Reference Model

• Reference Model offers a means of standardization which

is acceptable worldwide.
• Since people using the computer network are located over a
wide physical range and their network devices might have
heterogeneous architecture.
• In order to provide communication among heterogeneous
devices, we need a standardized model i.e. a reference
model, which would provide us way how these devices can
communicate regardless their architecture.
• We have two reference models such as OSI model
and TCP/IP reference model.
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Layers in the OSI Model

• OSI is acronym of Open System Interconnection.
• This model is developed by the International
organization of Standardization (ISO) and therefore also
referred as ISO-OSI Model.
• The OSI model consists of seven layers as shown in the
following diagram.
• Each layer has a specific function, however each layer
provide services to the layer above.
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Physical Layer
The Physical layer is responsible for the following activities:
• The physical layer coordinates the functions required to
carry a bit stream over a physical medium.
• It deals with the mechanical and electrical specifications of
the interface and transmission medium.
• It also defines the procedures and functions that physical
devices and interfaces have to perform for transmission to
occur.
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The physical layer is also concerned with the following:

Physical characteristics of interfaces and medium: The
physical layer defines the characteristics of the interface
between the devices and the transmission medium.
• It also defines the type of transmission medium.
Representation of bits: The physical layer data consists of a
stream of bits (sequence of 0’s or 1’s) with no interpretation.
• To be transmitted, bits must be encoded into signals--
electrical or optical. The physical layer defines the type of
encoding
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Data rate: The transmission rate-the number of bits sent each

second-is also defined by the physical layer. In other words,
the physical layer defines the duration of a bit, which is how
long it lasts
Synchronization of bits: The sender and receiver not only
must use the same bit rate but also must be synchronized at the
bit level. In other words, the sender and the receiver clocks
must be synchronized
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Line configuration: The physical layer is concerned with the

connection of devices to the media. In a point-to-point
configuration, two devices are connected through a dedicated
link. In a multipoint configuration, a link is shared among
several devices.
Physical topology: The physical topology defines how
devices are connected to make a network.
Transmission mode: The physical layer also defines the
direction of transmission between two devices: simplex, half-
duplex, or full-duplex.
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Data Link Layer

• The data link layer transforms the physical layer, a raw
transmission facility, to a reliable link.
• It makes the physical layer appear error-free to the upper
layer (network layer).
• The data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model actually
consists of two sublayers:
• the Media Access Control (MAC) sub layer and the
Logical Link Control (LLC) sub layer.
• The MAC sub layer controls device interaction.
• The LLC sub layer deals with addressing and multiplexing.
Physical addressing for network connections exists at the
data link layer.
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Other responsibilities of the data link layer include the

following:
• Framing. The data link layer divides the stream of bits
received from the network layer into manageable data units
called frames.
• Physical addressing: If frames are to be distributed to
different systems on the network, the data link layer adds a
header to the frame to define the sender and/or receiver of
the frame.
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• Error control: The data link layer adds reliability to the

physical layer by adding mechanisms to detect and
retransmit damaged or lost frames.
• It also uses a mechanism to recognize duplicate frames.
Error control is normally achieved through a trailer added
to the end of the frame.
• Access control: When two or more devices are connected
to the same link, data link layer protocols are necessary to
determine which device has control over the link at any
given time.
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• If the frame is intended for a system outside the sender's

network, the receiver address is the address of the device
that connects the network to the next one.
• Flow control: If the rate at which the data are absorbed by
the receiver is less than the rate at which data are produced
in the sender, the data link layer imposes a flow control
mechanism to avoid overwhelming the receiver
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Network Layer
• The network layer is responsible for the source-to-
destination delivery of a packet, possibly across multiple
networks (links).
• Whereas the data link layer oversees the delivery of the
packet between two systems on the same network (links).
• the network layer ensures that each packet gets from its
point of origin to its final destination.
• If two systems are connected to the same link, there is
usually no need for a network layer.
• However, if the two systems are attached to different
networks (links) with connecting devices between the
networks (links), there is often a need for the network layer
to accomplish source-to-destination delivery.
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• if the two systems are attached to different networks (links)

with connecting devices between the networks (links),
there is often a need for the network layer to accomplish
source-to-destination delivery.
• Other responsibilities of the network layer include the
following:
• Routing: When independent networks or links are
connected to create intemetworks (network of networks) or
a large network, the connecting devices (called routers or
switches) route or switch the packets to their final
destination. One of the functions of the network layer is to
provide this mechanism.
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• Logical addressing: The physical addressing implemented

by the data link layer handles the addressing problem
locally.
• If a packet passes the network boundary, we need another
addressing system to help distinguish the source and
destination systems.
• The network layer adds a header to the packet coming from
the upper layer that, among other things, includes the
logical addresses of the sender and receiver.
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Transport Layer
• The transport layer is responsible for process-to-process
delivery of the entire message.
• A process is an application program running on a host.
Whereas the network layer oversees source to-destination
delivery of individual packets, it does not recognize any
relationship between those packets.
• It treats each one independently, as though each piece
belonged to a separate message, whether or not it does.
• The transport layer, on the other hand, ensures that the
whole message arrives intact and in order, overseeing both
error control and flow control at the sourceto-destination
level.
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Other responsibilities of the transport layer include the

following:
• Service-point addressing. Computers often run several
programs at the same time. For this reason, source-to-
destination delivery means delivery not only from one
computer to the next but also from a specific process
(running program) on one computer to a specific process
(running program) on the other.
• The transport layer header must therefore include port
address.
• The network layer gets each packet to the correct
computer; the transport layer gets the entire message to the
correct process on that computer.
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• Segmentation and reassembly: A message is divided into

transmittable segments, with each segment containing a
sequence number.
• These numbers enable the transport layer to reassemble the
message correctly upon arriving at the destination and to
identify and replace packets that were lost in transmission.
• Connection control: The transport layer can be either
connectionless or connection oriented.
• A connectionless transport layer treats each segment as an
independent packet and delivers it to the transport layer at
the destination machine.
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• A connection oriented transport layer makes a connection

with the transport layer at the destination machine first
before delivering the packets. After all the data are
transferred, the connection is terminated.
• Flow control: Like the data link layer, the transport layer is
responsible for flow control. However, flow control at this
layer is performed end to end rather than across a single
link.
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• Error control: Like the data link layer, the transport layer
is responsible for error control. However, error control at
this layer is performed process-to-process rather than
across a single link.
• The sending transport layer makes sure that the entire
message arrives at the receiving transport layer without
error (damage, loss, or duplication). Error correction is
usually achieved through retransmission.
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• Session Layer
• The services provided by the first three layers (physical,
data link, and network) are not sufficient for some
processes.
• The session layer is the network dialog controller. It
establishes, maintains, and synchronizes the interaction
among communicating systems.
• Specific responsibilities of the session layer include the
following:
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• Dialog control: The session layer allows two systems to

enter into a dialog.
• It allows the communication between two processes to take
place in either half duplex (one way at a time) or full-
duplex (two ways at a time) mode.
• Synchronization: The session layer allows a process to
add checkpoints, or synchronization points, to a stream of
data.
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Presentation Layer
• The presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and
semantics of the information exchanged between two
systems.
• Specific responsibilities of the presentation layer include
the following:
• Translation: The processes (running programs) in two
systems are usually exchanging information in the form of
character strings, numbers, and so on.
• The information must be changed to bit streams before
being transmitted. Because different computers use
different encoding systems, the presentation layer is
responsible for interoperability between these different
encoding methods.
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• The presentation layer at the sender changes the

information from its sender-dependent format into a
common format.
• The presentation layer at the receiving machine changes the
common format into its receiver-dependent format.
• Encryption: To carry sensitive information, a system must
be able to ensure privacy.
• Encryption means that the sender transforms the original
information to another form and sends the resulting
message out over the network.
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• Decryption reverses the original process to transform the

message back to its original form.
• Compression: Data compression reduces the number of
bits contained in the information.
• Data compression becomes particularly important in the
transmission of multimedia such as text, audio, and video.
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Application Layer
• The application layer enables the user, whether human or
software, to access the network.
• It provides user interfaces and support for services such as
electronic mail, remote file access and transfer, shared
database management, and other types of distributed
information services.
• Specific services provided by the application layer include
the following:
• Network virtual terminal: A network virtual terminal is a
software version of a physical terminal, and it allows a user
to log on to a remote host.
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• File transfer, access, and management: This application

allows a user to access files in a remote host (to make
changes or read data), to retrieve files from a remote
computer for use in the local computer, and to manage or
control files in a remote computer locally.
• Mail services: This application provides the basis for e-
mail forwarding and storage.
• Directory services: This application provides distributed
database sources and access for global information about
various objects and services.
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TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE

• The TCPI/IP protocol suite was developed prior to the OSI
model.
• Therefore, the layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite do not
exactly match those in the OSI model.
• The original TCP/IP protocol suite was defined as having
four layers: host-to-network, internet, transport, and
application.
• However, when TCP/IP is compared to OSI, we can say
that the host-to-network layer is equivalent to the
combination of the physical and data link layers.
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• The internet layer is equivalent to the network layer, and

the application layer is roughly doing the job of the
session, presentation, and application layers with the
transport layer in TCP/IP taking care of part of the duties of
the session layer.
• Whereas the OSI model specifies which functions belong
to each of its layers, the layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite
contain relatively independent protocols that can be mixed
and matched depending on the needs of the system.
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• The term hierarchical means that each upper-level protocol

is supported by one or more lower-level protocols.
• At the transport layer, TCP/IP defines three protocols:
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram
Protocol (UDP), and Stream Control Transmission Protocol
(SCTP).
• At the network layer, the main protocol defined by TCP/IP
is the Internetworking Protocol (IP); there are also some
other protocols that support data movement in this layer.
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Host-to-Network Layer:
• The TCP/IP reference model does not really say much
about what happens here, except to point out that the host
has to connect to the network using some protocol so it can
send IP packets to it.
• This protocol is not defined and varies from host to host
and network to network.
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Internet Layer:
• Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any network
and have they travel independently to the destination
(potentially on a different network).
• They may even arrive in a different order than they were
sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to rearrange
them, if in-order delivery is desired.
• The internet layer defines an official packet format and
protocol called IP (Internet Protocol).
• The job of the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where
they are supposed to go. Packet routing is clearly the major
issue here, as is avoiding congestion.
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The Transport Layer:

• The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is
now usually called the transport layer.
• It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and
destination hosts to carry on a conversation, just as in the
OSI transport layer.
• Two end-to-end transport protocols have been defined here.
The first one, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), is a
reliable connection oriented protocol that allows a byte
stream originating on one machine to be delivered without
error on any other machine in the internet.
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• It fragments the incoming byte stream into discrete

messages and passes each one on to the internet layer.
• At the destination, the receiving TCP process reassembles
the received messages into the output stream.
• TCP also handles flow control to make sure a fast sender
cannot swamp a slow receiver with more messages than it
can handle.
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• The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User Datagram

Protocol), is an unreliable, connectionless protocol for
applications that do not want TCP's sequencing or flow
control and wish to provide their own.
• It is also widely used for one-shot, client-server-type
request-reply queries and applications in which prompt
delivery is more important than accurate delivery, such as
transmitting speech or video.
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The Application Layer:

• The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation
layers.
• On top of the transport layer is the application layer.
• It contains all the higher-level protocols.
• The early ones included virtual terminal (TELNET), file
transfer (FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP).
• The file transfer protocol provides a way to move data
efficiently from one machine to another.