In order to reduce design complexity and allow for a better

standardization process,
network protocols are organized in layers (or levels),
each layer providing a set of services to the layer
immediately above and relying on services from the layer
below.
 Fig. 3.1 OSI and TCP/IP reference model
 The OSI reference model includes seven layers:

1. The Physical layer is responsible for transmitting raw bits

over a communication
channel.
2. The Data Link layer is in charge of several tasks such as
reliability, flow control,
and medium access control for point-to-point data
communication.
3. The Network layer is mainly in charge of routing packets
through sub-nets.
4. The Transport layer offers end-to-end data communication
services to upper layers.
5. The Session layer allows users to establish sessions
between them, each session
offering services such as dialog control and
synchronization.
6. The Presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and
semantics of the information (data) exchanged.
7. The Application layer contains a variety of protocols
specific to user applications.
 Unlike OSI, the TCP/IP reference model has only four
layers

1. he Host-to-Network layer the protocols used at this layer

are specific to the network technology used to
interconnect the physical user devices and network
devices.
2. The Internet layer, it is in charge of routing data packets
through the sub-nets to
3. The Transport layer The protocols residing at this layer
are the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User
Datagram Protocol (UDP).
4. The Application layer Protocols residing at this layer
include but are not limited to File Transport Protocol
(FTP), electronic mail protocols (SMTP, IMAP, POP),
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Domain Name
System (DNS), Secure Shell (SSH), etc
 Fig. 3.3 Protocols and Networks specific to TCP/IP reference models

schematically presents the structure of the TCP/IP reference model and some of the
network technologies and protocols involved.
Fig. 3.4 TCP/IP reference model, data flow diagram
As mentioned in the previous sections, the layers of any
reference model, including the TCP/IP model, rely on the
services provided by the layers above and provide a set of
services to the upper layer
 Fig. 3.5 TCP/IP reference model, data flow diagram through network devices

To exemplify, we consider two users, User 1 and User 2, exchange files using
FTP. We assume that User 2 has an FTP server and the file repositories and User 1
has an FTP client and requests a certain file to be retrieved.
Fig. 3.6 TCP/IP reference model, transport layer programming interface
Fig. 3.7 TCP packet structure