Open Systems Interconnection

Foundation of networking
 Standards - who makes them
• for de facto standards ==> Anyone can
• de jure ==> a standards organization
 Why have standards?

• Easy for customer to use the standard as their purchase

requirement(s) ==> Vendors feel that standards help their marketing
(although, sometimes they introduce standards just for marketing or
for market advantage [to force the competitors to have to catch up!])
• Advantages: a) large market, mass production, lower cost, ... b) Standards can
promote interoperability, i.e., that two different implementations can work
together; interoperability leads to more choices
• Disadvantages: standards tend to freeze technology in the past (standardization
slow)
 Who is Who in Standardization for
communication

• Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) - a professional organization

with a very active standards role (especially Local Area Networks)
• company: Bellcore, HP, IBM, Novell, Sun Microsystems, Siemens, Ericsson, ...
• consortia of companies: Electronic Industry Association (EIA), ...
• government: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) {formerly National
Bureau of Standards} [US], U.S. Defense Communications Agency (DCA), ...
• national standards organization: American National Standards Institute (ANSI)[USA],
DIN[Germany], BSI[UK], AFNOR [France], ...
• transnational standards organization: European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI)
• international standards organizations: ITU, ISO, International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC),...
 Communication Standards

• Traditionally communication standards have been dominated by: the common

carriers (those entities that provide public communication services) & the manufacturers
(companies producing the equipment)
• Common carriers - convey information they don't originate it - thus they are not
responsible for its contents (unlike a newspaper, radio station, TV station, ...)
• In most countries the common carrier is the PTT (Post, Telegraph, and Telephone
administration).
• The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) [a UN organization] provides
international coordination of: radio frequencies via
Radio Communications (formerly called CCIR), and telephone/telegraph communication
and data transmission via ITU-T [formerly CCITT (Consultatif International de
T¹élégraphique et Téléphonique] - members of are governments and its's power is based
on treaties
 ISO / OSI Reference Model

• long name: ISO Basic Reference Model for Open Systems Interconnection (ISO/OSI)
• The ISO/OSI model describes computer communication services and protocols, without making
assumptions concerning:
• programming language bindings
• operating system bindings
• application and user interface issues
• A model is simply a way of organizing knowledge and provides the common basis for discussion.
• The ISO OSI Reference Model is a layered model - with each layer providing certain services and
calling upon the services of other layers.
 The goal is to define a layer:

• when necessary to define a good interface (i.e., a min-cut point between

entities)
• to group like functions (services) together
• to put layers where changes in technology occur (for example between
hardware and software)
• to create a layer where it would be useful to expose (and standardize) the
services offered
• to limit effects of changes in protocols, hardware, ..., and
• to utilize an existing set of services (when there is an existing interface
and set of services).
Generic ISO OSI layer structure
 Terminology

• entity = "anything capable of sending or receiving information"

• system = "physically distinct object which contains one or more entities"
• protocol = "set of rules governing the exchange of data between two
entities", which includes: Syntax -
form, which includes: data format, coding, … Semantics - meaning,
which includes: control information, error handling, ...
Timing which includes: speed matching,
sequencing, ...
• layer = a set of entities and the services they provide
• interface = the boundary between two layers
 Terminology
(contd…)
• Service Access Point = the entries through the interface which provide
(or emit) specific services (or requests for service)
• Data is passed across the interface in Interface Data Units (IDUs)
• Each IDU consists of an Interface Control Information (ICI) + Service
Data Unit (SDU)
• Data is passed between entities implementing a layer via a protocol in
Protocol Data Units (PDUs)
Time sequence diagrams
 Application layer (7)

Responsible for managing communication between

applications
 Presentation layer (6)

Presentation layer provides common operations on the structure of data

being exchanged:
•Syntax Conversion - ISO has defined a "general abstract
syntax notation number one" called ASN.1 for
implementation independent specification of data types
and structures.
•Encryption
•Compression
Session layer (5)

Session layer provides the control structure for

managing communications; for example
establishing, managing, and terminating
sessions (connections).
Transport layer (4)

Transport layer provides reliable transparent data transfer

between end points (there may be more than two end
points); provide error recovery and flow control.
Network layer (3)

Network layer makes the upper layers independent of the

data transmission, switching technologies, and topology of
the network; determine which path (or pathes) in the
network that a given unit of data will take (routing).
Data link layer (2)

Link layer provides reliable transfer across the physical links;

establishes the beginning and end of blocks of data (with
synchronization when necessary) [framing]; error detection and
possibly correction; (link) flow control.
Physical layer (1)

Physical layer provides transmission of unstructured bits

across the physical medium (be it electrical, optical,
mechanical, ...).
ISO OSI - Data units

The process of adding headers (and/or trailers) as you go

down layers and removing them on the way up is called
encapsulation. It serves to hide the upper layer information
from the lower layers.
Protocol suites