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.

OSI Model - Layer 1

Aside from the physical cable, Repeaters and Hubs also

operate at this layer.

A Repeater simply repeats a signal from one medium to the

other, allowing a series of cables to be daisy chained
together and increase the range a signal can travel beyond
the single cable limit. These are commonly used in large
WiFi deployments, where a single WiFi network is
“repeated” throughout multiple access-points to cover a
larger range.

A Hub is simply a multi-port Repeater. If four devices are

connected to a single Hub, anything sent by one device
gets repeated to the other three.

OSI Layer 2 – Data Link

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).

OSI Model - Layer 2

Aside from your NIC, a Switch also operates at this layer. A

Switch’s primary responsibility is to facilitate communication
within Networks (this idea will be expanded upon in a later
article in this series).

The overarching function of the Data Link layer is to deliver

packets from one NIC to another. Or to put it another way,
the role of Layer 2 is to deliver packets from hop to hop.

OSI Layer 3 – Network

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.
OSI Model - RouterRouters 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.

OSI Model – Layer 2 vs. Layer 3

The interaction and distinction between Layer 2 and Layer 3
is crucial to understanding how data flows between two
computers. For example, if we already have a unique L2
addressing scheme on every NIC (like MAC addresses),
why do we need yet another addressing scheme at L3 (like
IP addresses)? Or vice versa?

The answer is that both addressing schemes accomplish

different functions:

Layer 2 uses MAC addresses and is responsible for packet

delivery from hop to hop.
Layer 3 uses IP addresses and is responsible for packet
delivery from end to end.
When a computer has data to send, it encapsulates it in a
IP header which will include information like the Source and
Destination IP addresses of the two “ends” of the
communication.
The IP Header and Data are then further encapsulated in a
MAC address header, which will include information like the
Source and Destination MAC address of the current “hop”
in the path towards the final destination.

Here is an illustration to drive this point home:

OSI Model - MAC vs IP

Notice between each Router, the MAC address header is

stripped and regenerated to get it to the next hop. The IP
header generated by the first computer is only stripped off
by the final computer, hence the IP header handled the
“end to end” delivery, and each of the four different MAC
headers involved in this animation handled the “hop to hop”
delivery.

OSI Layer 4 – Transport

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:

OSI Model - Layer 4

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.

To summarize, if Layer 2 is responsible for hop to hop

delivery, and Layer 3 is responsible for end to end delivery,
it can be said that Layer 4 is responsible for service to
service delivery.
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.

Encapsulation and Decapsulation

The last item we need to discuss before we move on from
the OSI Model is that of Encapsulation and Decapsulation.
These terms refer to how data is moved through the layers
from top to bottom when sending and from bottom to top
when receiving.

As the data is handed from layer to layer, each layer adds

the information it requires to accomplish its goal before the
complete datagram is converted to 1s and 0s and sent
across the wire. For example:

Layer 4 will add a TCP header which would include a

Source and Destination port
Layer 3 will add an IP header which would include a Source
and Destination IP address
Layer 2 would add an Ethernet header which would include
a Source and Destination MAC address
On the receiving end, each layer strips the header from the
data and passes it back up the stack towards the
Application layers. Here is the whole process in action: