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Seven Layers of OSI Model and functions of seven layers of OSI model

In Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model lesson, you will learn about the seven
layers of OSI model and their functions
If network communications need to happen without any trouble, many problems must be solved.
Coordinating all these problems are so complex and not easy to manage. To make these tasks smooth,
in 1977 the International Standards Organization (ISO) proposed the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) network model. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model breaks down the problems
involved in moving data from one computer to another computer. Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
model categorizes these hundreds of problems to Seven Layers. A layer in Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model is a portion that is used to categorize specific problems.
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Seven Layered reference model is only just a reference model. All
the problems which are related to the communications are answered by specific protocols operating at
different layers. The following image shows the seven layers described in Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model.

Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model

Layer 1. Physical Layer


The first layer of the seven layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model is called the
Physical layer. Physical circuits are created on the physical layer of Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) model. Physical layers describe the electrical or optical signals used for communication. Physical
layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is only concerned with the physical
characteristics of electrical or optical signaling techniques which includes the voltage of the electrical
current used to transport the signal, the media type (Twisted Pair, Coaxial Cable, Optical Fiber etc),
impedance characteristics, physical shape of the connector, Synchronization etc. The Physical Layer is
limited to the processes needed to place the communication signals over the media, and to receive
signals coming from that media. The lower boundary of the physical layer of the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model is the physical connector attached to the transmission media. Physical
layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model does not include the transmission media.
Transmission media stays outside the scope of the Physical Layer and are also referred to as Layer 0 of
the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model.
- Layer 1 Physical examples include Ethernet, FDDI, B8ZS, V.35, V.24, RJ45.
The physical layer, the lowest layer of the OSI model, is concerned with the transmission and reception
of the unstructured raw bit stream over a physical medium. It describes the electrical/optical,
mechanical, and functional interfaces to the physical medium, and carries the signals for all of the
higher layers. It provides:

Data encoding: modifies the simple digital signal pattern (1s and 0s) used by the PC to better
accommodate the characteristics of the physical medium, and to aid in bit and frame
synchronization. It determines:

What signal state represents a binary 1


How the receiving station knows when a "bit-time" starts
How the receiving station delimits a frame
Physical medium attachment, accommodating various possibilities in the medium:

Will an external transceiver (MAU) be used to connect to the medium?


How many pins do the connectors have and what is each pin used for?
Transmission technique: determines whether the encoded bits will be transmitted by baseband
(digital) or broadband (analog) signaling.
Physical medium transmission: transmits bits as electrical or optical signals appropriate for the
physical medium, and determines:

What physical medium options can be used


How many volts/db should be used to represent a given signal state, using a given
physical medium
Layer 2. Datalink Layer

The second layer of the seven layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model is called
the Datalink layer. The Data Link layer resides above the Physical layer and below the Network layer.
Datalink layer is responsible for providing end-to-end validity of the data being transmitted. The Data
Link Layer is logically divided into two sublayers, The Media Access Control (MAC) Sublayer and the
Logical Link Control (LLC) Sublayer.
Media Access Control (MAC) Sublayer determines the physical addressing of the hosts. The MAC sublayer maintains MAC addresses (physical device addresses) for communicating with other devices on
the network. MAC addresses are burned into the network cards and constitute the low-level address
used to determine the source and destination of network traffic. MAC Addresses are also known as
Physical addresses, Layer 2 addresses, or Hardware addresses.
The Logical Link Control sublayer is responsible for synchronizing frames, error checking, and flow
control.
- Layer 2 Data Link examples include PPP, FDDI, ATM, IEEE 802.5/ 802.2, IEEE 802.3/802.2, HDLC,
Frame Relay,
The data link layer provides error-free transfer of data frames from one node to another over the
physical layer, allowing layers above it to assume virtually error-free transmission over the link. To do
this, the data link layer provides:

Link establishment and termination: establishes and terminates the logical link between two
nodes.
Frame traffic control: tells the transmitting node to "back-off" when no frame buffers are
available.
Frame sequencing: transmits/receives frames sequentially.
Frame acknowledgment: provides/expects frame acknowledgments. Detects and recovers from
errors that occur in the physical layer by retransmitting non-acknowledged frames and handling
duplicate frame receipt.
Frame delimiting: creates and recognizes frame boundaries.
Frame error checking: checks received frames for integrity.
Media access management: determines when the node "has the right" to use the physical
medium.

Layer 3. Network Layer


The third layer of the seven layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model is the
Network layer. The Network layer of the OSI model is responsible for managing logical
addressing information in the packets and the delivery of those packets to the correct destination.
Routers, which are special computers used to build the network, direct the data packet generated by
Network Layer using information stored in a table known as routing table. The routing table is a list of
available destinations that are stored in memory on the routers. The network layer is responsible for
working with logical addresses. The logical addresses are used to uniquely identify a computer on the
network, but at the same time identify the network that system resides on. The logical address is used
by network layer protocols to deliver the packets to the correct network. The Logical addressing system
used in Network Layer is known as IP address.
IP addresses are also known as Logical addresses or Layer 3 addresses.
- Layer 3 Network examples include AppleTalk DDP, IP, IPX.
The network layer controls the operation of the subnet, deciding which physical path the data should
take based on network conditions, priority of service, and other factors. It provides:

Routing: routes frames among networks.


Subnet traffic control: routers (network layer intermediate systems) can instruct a sending
station to "throttle back" its frame transmission when the router's buffer fills up.
Frame fragmentation: if it determines that a downstream router's maximum transmission unit
(MTU) size is less than the frame size, a router can fragment a frame for transmission and reassembly at the destination station.
Logical-physical address mapping: translates logical addresses, or names, into physical
addresses.
Subnet usage accounting: has accounting functions to keep track of frames forwarded by subnet
intermediate systems, to produce billing information.

Communications Subnet
The network layer software must build headers so that the network layer software residing in the subnet
intermediate systems can recognize them and use them to route data to the destination address.
This layer relieves the upper layers of the need to know anything about the data transmission and
intermediate switching technologies used to connect systems. It establishes, maintains and terminates
connections across the intervening communications facility (one or several intermediate systems in the

communication subnet).
In the network layer and the layers below, peer protocols exist between a node and its immediate
neighbor, but the neighbor may be a node through which data is routed, not the destination station. The
source and destination stations may be separated by many intermediate systems.
Layer 4. Transport Layer
The fourth layer of the seven layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network mode is the
Transport layer. The Transport layer handles transport functions such as reliable or unreliable delivery
of the data to the destination. On the sending computer, the transport layer is responsible for breaking
the data into smaller packets, so that if any packet is lost during transmission, the missing packets will
be sent again. Missing packets are determined by acknowledgments (ACKs) from the remote device,
when the remote device receives the packets. At the receiving system, the transport layer will be
responsible for opening all of the packets and reconstructing the original message.
Another function of the transport layer is TCP segment sequencing. Sequencing is a connectionoriented service that takes TCP segments that are received out of order and place them in the right
order.
The transport layer also enables the option of specifying a "service address" for the services or
application on the source and the destination computer to specify what application the request came
from and what application the request is going to.
Many network applications can run on a computer simultaneously and there should be some mechanism
to identify which application should receive the incoming data. To make this work correctly, incoming
data from different applications are multiplexed at the Transport layer and sent to the bottom layers. On
the other side of the communication, the data received from the bottom layers are de-multiplexed at the
Transport layer and delivered to the correct application. This is achieved by using "Port Numbers".
The protocols operating at the Transport Layer, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User
Datagram Protocol) uses a mechanism known as "Port Number" to enable multiplexing and demultiplexing. Port numbers identify the originating network application on the source computer and
destination network application on the receiving computer.
- Layer 4 Transport examples include SPX, TCP, UDP.
The transport layer ensures that messages are delivered error-free, in sequence, and with no losses or
duplications. It relieves the higher layer protocols from any concern with the transfer of data between
them and their peers.

The size and complexity of a transport protocol depends on the type of service it can get from the
network layer. For a reliable network layer with virtual circuit capability, a minimal transport layer is
required. If the network layer is unreliable and/or only supports datagrams, the transport protocol
should include extensive error detection and recovery.
The transport layer provides:

Message segmentation: accepts a message from the (session) layer above it, splits the message
into smaller units (if not already small enough), and passes the smaller units down to the network
layer. The transport layer at the destination station reassembles the message.

Message acknowledgment: provides reliable end-to-end message delivery with


acknowledgments.

Message traffic control: tells the transmitting station to "back-off" when no message buffers are
available.

Session multiplexing: multiplexes several message streams, or sessions onto one logical link
and keeps track of which messages belong to which sessions (see session layer).
Typically, the transport layer can accept relatively large messages, but there are strict message size
limits imposed by the network (or lower) layer. Consequently, the transport layer must break up the
messages into smaller units, or frames, prepending a header to each frame.
The transport layer header information must then include control information, such as message start
and message end flags, to enable the transport layer on the other end to recognize message boundaries.
In addition, if the lower layers do not maintain sequence, the transport header must contain sequence
information to enable the transport layer on the receiving end to get the pieces back together in the right
order before handing the received message up to the layer above.
End-to-end layers
Unlike the lower "subnet" layers whose protocol is between immediately adjacent nodes, the transport
layer and the layers above are true "source to destination" or end-to-end layers, and are not concerned
with the details of the underlying communications facility. Transport layer software (and software
above it) on the source station carries on a conversation with similar software on the destination
station by using message headers and control messages.
Layer 5. Session Layer
The position of Session Layer of the Seven Layered Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is
between Transport Layer and the Presentation Layer. Session layer is the fifth layer of seven layered
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model. The session layer is responsible for establishing,
managing, and terminating connections between applications at each end of the communication.
In the connection establishment phase, the service and the rules (who transmits and when, how much
data can be sent at a time etc.) for communication between the two devices are proposed. The
participating devices must agree on the rules. Once the rules are established, the data transfer phase

begins. Connection termination occurs when the session is complete, and communication ends
gracefully.
In practice, Session Layer is often combined with the Transport Layer.
- Layer 5 Session examples include NFS, NetBios names, RPC, SQL.
The session layer allows session establishment between processes running on different stations. It
provides:

Session establishment, maintenance and termination: allows two application processes on


different machines to establish, use and terminate a connection, called a session.
Session support: performs the functions that allow these processes to communicate over the
network, performing security, name recognition, logging, and so on.

Layer 6. Presentation Layer


The position of Presentation Layer in seven layered Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is just
below the Application Layer. When the presentation layer receives data from the application layer, to be
sent over the network, it makes sure that the data is in the proper format. If it is not, the presentation
layer converts the data to the proper format. On the other side of communication, when the presentation
layer receives network data from the session layer, it makes sure that the data is in the proper format
and once again converts it if it is not.
Formatting functions at the presentation layer may include compression, encryption, and ensuring that
the character code set (ASCII, Unicode, EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code,
which is used in IBM servers) etc) can be interpreted on the other side.
For example, if we select to compress the data from a network application that we are using, the
Application Layer will pass that request to the Presentation Layer, but it will be the Presentation Layer
that does the compression.
- Layer 6 Presentation examples include encryption, ASCII, EBCDIC, TIFF, GIF, PICT, JPEG, MPEG,
MIDI.
The presentation layer formats the data to be presented to the application layer. It can be viewed as the
translator for the network. This layer may translate data from a format used by the application layer into
a common format at the sending station, then translate the common format to a format known to the
application layer at the receiving station.
The presentation layer provides:

Character code translation: for example, ASCII to EBCDIC.


Data conversion: bit order, CR-CR/LF, integer-floating point, and so on.
Data compression: reduces the number of bits that need to be transmitted on the network.
Data encryption: encrypt data for security purposes. For example, password encryption.

Layer 7. Application Layer


The Application Layer the seventh layer in OSI network model. Application Layer is the top-most layer
of the seven layered Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model. Real traffic data will be often
generated from the Application Layer. This may be a web request generated from HTTP protocol, a
command from telnet protocol, a file download request from FTP protocol etc.
In this lesson (Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model), you have learned what are
the Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model and the functions of these seven
layers. The top-most layer of the Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model is the
Application Layer and the bottom-most layer of the Seven Layers of Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) Model is Physical Layer.
- Layer 7 Application examples include WWW browsers, NFS, SNMP, Telnet, HTTP, FTP
The application layer serves as the window for users and application processes to access network
services. This layer contains a variety of commonly needed functions:

Resource sharing and device redirection


Remote file access
Remote printer access
Inter-process communication
Network management
Directory services
Electronic messaging (such as mail)
Network virtual terminals

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