Networking Technologies and the OSI Model

This study provides a brief idea on the various layers in the OSI model, circuit switching and packet switching, the application layer, data link layer, internet layer, transport layer, and physical layer.

Running Head: NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES AND THE OSI MODEL
Brief study of the Networking technologies and the OSI Model
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Summary of lecture 1:
The slides mainly enlightens on computer networks. Previously, the computers were not
connected in a network. However, for the physical exchange of data from one computer to the
other computers needs to be connected in a network. The data will then flow from one computer
to another through magnetic media such as a floppy disc or a magnetic tape. Some of the daily
applications such as Facebook, eBay and emails are all interconnected through network (Molz,
2013). The example of data exchange through eBay provides knowledge of the process through
which data transfer takes place in a networked connection. Any data or piece of information that
needs to be exchanged requires undergoing through the process of authentication and encryption.
Two networking tools that are used during data transfer are Wireshark and VirtualBox
(DeCusatis, Carranza & Delgado-Caceres, 2016). The lecture also provides information on the
number systems, the conversion techniques between binary, octal, hexadecimal and decimal
numbers. The bases for the various number systems are: 2 is the base for binary system, 10 is the
base of decimal number system, 8 is the base for the octal number system and 16 is the base for
the hexadecimal number system. The windows calculator provides a smart feature that converts
quantities to various number systems. The next topics will discuss on the various layers in the
OSI model.
Summary of lecture 2:
This lecture will help to gain knowledge on circuit switching and packet switching and
the differences between them. In circuit switching, a dedicated path is established before call is
set up. One example of use of circuit switching is the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS).
However, in packet switching small packets of data are sent over the network to establish
communication between two devices in a network. Data in circuit switched networks can be

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destroyed by bombs however, in bombs cannot destroy data in packet switched networks. One of
the early packet switched network that used both packet switching as well as the TCP/IP protocol
is the ARPANET. Packet switching is used from small home networks to large networks as well
as in mobile telephone systems. Devices that are connected in a network needs two things. One is
a PC and the other web server. The devices should possess a Network Interface Card (NIC) to
facilitate networking (Kamble & Pandey, 2015). The lecture provides a brief idea on the various
networking devices like hubs, switches and routers that are required to maintain connectivity in
the network. There are two networking models namely OSI model and TCP/IP model. The OSI
model consists of seven layers namely physical layer, data link layer, network layer, transport
layer, session layer, presentation layer and the application layer (Bora, Bora, Singh & Arsalan,
2014). However, the TCP/IP model consists of 5 layers namely the physical layer, network
interface layer, internet, transport and application layer.
Summary of lecture 3:
This lecture explains the application layer in details. Application layer provides
application to the user that allows them to interact with other devices on the network and share
data. Some of the applications are Facebook and Google maps. In the local network, the
application layer allows the user to access the printers, network faxes, storages and other local
machines (Lv et al., 2014). Clients and server are the two terms that is commonly used in the
application layer. Clients requests service and servers provide the requested service. Two types
of network architecture exists in this layer. One is the peer-to-peer architecture and the other is
the client server architecture. In peer-to-peer architecture, the any device connected to the
network can act as both server and client. However, in client server network a particular device
acts as a client and a particular device act as a server (Oluwatosin, 2014). There are two more

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network architectures namely the host based architecture and the cloud-based architecture. There
are three types of service provided by the cloud-based architecture. They are IaaS (Infrastructure
as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service) and SaaS (Software as a service). In the IaaS, the
cloud provider manages the all the hardware of the system including servers and other storage
devices. In PaaS, the cloud provider offers the operating system to the hardware. In SaaS, the
cloud provider provides everything including software. Some of the common internet
applications are web browsers that allow users to view various web pages, several file transfer
services like emails and phone apps.
Summary of lecture 4:
This lecture focused on the data link layer of the TCP/IP model detailing the process by
which communication of data takes place. In a client server architecture, actual communication
proceeds down in the client layer and in the up direction in server layer. The data link layer
facilitates connection between two machines connected in a network. It acts as an interface
between the network and physical layer of the TCP/IP model. The two parts of the data link layer
are Logical Link layer (LLC) and Media Access Control layer or the MAC layer. The role of the
Network Interface card (NIC) is to provide a gateway to the transmitted data in the network. The
NIC consists of a unique 48- bits MAC address (Tamaki et al., 2013). The MAC address is
divided into two parts. The OUI (Organisation Unique Identifier- 24 bits) and a unique 24 bits
number. The MAC address of a computer can be displayed by the ipconfig/all command. MAC
address is commonly known as the physical address of a device. Linux systems can also display
the MAC address. NIC card has the added advantage of detecting and checking errors. The
access to the network can be controlled by implementing various protocols in the network
(Deering & Hinden, 2017). The protocols that are used are CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA and others.

4NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES AND THE OSI MODEL
Summary of lecture 5:
This paragraph will summarize the internet layer or the network layer of the TCP/IP
model. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to determine the MAC address of a machine
with a specific IP address in the local network. In the data link layer the packets of data are send
to the router that handles the remote delivery of network traffic that is done through the network
layer. The function of the network layer is to deliver network traffic from one host to another.
There are two types of IP address namely IPv4 and IPv6. The difference between the two are that
IPv4 is 32 bits long whereas, IPv6 is of 128 bits long (Wu et al., 2013). Subnet mask is used in
IP address to determine the number of bits in the IP address is dedicated to the network and node
portion. Another form to identify the number of network bits in an IP address is the classless
inter domain routing notation. IP addresses can be broadly classified into public and private
addresses. The role of routers is to route data packets in the network. The body that governs
naming of the internet domains is IANA. DNS handles the name resolution of internet domains.
Summary of lecture 6:
Transport layer actually carries the data packets from the source to the destination device
in a network. It breaks down large chunks of data into small bits so that the routers in the
network layer is able to handle them. The process is referred to as data segmentation. In the
destination device, all the segmented data are put together by the transport layer and the process
is known as reassembly. User Datagram protocol (UDP) provides the data transport services.
UDP is a stateless protocol that treats each request as an independent transaction and is not
related to previous transactions. The data transmission in the transport layer is guided by the
Transmission control protocol (TCP) (Deering & Hinden, 2017). The protocol provides
reliability to each transaction and helps data to reach destination on time with the help of TCP

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timers. Transmission of data involves the process of three-way handshaking. This provides
security to data that ensures data is sent to intended destination.
Summary of lecture 7:
Physical layer is the connection between the machines in a network. There are two types
of data namely analog and digital data. Analog data varies continuously whereas, digital data
varies between two values that is 1’s and 0’s. Similarly, there exists two types of data
transmission- analog transmission and digital transmission. Point to point and multipoint
transmission takes place in a network. In point to point circuits two devices are directly
connected to each other whereas, in multipoint circuit multiple devices share media. Data flow is
categorized into simplex, half duplex and full duplex systems. Multiplexing is the transmission
technique that is used to divide the available channel such that various devices can transmit data
at the same time. Multiplexing is categorized into TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) and FDM
(Frequency Division Multiplexing) (Tingfang et al., 2015). The data transmitted is encoded by
several coding techniques like Manchester coding to ensure security of data (Liew, Zhang & Lu,
2013). The various medium of data transfer are coaxial cables, twisted pair cables and optical
fiber cables.

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References:
Bora, G., Bora, S., Singh, S., & Arsalan, S. M. (2014). OSI reference model: An overview.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT), 7(4), 214-218.
DeCusatis, C., Carranza, A., & Delgado-Caceres, J. (2016). Modeling Software Defined
Networks using Mininet. In Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Comput. Inf. Sci. Technol. Ottawa,
Canada (No. 133, pp. 1-6).
Deering, S., & Hinden, R. (2017). Internet protocol, version 6 (IPv6) specification (No. RFC
8200).
Deering, S., & Hinden, R. (2017). Internet protocol, version 6 (IPv6) specification (No. RFC
8200).
Kamble, K. G., & Pandey, V. A. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,008,085. Washington, DC: U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
Liew, S. C., Zhang, S., & Lu, L. (2013). Physical-layer network coding: Tutorial, survey, and
beyond. Physical Communication, 6, 4-42.
Lv, R., Robinson, J. A., Schaak, R. E., Sun, D., Sun, Y., Mallouk, T. E., & Terrones, M. (2014).
Transition metal dichalcogenides and beyond: synthesis, properties, and applications of
single-and few-layer nanosheets. Accounts of chemical research, 48(1), 56-64.
Molz, J. G. (2013). Social networking technologies and the moral economy of alternative
tourism: The case of couchsurfing. org. Annals of tourism research, 43, 210-230.
Oluwatosin, H. S. (2014). Client-server model. IOSRJ Comput. Eng, 16(1), 2278-8727.

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Tamaki, K., Raptino, H. A., Sugiyama, Y., Bandai, M., Saruwatari, S., & Watanabe, T. (2013,
June). Full Duplex Media Access Control for Wireless Multi-Hop Networks. In VTC
Spring (pp. 1-5).
Tingfang, J. I., Khandekar, A. D., Chen, W., Montojo, J., Gorokhov, A. Y., & Palanki, R. (2015).
U.S. Patent No. 9,203,584. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Wu, P., Cui, Y., Wu, J., Liu, J., & Metz, C. (2013). Transition from IPv4 to IPv6: A state-of-the-
art survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 15(3), 1407-1424.

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