OSI MODEL MATOVU HERBERT
U/1903183/BBE
OSI REFERENCE MODEL - INTERNATIONALLY
STANDARDISED NETWORK ARCHITECTURE.
OSI = Open Systems Interconnection: deals with open systems, i.e. systems open
for communications with other systems.
Specified in ISO 7498.
Model has 7 layers.
PHYSICAL LAYER
•The main functionality of the physical layer is to transmit the
individual bits from one node to another node.
•It is the lowest layer of the OSI model.
•It establishes, maintains and deactivates the physical
connection.
•It specifies the mechanical, electrical and procedural network
interface specifications.
Functions of a Physical layer:
•Line Configuration: It defines the way how two or more
devices can be connected physically.
•Data Transmission: It defines the transmission mode whether
it is simplex, half-duplex or full-duplex mode between the two
devices on the network.
•Topology: It defines the way how network devices are
arranged.
•Signals: It determines the type of the signal used for
transmitting the information
DATA-LINK LAYER
•This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data
frames.
•It defines the format of the data on the network.
•It provides a reliable and efficient communication between two
or more devices.
•It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each
device that resides on a local network.
•It contains two sub-layers:
•Logical Link Control Layer
• It is responsible for transferring the packets to the
Network layer of the receiver that is receiving.
• It identifies the address of the network layer protocol
from the header.
• It also provides flow control.
•Media Access Control Layer
• A Media access control layer is a link between the
Logical Link Control layer and the network's physical
layer.
• It is used for transferring the packets over the network
FUNCTIONS OF THE DATA-LINK LAYER
Framing: The data link layer translates the physical's raw bit stream into packets known as Frames. The Data link layer
adds the header and trailer to the frame. The header which is added to the frame contains the hardware destination and
source address.
Physical Addressing: The Data link layer adds a header to the frame that contains a destination address. The frame is
transmitted to the destination address mentioned in the header.
Flow Control: Flow control is the main functionality of the Data-link layer. It is the technique through which the
constant data rate is maintained on both the sides so that no data get corrupted. It ensures that the transmitting station
such as a server with higher processing speed does not exceed the receiving station, with lower processing speed
Error Control: Error control is achieved by adding a calculated value CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) that is
placed to the Data link layer's trailer which is added to the message frame before it is sent to the physical layer. If
any error seems to occur, then the receiver sends the acknowledgment for the retransmission of the corrupted
frames.
Access Control: When two or more devices are connected to the same communication channel, then the data link
layer protocols are used to determine which device has control over the link at a given time.
NETWORK LAYER
•It is a layer 3 that manages device addressing, tracks the
location of devices on the network.
•It determines the best path to move data from source to the
destination based on the network conditions, the priority of
service, and other factors.
•The Data link layer is responsible for routing and forwarding
the packets.
•Routers are the layer 3 devices, they are specified in this layer
and used to provide the routing services within an internetwork.
•The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as
Network layer protocols. Examples of protocols are IP and
Ipv6.
Functions of Network Layer
Internetworking: An internetworking is the main responsibility of the network layer. It
provides a logical connection between different devices.
Addressing: A Network layer adds the source and destination address to the header of the
frame. Addressing is used to identify the device on the internet.
Routing: Routing is the major component of the network layer, and it determines the best
optimal path out of the multiple paths from source to the destination.
Packetizing: A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper layer and converts them
into packets. This process is known as Packetizing. It is achieved by internet protocol (IP)
TRANSPORT LAYER
•The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are
transmitted in the order in which they are sent and there is no
duplication of data.
•The main responsibility of the transport layer is to transfer the data
completely.
•It receives the data from the upper layer and converts them into
smaller units known as segments.
•This layer can be termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a
point-to-point connection between source and destination to deliver
the data reliably.
THE TWO PROTOCOLS USED IN THIS
LAYER ARE:
Transmission Control Protocol
It is a standard protocol that allows the systems to communicate over the internet.
It establishes and maintains a connection between hosts.
When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the TCP protocol divides the data into smaller units
known as segments. Each segment travels over the internet using multiple routes, and they arrive in
different orders at the destination. The transmission control protocol reorders the packets in the
correct order at the receiving end.
User Datagram Protocol
User Datagram Protocol is a transport layer protocol.
It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver does not send any acknowledgment when
the packet is received, the sender does not wait for any acknowledgment. Therefore, this makes a
protocol unreliable
FUNCTIONS OF TRANSPORT LAYER:
Service-point addressing: Computers run several programs simultaneously due to this reason, the
transmission of data from source to the destination not only from one computer to another computer but also
from one process to another process. The transport layer adds the header that contains the address known as a
service-point address or port address. The responsibility of the network layer is to transmit the data from one
computer to another computer and the responsibility of the transport layer is to transmit the message to the
correct process.
Segmentation and reassembly: When the transport layer receives the message from the upper layer, it
divides the message into multiple segments, and each segment is assigned with a sequence number that
uniquely identifies each segment. When the message has arrived at the destination, then the transport layer
reassembles the message based on their sequence numbers.
Connection control: Transport layer provides two services Connection-oriented service and connectionless
service. A connectionless service treats each segment as an individual packet, and they all travel in different
routes to reach the destination. A connection-oriented service makes a connection with the transport layer at
the destination machine before delivering the packets. In connection-oriented service, all the packets travel in
the single route.
Flow control: The transport layer also responsible for flow control but it is performed end-to-end rather than
across a single link.
Error control: The transport layer is also responsible for Error control. Error control is performed end-to-end
rather than across the single link. The sender transport layer ensures that message reach at the destination
without any error.
SESSION LAYER
•It is a layer 3 in the OSI model.
•The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and
synchronizes the interaction between communicating devices.
Functions of Session layer:
•Dialog control: Session layer acts as a dialog controller that
creates a dialog between two processes or we can say that it
allows the communication between two processes which can be
either half-duplex or full-duplex.
•Synchronization: Session layer adds some checkpoints when
transmitting the data in a sequence. If some error occurs in the
middle of the transmission of data, then the transmission will
take place again from the checkpoint. This process is known as
Synchronization and recovery
PRESENTATION LAYER
•A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and
semantics of the information exchanged between the two
systems.
•It acts as a data translator for a network.
•This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the
data from one presentation format to another format.
•The Presentation layer is also known as the syntax layer
FUNCTIONS OF
PRESENTATION LAYER:
Translation: The processes in two systems exchange the information in the form of
character strings, numbers and so on. Different computers use different encoding
methods, the presentation layer handles the interoperability between the different
encoding methods. It converts the data from sender-dependent format into a common
format and changes the common format into receiver-dependent format at the
receiving end.
Encryption: Encryption is needed to maintain privacy. Encryption is a process of
converting the sender-transmitted information into another form and sends the
resulting message over the network.
Compression: Data compression is a process of compressing the data, i.e., it reduces
the number of bits to be transmitted. Data compression is very important in
multimedia such as text, audio, video.
APPLICATION LAYER
An application layer serves as a window for users and application processes to access
network service.
It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation, etc.
An application layer is not an application, but it performs the application layer functions.
This layer provides the network services to the end-users.
Functions of Application layer:
File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer allows a user to
access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the files from a computer and to manage
the files in a remote computer.
Mail services: An application layer provides the facility for email forwarding and storage.
Directory services: An application provides the distributed database sources and is used to
provide that global information about various objects.
