ISO stands for International organization of

Standardization.

This is called a model for Open System

Interconnection (OSI) and is commonly

known as OSI model.

The basic elements of a layered model are:

services

protocols

and interfaces.

A service is a set of actions that a layer offers to another (higher) layer.

A Protocol is a set of rules that a layer uses to

exchange information.

A Interface is communication between the

layers

OSI Model

Application

Presentation

Session

Transport

Network

Data Link

Physical
Layer 1,2 and 3 that is physical ,data and

network layers are Network Support Layers.

Layers 5,6 and 7 that is session,presentation

and application layers are User Support Layer.

Transport Layer links the network support

layers and user support layers

Physical Layer:Layer 1

Physical layer is the lowest layer of all. It is

responsible for sending bits from one

computer to another.

This layer is not

concerned with the meaning of the bits and

deals with the physical connection to the

network and with transmission.

Functions of Physical Layer:

Representation of Bits: Data in this layer

consists of stream of bits.

Data Rate: This layer defines the rate of

transmission which is the number of bits per

second.
Synchronization: It deals with the

synchronization of the transmitter and receiver.

Interface: The physical layer defines the

transmission interface between devices and

transmission medium.

Line Configuration: This layer connects

devices with the medium: Point to Point

configuration and Multipoint configuration.

Topologies: Devices must be connected using

the following topologies: Mesh, Star, Ring

and Bus.

Transmission Modes: Physical Layer defines

the direction of transmission between two

devices: Simplex, Half Duplex, Full Duplex.

Deals with baseband and broadband

transmission.

Data Layer:Layer 2:

Data link layer is most reliable node to node

delivery of data. It forms frames from the

packets that are received from network layer

and gives it to physical layer.

Framing: Frames are the streams of bits

received from the network layer into

manageable data units.

Physical Addressing: The Data Link layer

adds a header to the frame in order to define

physical address of the sender or receiver of the frame,

If the frames are to be distributed to different systems on the network.

Flow Control: A flow control mechanism to

avoid a fast transmitter from running a slow

receiver by buffering the extra bit is

provided by flow control. This prevents

traffic jam at the receiver side.

Error Control: Error control is achieved by

adding a trailer at the end of the frame.

Duplication of frames are also prevented by

using this mechanism.

Access Control: Protocols of this layer

determine which of the devices has control

over the link at any given time.

Two Parts of Data Link Layer

Data link layer is divided into two subparts

1.Logical Link Control Layer (LLC)

2.Media Access Control Layer (MAC)

Data Link Layer:LLC and MAC

• LLC:Logical Link Control layer is the upper

layer of the two in data link layer.

• Essential for the communications between

devices.

• Supports connection oriented and

connectionless services both.

•MAC:Media Access Control is the lower layer.

It is responsible for providing a method for

station to gain access to the medium.

Layer 3: The Network Layer :

It routes the signal through different

channels from one node to other.

It acts as a network controller. It manages

the Subnet traffic.It decides by which route

data should take.

It divides the outgoing messages into

packets.

Layer 4:Transport Layer

It decides if data transmission should be on

parallel path or single path.

It receives messages from the Session layer

above it, convert the message into smaller

units and passes it on to the Network layer

Service Point Addressing : Transport

Layer header includes service point address

which is port address.

Segmentation and Reassembling : A

message is divided into segments; each

segment contains sequence number, which

enables this layer in reassembling the

message.

Flow Control : In this layer, flow control is

performed end to end.

Error Control : Error Control is performed end to end in this layer to ensure that the complete

message arrives at the receiving transport layer without any error. Error Correction is done
through retransmission.

Layer 5: The Session Layer :

Session layer manages and synchronize the

conversation between two different

applications.

Dialog Control : This layer allows two

systems to start communication with each

other in half-duplex or full-duplex.

Synchronization : This layer allows a

process to add checkpoints which are

considered as synchronization points into

stream of data.
Layer 6: The Presentation Layer :

The primary goal of this layer is to take care

of the syntax and semantics of the

information exchanged between two

communicating systems.

Presentation layer takes care that the data is

sent in such a way that the receiver will

understand the information (data) and will

be able to use the data.

Translation : Before being transmitted,

information in the form of characters and

numbers should be changed to bit streams.

Encryption : It carries out encryption at the

transmitter and decryption at the receiver.

Compression : It carries out data

compression to reduce the bandwidth of the

data to be transmitted. It is important in

transmitting multimedia such as audio,

video, text etc.

Layer 7: Application Layer :

It is the topmost layer.

Transferring of files disturbing the results to the user is also done in this layer. Mail services,
directory services, network resource etc are services provided by application layer This layer
mainly holds application programs to act upon the received and to be sent data.

Mail Services : This layer provides the basis

for E-mail forwarding and storage.

Directory Services : This layer provides

access for global information about various

services.

File Transfer, Access and Management

(FTAM) : It is a standard mechanism to

access files and manages it.

Protocols at Application Layer

HTTP:Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

FTP:File Transfer Protocol

SMTP:Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

NFS:Network File Services

NVT:Network Virtual Terminal

Merits of OSI

•OSI model distinguishes well between the

•services, interfaces and protocols.

• Protocols of OSI model are very well hidden.

• Protocols can be replaced by new protocols

as technology changes.

• Supports connection oriented services as

well as connectionless service.

Demerits of OSI

•Model was devised before the invention of

protocols.

• Fitting of protocols is tedious task.

• It is just used as a reference model.

Flexible architecture: Adding more

machines to a network was easy.

Robust:Connections remained intact

untill the source and destination machines

were functioning.

Communication:The overall idea was to

allow one application on one computer

send data packets another application

running on different computer.

Layer 1: Host-to-network Layer

Lowest layer of the all.

Protocol is used to connect to the host, so

that the packets can be sent over it.

Varies from host to host and network

Layer 2: Internet layer

Selection of a packet switching network

which is based on a connectionless

internetwork layer is called a internet layer.

It is the layer which holds the whole

architecture together.

It helps the packet to travel independently

to the destination.

Layer 3: Transport Layer

It decides if data transmission should be on

parallel path or single path.

Functions such as multiplexing, segmenting

or splitting on the data is done by transport

layer.

Layer 4: Application Layer

The TCP/IP specifications described a lot of

applications that were at the top of the

protocol stack. Some of them were TELNET,

FTP, SMTP, DNS etc.

TELNET is a two-way communication

protocol which allows connecting to a

remote machine and run applications on it.

FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is a protocol,

that allows File transfer amongst computer users connected over a network. It is

reliable, simple and efficient.

SMTP(Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is a

protocol, which is used to transport

electronic mail between a source and

destination, directed via a route.

DNS(Domain Name Server) resolves an IP

address into a textual address for Hosts

connected over a network.

Connection Oriented Services

There is a sequence of operation to be

followed by the users of connection oriented

service. These are:

Connection is established

Information is sent

Connection is released

Connectionless Services

It is similar to the postal services, as it

carries the full address where the message

(letter) is to be carried. Each message is

routed independently from source to

destination. The order of message sent can

be different from the order received.