• On which layers of the OSI model do WAN protocols operate?
• What are some of these protocols?
• On which OSI layers do switches and routers operate?
• If routers reside at more than one layer, what is the difference between the OSI layers?
Introduction:
The OSI model was introduced in 1984. Although it was designed to be an abstract model, the OSI model remains a practical framework for today's key network technologies like Ethernet and protocols like IP.
The OSI model defines internetworking in terms of a vertical stack of seven layers. The upper layers of the OSI model represent software that implements network services like encryption and connection management. The lower layers of the OSI model implement more primitive, hardware-oriented functions like routing, addressing, and flow control.
In the OSI model, data communication starts with the top layer at the sending side, travels down the OSI model stack to the bottom layer, then traverses the network connection to the bottom layer on the receiving side, and up its OSI model stack.
How OSI model relates to a network:
Information being transferred from a software application in one computer system to a software application in another must pass through the OSI layers. For example, if a software application in System A has information to transmit to a software application in System B, the application program in System A will pass its information to the application layer (Layer 7) of System A. The application layer then passes the information to the presentation layer (Layer 6), which relays the data to the session layer (Layer 5), and so on down to the physical layer (Layer 1). At the physical layer, the information is placed on the physical network medium and is sent across the medium to System B. The physical