TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE

The TCPIIP protocol suite was developed prior to the OSI model. Therefore, the layers in the
TCP/IP protocol suite do not exactly match those in the OSI model. The original TCP/IP
protocol suite was defined as having four layers: host-to-network, internet, transport, and
application. However, when TCP/IP is compared to OSI, we can say that the host-to-network
layer is equivalent to the combination of the physical and data link layers. The internet layer is
equivalent to the network layer, and the application layer is roughly doing the job of the session,
presentation, and application layers with the transport layer in TCP/IP taking care of part of the
duties of the session layer.
TCP/IP is a hierarchical protocol made up of interactive modules, each of which provides a
specific functionality; however, the modules are not necessarily interdependent. Whereas the
OSI model specifies which functions belong to each of its layers, the layers of the TCP/IP
protocol suite contain relatively independent protocols that can be mixed and matched depending
on the needs of the system. The term hierarchical means that each upper-level protocol is
supported by one or more lower-level protocols.
At the transport layer, TCP/IP defines three protocols: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP),
User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). At the
network layer, the main protocol defined by TCP/IP is the Internetworking Protocol (IP); there
are also some other protocols that support data movement in this layer.

1. -Network Access Layer:

The TCP/IP reference model does not really say much about what happens here, except to point
out that the host has to connect to the network using some protocol so it can send IP packets to it.
This protocol is not defined and varies from host to host and network to network.
2. Internet Layer:
Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any network and have they travel independently to
the destination (potentially on a different network). They may even arrive in a different order
than they were sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to rearrange them, if in-order
delivery is desired.
The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet Protocol).
The job of the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where they are supposed to go. Packet
routing is clearly the major issue here, as is avoiding congestion.
3. The Transport Layer:
The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is now usually called the transport layer.
It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and destination hosts to carry on a
conversation, just as in the OSI transport layer. Two end-to-end transport protocols have been
defined here. The first one, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), is a reliable connection
oriented protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be delivered without
error on any other machine in the internet. It fragments the incoming byte stream into discrete
messages and passes each one on to the internet layer. At the destination, the receiving TCP
process reassembles the received messages into the output stream. TCP also handles flow control
to make sure a fast sender cannot swamp a slow receiver with more messages than it can handle.
The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User Datagram Protocol), is an unreliable,
connectionless protocol for applications that do not want TCP's sequencing or flow control and
wish to provide their own. It is also widely used for one-shot, client-server-type request-reply
queries and applications in which prompt delivery is more important than accurate delivery, such
as transmitting speech or video.
4. The Application Layer:
The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation layers. On top of the transport layer is
the application layer. It contains all the higher-level protocols. The early ones included virtual
terminal (TELNET), file transfer (FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP). The virtual terminal
protocol allows a user on one machine to log onto a distant machine and work there. The file
transfer protocol provides a way to move data efficiently from one machine to another.
Electronic mail was originally just a kind of file transfer, but later a specialized protocol (SMTP)
was developed for it. Many other protocols have been added to these over the years: the Domain
Name System (DNS) for mapping host names onto their network addresses, NNTP, the protocol
for moving USENET news articles around, and HTTP, the protocol for fetching pages on the
World Wide Web, and many others.

Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models:

The OSI and TCP/IP reference models have much in common. Both are based on the concept of
a stack of independent protocols. Also, the functionality of the layers is roughly similar. For
example, in both models the layers up through and including the transport layer are there to
provide an end-to-end, network-independent transport service to processes wishing to
communicate. These layers form the transport provider. Again in both models, the layers above
transport are application-oriented users of the transport service. Despite these fundamental
similarities, the two models also have many differences Three concepts are central to the OSI
model:
1. Services.
2. Interfaces.
3. Protocols.
Probably the biggest contribution of the OSI model is to make the distinction between these three
concepts explicit. Each layer performs some services for the layer above it. The service
definition tells what the layer does, not how entities above it access it or how the layer works. It
defines the layer's semantics.
A layer's interface tells the processes above it how to access it. It specifies what the parameters
are and what results to expect. It, too, says nothing about how the layer works inside.
Finally, the peer protocols used in a layer are the layer's own business. It can use any protocols it
wants to, as long as it gets the job done (i.e., provides the offered services). It can also change
them at will without affecting software in higher layers.
The TCP/IP model did not originally clearly distinguish between service, interface, and protocol,
although people have tried to retrofit it after the fact to make it more OSI-like. For example, the
only real services offered by the internet layer are SEND IP PACKET and RECEIVE IP
PACKET.
As a consequence, the protocols in the OSI model are better hidden than in the TCP/IP model
and can be replaced relatively easily as the technology changes. Being able to make such
changes is one of the main purposes of having layered protocols in the first place. The OSI
reference model was devised before the corresponding protocols were invented. This ordering
means that the model was not biased toward one particular set of protocols, a fact that made it
quite general. The downside of this ordering is that the designers did not have much experience
with the subject and did not have a good idea of which functionality to put in which layer.
Another difference is in the area of connectionless versus connection-oriented communication.
The OSI model supports both connectionless and connection-oriented communication in the
network layer, but only connection-oriented communication in the transport layer, where it
counts (because the transport service is visible to the users). The TCP/IP model has only one
mode in the network layer (connectionless) but supports both modes in the transport layer,
giving the users a choice. This choice is especially important for simple request-response
protocols.