Physical Layer

The lowest layer of the OSI Model is concerned with electrically or optically
transmitting raw unstructured data bits across the network from the physical layer of
the sending device to the physical layer of the receiving device. It can include
specifications such as voltages, pin layout, cabling, and radio frequencies. At the
physical layer, one might find “physical” resources such as network hubs, cabling,
repeaters, network adapters or modems.

The Physical layer of the OSI model is responsible for the transfer of bits — the 1’s
and 0’s which make up all computer code.

This layer represents the physical medium which is carrying the traffic between two
nodes. An example would be your Ethernet cable or Serial Cable. But don’t get too
caught up on the word “Physical” — this layer was named in the 1970s, long before
wireless communication in networking was a concept. As such, WiFi, despite it not
having a physical, tangible presence, is also considered a Layer 1 protocol.

Simply put, Layer 1 is anything that carries 1’s and 0’s between two nodes.

The actual format of the data on the “wire” can vary with each medium. In the case of
Ethernet, bits are transferred in the form of electric pulses. In the case of Wifi, bits
are transferred in the form of radio waves. In the case of Fiber, bits are transferred in
the form of pulses of light.

Data Link Layer

At the data link layer, directly connected nodes are used to perform node-to-node
data transfer where data is packaged into frames. The data link layer also corrects
errors that may have occurred at the physical layer.

The data link layer encompasses two sub-layers of its own. The first, media access
control (MAC), provides flow control and multiplexing for device transmissions over a
network. The second, the logical link control (LLC), provides flow and error control
over the physical medium as well as identifies line protocols.
The Data Link layer of the OSI model is responsible for interfacing with the Physical
layer. Effectively, Layer 2 is responsible for putting 1’s and 0’s on the wire, and
pulling 1’s and 0’s from the wire.

The Network Interface Card (NIC) that you plug your Ethernet wire into handles the
Layer 2 functionality. It receives signals from the wire, and transmits signals on to
the wire.

Your WiFi NIC works the same way, receiving and transmitting radio waves which
are then interpreted as a series of 1’s and 0’s.

Layer 2 will then group together those 1’s and 0’s into chunks known as Frames.

There is an addressing system that exists at Layer 2 known as the Media Access
Control address, or MAC address. The MAC address uniquely identifies each
individual NIC. Each NIC is pre-configured with a MAC address by the
manufacturer; in fact, it is sometimes referred to as the Burned In Address (BIA).

Network Layer
The network layer is responsible for receiving frames from the data link layer, and
delivering them to their intended destinations among based on the addresses
contained inside the frame. The network layer finds the destination by using logical
addresses, such as IP (internet protocol). At this layer, routers are a crucial
component used to quite literally route information where it needs to go between
networks.

The Network layer of the OSI model is responsible for packet delivery from end
to end.
It does this by using another addressing scheme that can logically identify every
node connected to the Internet. This addressing scheme is known as the Internet
Protocol address, or the IP Address.

It is considered logical because an IP address is not a permanent identification of

a computer. Unlike the MAC address which is considered a physical address, the
IP address is not burned into any computer hardware by the manufacturer.

Routers are Network Devices that operate at Layer 3 of the OSI model. A
Router’s primary responsibility is to facilitate communication between Networks.
As such, a Router creates a boundary between two networks. In order to
communicate with any device not directly in your network, a router must be
used.

Visit more details

https://www.practicalnetworking.net/series/packet-traveling/osi-model/

Transport Layer
The transport layer manages the delivery and error checking of data packets. It
regulates the size, sequencing, and ultimately the transfer of data between systems
and hosts. One of the most common examples of the transport layer is TCP or the
Transmission Control Protocol.

The Transport layer of the OSI model is responsible for distinguishing network
streams.

At any given time on a user’s computer there might be an Internet browser open,
while music is being streamed, while a messenger or chat app is running. Each of
these applications are sending and receiving data from the Internet, and all that
data is arriving in the form of 1’s and 0’s on to that computer’s NIC.
Something has to exist in order to distinguish which 1’s and 0’s belong to the
messenger or the browser or the streaming music. That “something” is Layer 4:

—---diagram—-

Layer 4 accomplishes this by using an addressing scheme known as Port

Numbers.

Specifically, two methods of distinguishing network streams exist. They are

known as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), or the User Datagram
Protocol (UDP).

Both TCP and UDP have 65,536 port numbers (each), and a unique application
stream is identified by both a Source and Destination port (in combination with
their Source and Destination IP address).

TCP and UDP employ different strategies in how data streams are transferred,
and their distinction and inner workings are both fascinating and significant, but
unfortunately they are outside the scope of this article series. They will be the
topic of a future article or series.

Session Layer
The session layer controls the conversations between different computers. A session
or connection between machines is set up, managed, and termined at layer 5.
Session layer services also include authentication and reconnections.

Presentation Layer
The presentation layer formats or translates data for the application layer based on
the syntax or semantics that the application accepts. Because of this, it at times also
called the syntax layer. This layer can also handle the encryption and decryption
required by the application layer.

Application Layer
At this layer, both the end user and the application layer interact directly with the
software application. This layer sees network services provided to end-user
applications such as a web browser or Office 365. The application layer identifies
communication partners, resource availability, and synchronizes communication.

OSI Layer 5, 6, and 7

The Session, Presentation, and Application layers of the OSI model handle the
final steps before the data transferred through the network (facilitated by layers
1-4) is displayed to the end user.

From a purely Network Engineering perspective, the distinction between Layers

5, 6, and 7 is not particularly significant. In fact, there is another popular Internet
communication model known as the TCP/IP model, which groups these three
layers into one single encompassing layer.

The distinction would become more significant if you were involved in Software
Engineering. But as this is not the focus of this article series, we will not dive
deep into the differences between these layers.

Many network engineers simply refer to these layers as L5-7 or L5+ or L7. For
the remainder of this series, we will do the same.