Layer 1: Physical Layer

The Physical Layer defines the electrical and physical specifications for devices. In
particular, it defines the relationship between a device and a transmission medium, such as a
copper or optical cable. This includes the layout of pins, voltages, cable specifications, hubs,
repeaters, network adapters, host bus adapters and more.

To understand the function of the Physical Layer, contrast it with the functions of the Data
Link Layer. Think of the Physical Layer as concerned primarily with the interaction of a single
device with a medium, whereas the Data Link Layer is concerned more with the interactions of
multiple devices (i.e., at least two) with a shared medium. Standards such as RS-232 do use
physical wires to control access to the medium.

The major functions and services performed by the Physical Layer are:

 Establishment and termination of a connection to a communications medium.

 Participation in the process whereby the communication resources are effectively shared
among multiple users.
 Modulation, or conversion between the representation of digital data in user equipment and
the corresponding signals transmitted over a communications channel. These are signals
operating over the physical cabling (such as copper and optical fiber) or over a radio link.

Layer 2: Data Link Layer

The Data Link layer provides a means for exchanging data over a common local media. It is
responsible for the exchange of frames between nodes over the media of a physical network.

The Data Link layer performs two basic services:

 Allows the upper layers to access the media using techniques such as framing
 Controls how data is placed onto the media and is received from the media using
techniques such as media access control and error detection

Layer 3: Network Layer

The Network layer, or OSI Layer 3, provides services to exchange the individual pieces of
data over the network between identified end devices. To accomplish this end-to-end transport,
Layer 3 uses four basic processes:

 Addressing
 Encapsulation
 Routing
 Decapsulation

The Network Layer provides the functional and procedural means of transferring variable
length data sequences from a source to a destination via one or more networks, while
maintaining the quality of service requested by the Transport Layer. The Network Layer
performs network routing functions, and might also perform fragmentation and reassembly, and
report delivery errors. Routers operate at this layer—sending data throughout the extended
network and making the Internet possible. This is a logical addressing scheme – values are
chosen by the network engineer. The addressing scheme is not hierarchical.
Layer 4: Transport Layer

The Transport Layer provides transparent transfer of data between end users, providing
reliable data transfer services to the upper layers. The Transport Layer controls the reliability of
a given link through flow control, segmentation/desegmentation, and error control. Some
protocols are state and connection oriented. This means that the Transport Layer can keep
track of the segments and retransmit those that fail. The Transport layer also provides the
acknowledgement of the successful data transmission and sends the next data if no errors
occurred.

The two most common Transport layer protocols of TCP/IP protocol suite are Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Both protocols manage the
communication of multiple applications. The differences between the two are the specific
functions that each protocol implements.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

UDP is a simple, connectionless protocol, described in RFC 768. It has the advantage of
providing for low overhead data delivery. The pieces of communication in UDP are called
datagrams. These datagrams are sent as "best effort" by this Transport layer protocol.

Applications that use UDP include:

 Domain Name System (DNS)

 Video Streaming
 Voice over IP (VoIP).
 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, described in RFC 793. TCP incurs additional

overhead to gain functions. Additional functions specified by TCP are the same order delivery,
reliable delivery, and flow control. Each TCP segment has 20 bytes of overhead in the header
encapsulating the Application layer data, whereas each UDP segment only has 8 bytes of
overhead. See the figure for a comparison.

Applications that use TCP are:

 Web Browsers
 E-mail
 File Transfers

Layer 5: Session Layer

As the name of the Session layer implies, functions at this layer create and maintain
dialogs between source and destination applications. The Session layer handles the exchange
of information to initiate dialogs, keep them active, and to restart sessions that are disrupted or
idle for a long period of time.

The Session Layer controls the dialogues (connections) between computers. It establishes,
manages and terminates the connections between the local and remote application. It provides
for full-duplex, half-duplex, or simplex operation, and establishes checkpointing, adjournment,
termination, and restart procedures. The OSI model made this layer responsible for graceful
close of sessions, which is a property of the Transmission Control Protocol, and also for session
checkpointing and recovery, which is not usually used in the Internet Protocol Suite. The
Session Layer is commonly implemented explicitly in application environments that use remote
procedure calls.

Layer 6: Presentation Layer

The Presentation layer has three primary functions:

 Coding and conversion of Application layer data to ensure that data from the source device
can be interpreted by the appropriate application on the destination device.
 Compression of the data in a manner that can be decompressed by the destination device.
 Encryption of the data for transmission and the decryption of data upon receipt by the
destination.

Presentation layer implementations are not typically associated with a particular protocol
stack. The standards for video and graphics are examples. Some well-known standards for
video include QuickTime and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). QuickTime is an Apple
Computer specification for video and audio, and MPEG is a standard for video compression and
coding.

Layer 7: Application Layer

The Application Layer is the OSI layer closest to the end user, which means that both
the OSI application layer and the user interact directly with the software application. This layer
interacts with software applications that implement a communicating component. Such
application programs fall outside the scope of the OSI model. Application layer functions
typically include identifying communication partners, determining resource availability, and
synchronizing communication. When identifying communication partners, the application layer
determines the identity and availability of communication partners for an application with data to
transmit. When determining resource availability, the application layer must decide whether
sufficient network or the requested communication exists. In synchronizing communication, all
communication between applications requires cooperation that is managed by the application
layer.