OSI Model

• OSI stands for Open System Interconnection is a reference model that describes how
information from a software application in one computer moves through a physical
medium to the software application in another computer.
• OSI consists of seven layers, and each layer performs a particular network function.
• OSI model was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in
1984, and it is now considered as an architectural model for the inter-computer
communications.
• OSI model divides the whole task into seven smaller and manageable tasks. Each layer is
assigned a particular task.
• Each layer is self-contained, so that task assigned to each layer can be performed
independently.

Functions of the OSI Layers

There are the seven OSI layers. Each layer has different functions. A list of seven layers are given
below:

1. Physical Layer
2. Data-Link Layer
3. Network Layer
4. Transport Layer
5. Session Layer
6. Presentation Layer
7. Application Layer

Physical Layer
The physical layer defines the means of transmitting raw bits[1] over a physical data link
connecting network nodes. The bitstream may be grouped into code words or symbols and
converted to a physical signal that is transmitted over a transmission medium. The physical
layer provides an electrical, mechanical, and procedural interface to the transmission medium.
The shapes and properties of the electrical connectors, the frequencies to broadcast on, the line
code to use and similar low-level parameters, are specified by the physical layer.

Protocols that use physical layer include:

1) Digital Subscriber Line
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL, originally, digital subscriber loop) is a communication
medium, which is used to transfer internet through copper wire telecommunication
line. Along with cable internet, DSL is one of the most popular ways ISPs provide
broadband internet access.
2) Modem
A modem is a very important piece of network hardware that allows a computer to
send and receive data through a telephone line or cable connection. In simple words,
it's the device that connects a computer to the Internet.
3) Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used for exchanging data between fixed
and mobile devices over short distances using UHF radio waves in the industrial,
scientific and medical radio bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz, and building
personal area networks (PANs). It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative
to RS-232 data cables.
4) Ethernet
The Ethernet physical layer is the physical layer functionality of the Ethernet family
of computer network standards. The physical layer defines the electrical or optical
properties of the physical connection between a device and the network or between
network devices.
5) USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for
cables and connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power
supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers.[3] A
broad variety of USB hardware exists, including eleven different connectors, of
which USB-C is the most recent.

Data Link Layer

The data link layer establishes and terminates a connection between two physically-connected nodes on a
network. It breaks up packets into frames and sends them from source to destination. This layer is composed
of two parts—Logical Link Control (LLC), which identifies network protocols, performs error checking and
synchronizes frames, and Media Access Control (MAC) which uses MAC addresses to connect devices and
define permissions to transmit and receive data.

Protocols’ that use Data Link layer include:

1) Synchronous Data Link Protocol (SDLC) SDLC is basically a communication
protocol of computer. It usually supports multipoint links even error recovery or
error correction also. It is usually used to carry SNA (Systems Network Architecture)
traffic and is present precursor to HDLC. It is also designed and developed by IBM in
1975. It is also used to connect all of the remote devices to mainframe computers at
central locations may be in point-to-point (one-to-one) or point-to-multipoint (one-
to-many) connections. It is also used to make sure that the data units should arrive
correctly and with right flow from one network point to next network point.
2) High-Level Data Link Protocol (HDLC)
HDLC is basically a protocol that is now assumed to be an umbrella under which
many Wide Area protocols sit. It is also adopted as a part of X.25 network. It was
originally created and developed by ISO in 1979. This protocol is generally based on
SDLC. It also provides best-effort unreliable service and also reliable service. HDLC is
a bit-oriented protocol that is applicable for point-to-point and multipoint
communications both.
3) Serial Line Interface Protocol (SLIP)
SLIP is generally an older protocol that is just used to add a framing byte at end of IP
packet. It is basically a data link control facility that is required for transferring IP
packets usually among Internet Service Providers (ISP) and a home user over a dial-
up link. It is an encapsulation of the TCP/IP especially designed to work with over
serial ports and several router connections simply for communication. It is some
limitations like it does not provide mechanisms such as error correction or error
detection.
4) Point to Point Protocol (PPP)
PPP is a protocol that is basically used to provide same functionality as SLIP. It is
most robust protocol that is used to transport other types of packets also along with
IP Packets. It can also be required for dial-up and leased router-router lines. It
basically provides framing method to describe frames. It is a character-oriented
protocol that is also used for error detection. It is also used to provides two protocols
i.e. NCP and LCP. LCP is used for bringing lines up, negotiation of options, bringing
them down whereas NCP is used for negotiating network-layer protocols. It is
required for same serial interfaces like that of HDLC.
5) Link Control Protocol (LCP)
It was originally developed and created by IEEE 802.2. It is also used to provide
HDLC style services on LAN (Local Area Network). LCP is basically a PPP protocol
that is used for establishing, configuring, testing, maintenance, and ending or
terminating links for transmission of data frames.
6) Link Access Procedure (LAP)
LAP protocols are basically a data link layer protocols that are required for framing
and transferring data across point-to-point links. It also includes some reliability
service features. There are basically three types of LAP i.e. LAPB (Link Access
Procedure Balanced), LAPD (Link Access Procedure D-Channel), and LAPF (Link
Access Procedure Frame-Mode Bearer Services). It is actually originated from IBM
SDLC, which is being submitted by IBM to the ISP simply for standardization.
7) Network Control Protocol (NCP)
NCP was also an older protocol that was implemented by ARPANET. It basically
allows users to have access to use computers and some of the devices at remote
locations and also to transfer files among two or more computers. It is generally a set
of protocols that is forming a part of PPP. NCP is always available for each and every
 higher-layer protocol that is supported by PPP. NCP was replaced by TCP/IP in the
1980s.

Network Layer
The network layer has two main functions. One is breaking up segments into network packets,
and reassembling the packets on the receiving end. The other is routing packets by discovering
the best path across a physical network. The network layer uses network addresses (typically
Internet Protocol addresses) to route packets to a destination node.

Protocols’ that use Network layer include:

1) Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a supporting protocol in the
Internet protocol suite. It is used by network devices, including routers, to send
error messages and operational information indicating success or failure when
communicating with another IP address.
2) Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is a communications protocol
used by hosts and adjacent routers on IPv4 networks to establish multicast group
memberships. IGMP is an integral part of IP multicast and allows the network to
direct multicast transmissions only to hosts that have requested them. IGMP can be
used for one-to-many networking applications such as online streaming video and
gaming, and allows more efficient use of resources when supporting these types of
applications.
3) Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a secure network protocol suite that
authenticates and encrypts the packets of data to provide secure encrypted
communication between two computers over an Internet Protocol network. It is
used in virtual private networks (VPNs). IPsec includes protocols for establishing
mutual authentication between agents at the beginning of a session and negotiation
of cryptographic keys to use during the session. IPsec can protect data flows
between a pair of hosts (host-to-host), between a pair of security gateways
(network-to-network), or between a security gateway and a host (network-to-host).
4) 4Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol in the Internet
protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing
function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP has the
task of delivering packets from the source host to the destination host solely based
on the IP addresses in the packet headers. For this purpose, IP defines packet
structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered. It also defines addressing
methods that are used to label the datagram with source and destination
information.
5) Routine Information Protocol
The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the oldest distance-vector routing
protocols which employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing
 loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from
source to destination. The largest number of hops allowed for RIP is 15, which limits
the size of networks that RIP can support. RIP implements the split horizon, route
poisoning and hold down mechanisms to prevent incorrect routing information
from being propagated.

Transport Layer
Transport layer provides services to application layer and takes services from network layer.
The data in the transport layer is referred to as Segments. It is responsible for the End to End
Delivery of the complete message. The transport layer also provides the acknowledgement of
the successful data transmission and re-transmits the data if an error is found.

Protocols’ that use Transport layer include:

1) Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the main protocols of the Internet
protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it
complemented the Internet Protocol (IP). Therefore, the entire suite is commonly
referred to as TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of
a stream of octets (bytes) between applications running on hosts communicating via
an IP network. Major internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email,
remote administration, and file transfer rely on TCP, which is part of the Transport
Layer of the TCP/IP suite. SSL/TLS often runs on top of TCP.

2) User Datagram protocol

UDP uses a simple connectionless communication model with a minimum of
protocol mechanisms. UDP provides checksums for data integrity, and port numbers
for addressing different functions at the source and destination of the datagram. It
has no handshaking dialogues, and thus exposes the user's program to any
unreliability of the underlying network; there is no guarantee of delivery, ordering,
or duplicate protection.

3) Reliable Data Protocol

The Reliable Data Protocol (RDP) is a network transport protocol defined in RFC 908
and was updated in RFC 1151. It is meant to provide facilities for remote loading,
debugging and bulk transfer of images and data. The Reliable Data Protocol is
located on the Transport Layer of the OSI model next to protocols like TCP or UDP.

Session Layer
This layer is responsible for establishment of connection, maintenance of sessions, authentication and also
ensures security.
The functions of the session layer are :

i. Session establishment, maintenance and termination: The layer allows the two
processes to establish, use and terminate a connection.
ii. Synchronization : This layer allows a process to add checkpoints which are
considered as synchronization points into the data. These synchronization point
help to identify the error so that the data is re-synchronized properly, and ends of
the messages are not cut prematurely and data loss is avoided.
iii. Dialog Controller : The session layer allows two systems to start communication
with each other in half-duplex or full-duplex.

Protocols’ that use Session layer include:

1) Apple Talk
AppleTalk is a discontinued proprietary suite of networking protocols developed by
Apple Inc. for their Macintosh computers. AppleTalk includes a number of features
that allow local area networks to be connected with no prior setup or the need for a
centralized router or server of any sort. Connected AppleTalk-equipped systems
automatically assign addresses, update the distributed namespace, and configure
any required inter-networking routing.
2) H.245
H.245 is a control channel protocol used with[in] e.g. H.323 and H.324
communication sessions, and involves the line transmission of non-telephone
signals. It also offers the possibility to be tunneled within H.225.0 call signaling
messages. This eases firewall traversing. H.245 is capable of conveying information
needed for multimedia communication, such as encryption, flow control, jitter
management, preference requests, as well as the opening and closing of logical
channels used to carry media streams. It also defines separate send and receive
capabilities and the means to send these details to other devices that support H.323.

3) NetBIOS
It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing
applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As
strictly an API, NetBIOS is not a networking protocol. In modern networks, NetBIOS
normally runs over TCP/IP via the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) protocol. This results
in each computer in the network having both an IP address and a NetBIOS name
corresponding to a (possibly different) host name.

4) Password Authentication Protocol

Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) is a password-based authentication
protocol used by Point to Point Protocol (PPP) to validate users. Almost all network
operating system remote servers support PAP. PAP is considered a weak
authentication scheme (weak schemes are simple and have lighter computational
overhead but are much more vulnerable to attack; while weak schemes may have
limited application in some constrained environments, they are avoided in general).
Among PAP's deficiencies is the fact that it transmits unencrypted passwords (i.e. in
plain-text) over the network. PAP is therefore used only as a last resort when the
remote server does not support a stronger scheme such as CHAP or EAP.
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. Languages(syntax) can be different of the two communicating systems. Under this
condition presentation layer plays a role translator.

Protocols’ that use Presentation layer include:

1) Lightweight Presentation Protocol
It is Used to provide ISO presentation services on top of TCP/IP based protocol
stacks. It is defined in RFC 1085. Lightweight Presentation Protocol (LPP) describes
an approach for providing “stream-lined” support of OSI application services on top
of TCP/IP-based network for some constrained environments. LPP was initially
derived from a requirement to run the ISO Common Management Information
Protocol (CMIP) in TCP/IP-based networks.
2) Netware Core Protocol
The NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is a network protocol used in some products from
Novell, Inc. It is usually associated with the client-server operating system Novell
NetWare which originally supported primarily MS-DOS client stations, but later
support for other platforms such as Microsoft Windows, the classic Mac OS, Linux,
Windows NT, Mac OS X, and various flavors of Unix was added. The NCP is used to
access file, print, directory, clock synchronization, messaging, remote command
execution and other network service functions. It originally took advantage of an
easy network configuration and a little memory footprint of the IPX/SPX protocol
stack.

Application Layer
At the very top of the OSI Reference Model stack of layers, we find Application layer which is
implemented by the network applications. These applications produce the data, which has to be
transferred over the network. This layer also serves as a window for the application services to
access the network and for displaying the received information to the user. Ex: Application –
Browsers, Skype Messenger etc.

Protocols’ that use Application layer include:

1) Telnet
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to
provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a
virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet control
 information in an 8-bit byte oriented data connection over the Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP).

2) Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SMTP is used to send and receive email. It is sometimes paired with IMAP or POP3
(for example, by a user-level application), which handles the retrieval of messages,
while SMTP primarily sends messages to a server for forwarding.
3) Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.[1] HTTP is the
foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext
documents include hyperlinks to other resources that the user can easily access, for
example by a mouse click or by tapping the screen in a web browser.
4) Domain Network System
The Domain Network System (DNS) protocol helps Internet users and network
devices discover websites using human-readable hostnames, instead of numeric IP
addresses.