Transport Layer

The Transport layer (also known as the Host-to-Host Transport layer provides the
Application layer with session and datagram communication services. The Transport layer
encompasses the responsibilities of the OSI Transport layer. The core protocols of the
Transport layer are TCP and UDP. TCP provides a one-to-one, connection-oriented, reliable
communications service. TCP establishes connections, sequences and acknowledges
packets sent, and recovers packets lost during transmission. In contrast to TCP, UDP privies
a one-to-one or one-to-many, connectionless, unreliable communications service. UDP is
used when the amount of data to be transferred is small (such as the data that would fit into
a single packet), when an application developer does not want the overhead associated with
TCP connections, or when the applications or upper-layer protocols provide reliable delivery.
TCP and UDP operate over both IPv4 and IPv6 Internet layers.

Network Interface Layer
The Network Interface Layer (also called the Network Access Layer) sends TCP/IP
packets on the network medium and receives TCP/IP packets off the network medium.
TCP/IP was designed to be independent of the network access method, frame format, and
medium. Therefore, you can use TCP/IP to communicate across differing network types that
use LAN technologies such as Ethernet and 802.11 wireless LAN and WAN technologies
such as Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). By being independent of
any specific network technology, TCP/IP can be adapted to new technologies. The Network
Interface layer of the DARPA model encompasses the Data Link and Physical layers of the
OSI model. The Internet layer of DARPA model does not take advantage of sequencing and
acknowledgment services that might be present in the Data Link layer of the OSI model. The
Internet layer assumes an unreliable Network Interface layer and that reliable
communication through session establishment and the sequencing and acknowledgment of
packets is the responsibility of either the Transport layer or the Application layer.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

This section describes how to use the PPP encapsulation over ISDN point-to-point links.
PPP over ISDN is documented by elective RFC 1618. Because the ISDN B-channel is, by
definition, a point-to-point circuit, PPP is well suited for use over these links.

The ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) usually supports two B-channels with a capacity of 64
kbps each, and a 16 kbps D-channel for control information. B-channels can be used for
voice or data or just for data in a combined way. The ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) can
support many concurrent B-channel links and one 64 kbps D-channel. The PPP, LCP and
NCP mechanisms are particularly useful in this situation in reducing or eliminating manual
configuration and facilitating ease of communication between diverse implementations. The
ISDN D-channel can also be use for sending PPP packets when suitably framed, but is
limited in bandwidth and often restricts communication links to a local switch. PPP treats
ISDN channels as bit- or octet-oriented synchronous links. These links must be full duplex,
but can be either dedicated or circuit-switched. PPP presents an octet interface to the
physical layer. There is no provision for sub-octets to be supplied or accepted. PPP does not
impose any restrictions regarding transmission rate other than that of the particular ISDN
channel interface. PPP does not require the use of control signals. When available, using
such signals can allow greater functionality and performance. The D-channel interface
requires NRZ encoding.

B) X.25
This topic describes the encapsulation of IP over X.25 networks, in accordance with ISO/IEC
and CCITT standards. IP over X.25 networks is documented by RFC 1356 (which obsoletes
RFC 877). RFC 1356 is a Draft Standard with a status of elective. The substantive change to
the IP encapsulation over X.25 is an increase in the IP datagram MTU size, the X.25
maximum data packet size, the virtual circuit management, and the interoperable
encapsulation over X.25 of protocols other than IP between multi-protocol routers and
bridges. One or more X.25 virtual circuits anre opened on demand when datagram arrive at
the network interface for transmission. Protocal Data Units (PDUs) are sent as X.25
complete packet sequences. That is, PDUs begin on X.25 data packet boundaries and the M
bit (more data) is used to fragment PDUs that are larger than one X.25 data packet in length.
In the IP encapsulation, the PDU is the IP DATAGRAM. The first octet in the Call User Data
(CUD) field (the first data octet in the call Request packet) is used for protocol de-
multiplexing in accordance with Subsequent Protocol Identifier (SPI) in ISO/IEC TR 9577.
This field contains a one octet Network-Layer Protocol Identifier (NLPID), which identifies the
network-layer protocol encapsulated over X.25 virtual circuit.