TCP/IP Model Layers Explained

So, what does TCP/IP stand for? It is a suite of protocol which is named after its most significant pair of protocols. That is Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. TCP/IP are are made up of layers. Each layer is responsible for a set of computer network related tasks. Every layer provides service to the the layer above it. There are in all four layers in the TCP/IP reference model.

Application Layer: This is the topmost layer of the TCP/IP suite. This is responsible for coding of the packet data.

Transport layer: This layer monitors end to end path selections of the packets. It also provides service to the application layer.

Internet Layer: This layer is responsible for sending packets through different networks.

Link Layer: It is the closest layer to the network hardware. It provides service to Internet layer.

OSI Model Layers Explained

In OSI reference model there seven layers of protocols. Again, in OSI reference model, each layer provides services to the layer above it. There are in all seven layers of in OSI. They are

Physical Layer: It is the lower most layer of the OSI reference model. It is layer which is responsible for direct interaction of OSI model with hardware. The hardware provides service to the physical layer and it provides service to the datalink layer.

Datalink Layer: There may be certain errors, which may occur at physical layer. If possible, these errors are corrected by datalink layer. Datalink layer provides the way by which various entities can transfer the data to the network.

Network Layer: It does not allow the quality of the service to be degraded that was requested by transport layer. It is also responsible for data transfer sequence from source to destination.

Transport Layer: The reliability of the data is ensured by the transport layer. It also retransmits those data that fail to reach the destination.

Session Layer: The sessions layer is responsible for creating and terminating the connection. Management of such connection is taken care of by sessions layer.

Presentation Layer: This layer is responsible for decoding the context (syntax and semantics) of the higher level entities.

Application Layer: Whichever software application that implements socket programming will communicate with this layer. This layer is closest to the user.