TCP/IP VS OSI Model | Features and Comparison

TCP/IP VS OSI Model | Features and Comparison

This blog post will describe TCP/IP VS OSI Model its Features and Comparison. The TCP / IP and OSI models are the ones used when talking about network functionality. The use of a layered model to describe network protocols and operations includes the following features:

• It promotes competition, since products from different suppliers can work together.
• It provides a "common language" to describe network functions and capabilities.

• Help in the design of protocols.

• It prevents changes in the technology or functionalities of one layer from affecting other upper and lower layers.

The TCP / IP and OSI models are the main models that represent the basic type of layered network models:

• Protocol model : this type of model precisely matches the structure of a particular protocol suite. The TCP/IP model is a model protocol because it describes the functions that occur in each protocol layer within a TCP/IP suite. TCP/IP is also an example of a reference model.
• Reference model : This type of model is consistent with all types of network services and protocols when describing what should be done in a given layer, but without governing the way it should be achieved. The OSI model in a well-known internetwork reference model , but it is also a protocol model for the OSI protocol suite.

THE OSI REFERENCE MODEL

OSI model operate according to following layers:

1. Layer 1 or Physical Layer : describes the physical means for transmitting bits to and from a network device
2. Layer 2 or Data link layer : exchange data frames between devices in a common medium
3. Layer 3 or Network Layer : provides services to exchange individual data between networks.
4. Layer 4 or Transport Layer : provides services to segment, transfer and reassemble data
5. Layer 5 or Session Layer : provides services to the presentation layer to manage data exchange
6. Layer 6 or Presentation Layer : provides a common representation of the data transferred between the services of the application layer
7. Layer 7 or Application Layer : contains protocols used for process-to-process communications

THE TCP/IP PROTOCOL MODEL

The TCP / IP protocol model for internetwork communications was created in the early 1970s and is known as the Internet model . This protocol has the following layers: 

• Application Layer:Represents data for the user plus coding and dialogue control.
• Transport Layer:Supports communication between different devices through various networks.
• Internet Layer: Determine the best path through a network.
• Layer Access to the network : Controls the hardware devices and the media that make up the network.

COMPARISON OF THE OSI MODEL AND THE TCP / IP MODEL

The protocols that make up the TCP / IP protocol suite can be described in terms of the OSI reference model. In the OSI model, the network access layer and the application layer of the TCP / IP model are subdivided to describe discrete functions that must occur in these layers.

The main difference that you can notice from above figures are:

• In the network access layer , it is not specified which protocols to use when it is transmitted by a physical medium; It only describes the transfer from the Internet layer to the physical network protocols. Layers OSI 1 and 2 deal with the procedures necessary to access the media and physical ways of sending data over the network.
• The TCP / IP application layer includes a number of protocols that provide specific functionality to a variety of end-user applications. Layers 5, 6 and 7 of the OSI model are used as references for vendors and application software developers to manufacture products that work in networks.