Different physical media support the transfer of bits at different rates. Data transfer is usually
discussed in terms of bandwidth. Bandwidth is the capacity at which a medium can carry
data. Digital bandwidth measures the amount of data that can flow from one place to another
in a given amount of time. Bandwidth is typically measured in kilobits per second (kbps),
megabits per second (Mbps), or gigabits per second (Gbps).
o Multiplexing is how we send different conversation at the same time over the same media.

o Below are the terms used to measure the quality of bandwidth

- Latency refers to the amount of time, including delays, for data to travel from one
given point to another.
- Throughput is the measure of the transfer of bits across the media over a given
period of time.
Due to a number of factors, throughput usually does not match the specified
bandwidth in physical layer implementations. Throughput is usually lower than
the bandwidth. There are many factors that influence throughput:
1. The amount of traffic
2. The type of traffic

3. The latency created by the number of network devices encountered between

source and destination

2. DATA LINK LAYER

 The data link layer of the OSI model (Layer 2), as shown in the figure, prepares network data
for the physical network. The data link layer is responsible for network interface card (NIC) to
network interface card communications. The data link layer does the following:
- Enables upper layers to access the media. The upper layer protocol is
completely unaware of the type of media that is used to forward the data.
- Accepts data, usually Layer 3 packets (i.e., IPv4 or IPv6), and encapsulates them
into Layer 2 frames.
- Controls how data is placed and received on the media.
- Exchanges frames between endpoints over the network media.
- Receives encapsulated data, usually Layer 3 packets, and directs them to the
proper upper-layer protocol.
- Performs error detection and rejects any corrupt frame.
 The data in the data link layer is referred to as FRAME. The layer 2 data added are the
source MAC address and destination MAC address.
  Layer 2 devices example is bridge and switches

NOTES:

o data link layer consists of the following two sublayers:

Logical Link Control (LLC) - This IEEE 802.2 sublayer communicates between the
networking software at the upper layers and the device hardware at the lower layers. It
places information in the frame that identifies which network layer protocol is being used for
the frame. This information allows multiple Layer 3 protocols, such as IPv4 and IPv6, to use
the same network interface and media.

Media Access Control (MAC) – Implements this sublayer (IEEE 802.3, 802.11, or 802.15)
in hardware. It is responsible for data encapsulation and media access control. It provides
data link layer addressing and it is integrated with various physical layer technologies.

3. NETWORK LAYER
 The network layer, or OSI Layer 3, provides services to allow end devices to exchange data
across networks. As shown in the figure, IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6) are the
principle network layer communication protocols. Other network layer protocols include
routing protocols such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and messaging protocols such
as Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP).
 To accomplish end-to-end communications across network boundaries, network layer
protocols perform four basic operations:

Addressing end devices - End devices must be configured with a unique IP address for
identification on the network.

Encapsulation - The network layer encapsulates the protocol data unit (PDU) from the
transport layer into a packet. The encapsulation process adds IP header information, such
as the IP address of the source (sending) and destination (receiving) hosts. The
encapsulation process is performed by the source of the IP packet.

Routing - The network layer provides services to direct the packets to a destination host on
another network. To travel to other networks, the packet must be processed by a router. The
role of the router is to select the best path and direct packets toward the destination host in a
process known as routing. A packet may cross many routers before reaching the destination
host. Each router a packet crosses to reach the destination host is called a hop.

De-encapsulation - When the packet arrives at the network layer of the destination host, the
host checks the IP header of the packet. If the destination IP address within the header
matches its own IP address, the IP header is removed from the packet. After the packet is
de-encapsulated by the network layer, the resulting Layer 4 PDU is passed up to the
appropriate service at the transport layer. The de-encapsulation process is performed by the
destination host of the IP packet.
  The data in the Network layer is referred to as PACKETS or Datagram. It includes the IP
packet which contains the source and destination IP address.
 Layer 3 device example is the router.

4. TRANSPORT LAYER
 The transport layer is responsible for logical communications between applications
running on different hosts. This may include services such as establishing a temporary
session between two hosts and the reliable transmission of information for an
application.
The transport layer includes two protocols:
1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
TCP is considered a reliable, full-featured transport layer protocol, which ensures
that all of the data arrives at the destination. TCP includes fields which ensure the
delivery of the application data. These fields require additional processing by the
sending and receiving hosts.
2. User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
UDP is a simpler transport layer protocol than TCP. It does not provide reliability and
flow control, which means it requires fewer header fields. Because the sender and
the receiver UDP processes do not have to manage reliability and flow control, this
means UDP datagrams can be processed faster than TCP segments. UDP provides
the basic functions for delivering datagrams between the appropriate applications,
with very little overhead and data checking.
 At the transport layer, each set of data flowing between a source application and a
destination application is known as a conversation and is tracked separately. It is the
responsibility of the transport layer to maintain and track these multiple conversations.
 The data in the data link layer is referred to as SEGMENTS.

NOTES:
o TCP divides data into segments.
o TCP transport is analogous to sending packages that are tracked from source to destination.
If a shipping order is broken up into several packages, a customer can check online to see
the order of the delivery.
o TCP provides reliability and flow control using these basic operations:
- Number and track data segments transmitted to a specific host from a specific
application
- Acknowledge received data
- Retransmit any unacknowledged data after a certain amount of time
- Sequence data that might arrive in wrong order
- Send data at an efficient rate that is acceptable by the receiver.
o In order to maintain the state of a conversation and track the information, TCP must first
establish a connection between the sender and the receiver. This is why TCP is known as a
connection-oriented protocol.

o UDP is a connectionless protocol. Because UDP does not provide reliability or flow control, it
does not require an established connection. Because UDP does not track information sent or
received between the client and server, UDP is also known as a stateless protocol.
o Layer 4 is also there to distinguish data streams and use different addressing scheme
(PORT)

o UDP is also known as a best-effort delivery protocol because there is no acknowledgment

that the data is received at the destination. With UDP, there are no transport layer processes
that inform the sender of a successful delivery.
o UDP is like placing a regular, nonregistered, letter in the mail. The sender of the letter is not
aware of the availability of the receiver to receive the letter. Nor is the post office responsible
for tracking the letter or informing the sender if the letter does not arrive at the final
destination.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN UDP AND TCP:

NOTES:

DNS - Domain Name System (or Service)

o TCP, UDP 53
o Translates domain names, such as cisco.com, into IP addresses.

5. SESSION LAYER
 As the name implies, functions at the session layer create and maintain dialogs between
source and destination applications. The session layer handles the exchange of
information to initiate dialogs, keep them active, and to restart sessions that are
disrupted or idle for a long period of time.

6. PRESENTATION LAYER
 The presentation layer has three primary functions:
- Formatting, or presenting, data at the source device into a compatible format for
receipt by the destination device.
- Compressing data in a way that can be decompressed by the destination device.
- Encrypting data for transmission and decrypting data upon receipt.
 Formats data for the application layer, and it sets standards for file formats. Some well-
known standards for video include Matroska Video (MKV), Motion Picture Experts Group
(MPG), and QuickTime Video (MOV). Some well-known graphic image formats are Graphics
Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG), and Portable Network
Graphics (PNG) format.

7. APPLICATION LAYER
 The application layer is the closest layer to the end user.
 This is the layer that provides the interface between the applications used to communicate,
and the underlying network over which messages are transmitted. Application layer protocols
are used to exchange data between programs running on the source and destination hosts.
 There are many application layer protocols, and new protocols are always being developed.
Some of the most widely known application layer protocols include Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Internet
Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Domain Name System (DNS) protocol.