CHAPTER-TWO

APPLICATION, SESSION AND

PRESENTATION LAYERS

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

Chapter Contents:
 Application Layer
 Client-Server Model
 Application Protocols
 Network Services
 Session Layer
 Presentation Layer

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

APPLICATION LAYER

Thursday, July 13, 2023

 An Application Layer is the topmost layer in the Open
System Interconnection (OSI) model.
 It is the layer closest to the end-user, implying that the
application layer and the end-user can interact directly with
the software application.

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 The Application Layer interface directly interacts with
application and provides common web application services.
 This layer is basically highest level of open system, which
provides services directly for application process.
 This layer exists in both layered models because of its
significance, of interacting with user and user applications.
 This layer is for applications which are involved in
communication system.
 This layer allows users to send data, access data and use

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networks.

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Thursday, July 13, 2023

 An application layer is a component within an application
that determines how a network system operates and
performs.
 The application layer is where users interact with the
network, download information and send data.
 The application layer is the topmost layer of the OSI model
and the TCP/IP model.
 In TCP/IP model, the application layer is formed by
combining the top three layers, i.e., the application layer, the

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presentation layer, and the session layer.
 An application layer is an abstraction layer that specifies the
shared communications protocols and interface methods
used by hosts in a communications network.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Functions of Application Layer :
 Application Layer provides a facility by which users can
forward several emails and it also provides a storage
facility.
 This layer allows users to access, retrieve and manage files
in a remote computer.
 This layer provides access to global information about
various services.
 This layer provides services which include: e-mail,

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transferring files, distributing results to the user, directory
services, network resources and so on.
 It provides protocols that allow software to send and receive
information and present meaningful data to users. 6

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 It handles issues such as network transparency, resource
allocation and so on.
 This layer serves as a window for users and application
processes to access network services.
 It allows users to log on as a remote host.

 This layer allows users to interact with other software

applications.
 Facilitating remote hosting

 It helps to retrieve global information and services by

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providing access to distributed database resources.

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

CONT…

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Application Layer Protocols
 There are several protocols which work for users in
Application Layer.
 Application layer protocols can be broadly divided into two
categories:
 Protocols which are used by users. For email for example,
eMail.
 Protocols which help and support protocols used by users.
For example DNS.

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 One of the most often used application protocols
is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the foundation for
the World Wide Web.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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TELNET:
 Telnet stands for Telecommunications Network.

 This protocol is used for managing files over the Internet.

 It allows the Telnet clients to access the resources of Telnet

server.
 Telnet uses port number 23.

NFS:
 NFS stands for Network File System.

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 This protocol allows remote hosts to mount files over a
network and interact with those file systems as though they
are mounted locally.
 NFS uses the port number 2049.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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DNS: 
 DNS stands for Domain Name System.

 The DNS service translates the domain name (selected by

user) into the corresponding IP address.
 For example- If you choose the domain name as
www.abcd.com, then DNS must translate it as 192.36.20.8
(random IP address written just for understanding purposes).
 DNS protocol uses the port number 53.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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DHCP:
 DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

 It provides IP addresses to hosts.

 Whenever a host tries to register for an IP address with the

DHCP server, DHCP server provides lots of information to
the corresponding host.
 DHCP uses port numbers 67 and 68.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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FTP:
 FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.

 This protocol helps to transfer different files from one

device to another.
 FTP promotes sharing of files via remote computer devices
with reliable, efficient data transfer.
 FTP uses port number 20 for data access and port number
21 for data control.

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SMTP:
 SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

 It is used to transfer electronic mail from one user to another

user.
 SMTP is used by end users to send emails with ease.

 SMTP uses port numbers 25 and 587.

HTTP:
 HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. It is the
foundation of the World Wide Web (WWW).

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 HTTP works on the client server model.

 This protocol is used for transmitting hypermedia

documents like HTML.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 This protocol was designed particularly for the
communications between the web browsers and web
servers, but this protocol can also be used for several other
purposes.
 HTTP is a stateless protocol (network protocol in which a
client sends requests to server and server responses back as
per the given state), which means the server is not
responsible for maintaining the previous client’s requests.
 HTTP uses port number 80.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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SNMP:
 SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol.

 This protocol gathers data by polling the devices from the

network to the management station at fixed or random
intervals, requiring them to disclose certain information.
 SNMP uses port numbers 161 (TCP) and 162 (UDP).

Post Office Protocol (POP3):

 The Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP 3) is a simple mail
retrieval protocol used by User Agents (client email

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software) to retrieve mails from mail server.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

PRESENTATION LAYER

Thursday, July 13, 2023

 The presentation layer (Layer 6) ensures that the message is
presented to the upper layer in a standardized format.
 It deals with the syntax and the semantics of the messages.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 It is used to present data to the application layer (layer 7) in
an accurate, well-defined and standardized format.
 Data can be communicated in different formats via different
sources.
 Thus, the presentation layer is responsible for integrating all
formats into a standard format for efficient and effective
communication.
 This layer is also known as Translation layer, as this layer
serves as a data translator for the network.

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 The data which this layer receives from the Application
Layer is extracted and manipulated here as per the required
format to transmit over the network.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 The main responsibility of this layer is to provide or define
the data format and encryption.
 The presentation layer is also called as Syntax layer since it
is responsible for maintaining the proper syntax of the data
which it either receives or transmits to other layer(s).
 The presentation layer is responsible for the following:

 Data encryption/decryption

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 Character/string conversion
 Data compression
 Graphic handling
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Thursday, July 13, 2023

Functions of Presentation Layer :
 Presentation layer format and encrypts data to be sent across
the network.
 This layer carries out the encryption at the transmitter and
decryption at the receiver.
 This layer carries out data compression to reduce the
bandwidth of the data to be transmitted.
 This layer basically deals with the presentation part of the
data.

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 Presentation layer, carries out the data compression (number
of bits reduction while transmission), which in return
improves the data throughput.
 This layer also deals with the issues of string representation. 19

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 The presentation layer is also responsible for integrating all
the formats into a standardized format for efficient and
effective communication.
 This layer encodes the message from the user-dependent
format to the common format and vice-versa for
communication between dissimilar systems.
 This layer deals with the syntax and semantics of the
messages.
 Presentation layer is also responsible for translation,

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formatting, and delivery of information for processing or
display.
 This layer also performs serialization (process of translating
a data structure or an object into a format that can be stored
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or transmitted easily).
By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)
CONT…

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Presentation Layer Protocols :
 Presentation layer being the 6th layer, but the most
important layer in the OSI model performs several types of
functionalities, which makes sure that data which is being
transferred or received should be accurate or clear to all the
devices which are there in a closed network.
 Presentation Layer, for performing translations or other
specified functions, needs to use certain protocols which are
defined below:

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Apple Filing Protocol (AFP):
 Apple Filing Protocol is the proprietary network protocol
(communications protocol) that offers services to macOS or
the classic macOS.
 This is basically the network file control protocol
specifically designed for Mac-based platforms.
Lightweight Presentation Protocol (LPP): 
 Lightweight Presentation Protocol is that protocol which is
used to provide ISO presentation services on the top of

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TCP/IP based protocol stacks.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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NetWare Core Protocol (NCP):
 NetWare Core Protocol is the network protocol which is
used to access file, print, directory, clock synchronization,
messaging, remote command execution and other network
service functions.
Network Data Representation (NDR):
 Network Data Representation is basically the
implementation of the presentation layer in the OSI model,
which provides or defines various primitive data types,

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constructed data types and also several types of data
representations.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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External Data Representation (XDR): 
 External Data Representation (XDR) is the standard for the
description and encoding of data.
 It is useful for transferring data between computer
architectures and has been used to communicate data
between very diverse machines.
 Converting from local representation to XDR is called
encoding, whereas converting XDR into local representation
is called decoding.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Secure Socket Layer (SSL):
 The Secure Socket Layer protocol provides security to the
data that is being transferred between the web browser and
the server.
 SSL encrypts the link between a web server and a browser,
which ensures that all data passed between them remains
private and free from attacks.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

SESSION LAYER

Thursday, July 13, 2023

 The session layer (layer 5) is responsible for establishing,
managing, synchronizing and terminating sessions between
end-user application processes.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 This layer allows users on different machines to establish
active communications sessions between them.
 It is responsible for establishing, maintaining,
synchronizing, terminating sessions between end-user
applications.
 In Session Layer, streams of data are received and further
marked, which is then resynchronized properly, so that the
ends of the messages are not cut initially and further data
loss is avoided.

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 This layer basically establishes a connection between the
session entities.
 This layer handles and manipulates data which it receives
from the Session Layer as well as from the Presentation
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Layer.
By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)
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Functions of Session Layer :
 It works as a dialog controller.
 It allows the systems to communicate in either half-duplex or full-
duplex mode of communication.
 It is responsible for token management.
 Through this, it prevents the two users to simultaneously attempt
the same critical operation.
 It synchronizes communication.
 It adds synchronization points or checkpoints in data streams for

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long communications.
 This ensures that data streams up to the checkpoints are
successfully received and acknowledged.
 In case of any failures, only the streams after the checkpoints
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have to be re-transmitted.

By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 This layer basically provides a mechanism of opening,
closing and managing a session between the end-user
application processes.
 The Session Layer is also responsible for synchronizing
information from different sources.
 The session Layer is responsible for fetching or receiving
data information from its previous layer (transport layer)
and further sends data to the layer after it (presentation
layer).

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

CONT…

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Session Layer Protocols :
 Session Layer uses some protocols which are required for
safe, secure and accurate communication which exists
between two-ender user applications.
AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP):
 ADSP is that type of protocol which was developed by
Apple Inc. and it includes a number of features that allow
local area networks to be connected with no prior setup.
 This protocol was released in 1985. 

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This protocol rigorously followed the OSI model of
protocol layering.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 ADSP itself has two protocols named: AppleTalk Address
Resolution Protocol (AARP) and Name Binding Protocol
(NBP), both aimed at making system self-configuring.
Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP): 
 Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP) is a protocol that supports
streams of sockets over Remote Direct Memory Access
(RDMA) network fabrics.
 The purpose of SDP is to provide an RDMA-accelerated
alternative to the TCP protocol.

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 The primary goal is to perform one particular thing in such a
manner which is transparent to the application.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Remote Procedure Call Protocol (RPCP):
 Remote Procedure Call Protocol (RPCP) is a protocol that is
used when a computer program causes a procedure (or a
sub-routine) to execute in a different address space without
the programmer explicitly coding the details for the remote
interaction.
 This is basically the form of client-server interaction,
typically implemented via a request-response message-
passing system.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Password Authentication Protocol (PAP):
 Password Authentication Protocol is a password-based
authentication protocol used by Point to Point Protocol
(PPP) to validate users.
 Almost all network operating systems, remote servers
support PAP.
 PAP authentication is done at the time of the initial link
establishment and verifies the identity of the client using a
two-way handshake (Client-sends data and server in return

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sends Authentication-ACK (Acknowledgement) after the
data sent by client is verified completely).

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP):
 RTCP is a protocol which provides out-of-band statistics
and control information for an RTP (Real-time Transport
Protocol) session.
 RTCP’s primary function is to provide feedback on the
quality of service (QoS) in media distribution by
periodically sending statistical information such as
transmitted octet and packet counts or packet loss to the
participants in the streaming multimedia session.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP):
 PPTP is a protocol which provides a method for
implementing virtual private networks.
 PPTP uses a TCP control channel and a Generic Routing
Encapsulation tunnel to encapsulate PPP (Point-to-Point
Protocol) packets.
 This protocol provides security levels and remote access
levels comparable with typical VPN (Virtual Private
Network) products.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

NETWORK SERVICES

Thursday, July 13, 2023

 Computer systems and computerized systems help human
beings to work efficiently and explore the unthinkable.
 When these devices are connected together to form a
network, the capabilities are enhanced multiple-times.
 Some basic services computer network can offer are.

A, Directory Services
 These services are mapping between name and its value,
which can be variable value or fixed.

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 This software system helps to store the information,
organize it, and provides various means of accessing it.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Accounting
 In an organization, a number of users have their user names
and passwords mapped to them.
 Directory Services provide means of storing this
information in cryptic form and make available when
requested.
Authentication and Authorization
 User credentials are checked to authenticate a user at the
time of login and/or periodically.

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 User accounts can be set into hierarchical structure and their
access to resources can be controlled using authorization
schemes.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Domain Name Services
 DNS is widely used and one of the essential services on
which internet works.
 This system maps IP addresses to domain names, which are
easier to remember and recall than IP addresses.
 Because network operates with the help of IP addresses and
humans tend to remember website names, the DNS provides
website’s IP address which is mapped to its name from the
back-end on the request of a website name from the user.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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B, File Services
 File services include sharing and transferring files over the
network.
File Sharing
 One of the reason which gave birth to networking was file
sharing.
 File sharing enables its users to share their data with other
users.
 User can upload the file to a specific server, which is

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accessible by all intended users.
 As an alternative, user can make its file shared on its own
computer and provides access to intended users.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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File Transfer
 This is an activity to copy or move file from one computer
to another computer or to multiple computers, with help of
underlying network.
 Network enables its user to locate other users in the network
and transfers files.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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C, Communication Services
Email
 Electronic mail is a communication method and something
a computer user cannot work without.
 This is the basis of today’s internet features. Email system
has one or more email servers.
 All its users are provided with unique IDs.

 When a user sends email to other user, it is actually

transferred between users with help of email server.

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Social Networking
 Recent technologies have made technical life social.

 The computer savvy peoples, can find other known peoples

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or friends, can connect with them, and can share thoughts,
pictures, and videos.
By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)
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Internet Chat
 Internet chat provides instant text transfer services between
two hosts.
 Two or more people can communicate with each other using
text based Internet Relay Chat services.
 These days, voice chat and video chat are very common.

Discussion Boards
 Discussion boards provide a mechanism to connect multiple
peoples with same interests.

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 It enables the users to put queries, questions, suggestions
etc. which can be seen by all other users. Other may respond
as well.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Remote Access
 This service enables user to access the data residing on the
remote computer.
 This feature is known as Remote desktop.

 This can be done via some remote device, e.g. mobile phone
or home computer.

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D, Application Services
 These are nothing but providing network based services to
the users such as web services, database managing, and
resource sharing.
Resource Sharing
 To use resources efficiently and economically, network
provides a mean to share them.
 This may include Servers, Printers, and Storage Media etc.

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Databases
 This application service is one of the most important
services.
 It stores data and information, processes it, and enables the
users to retrieve it efficiently by using queries.
Web Services
 World Wide Web has become the synonym for internet.

 It is used to connect to the internet, and access files and

information services provided by the internet servers.

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CLIENT-SERVER MODEL

Thursday, July 13, 2023

 Two remote application processes can communicate mainly
in two different fashions:
 Peer-to-peer: Both remote processes are executing at same
level and they exchange data using some shared resource.
 Client-Server: One remote process acts as a Client and
requests some resource from another application process
acting as Server.
 In client-server model, any process can act as Server or
Client.

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 It is not the type of machine, size of the machine, or its
computing power which makes it server; it is the ability of
serving request that makes a machine a server.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 A system can act as Server and Client simultaneously.
 That is, one process is acting as Server and another is acting
as a client.
 This may also happen that both client and server processes
reside on the same machine.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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Communication
 Two processes in client-server model can interact in various
ways:
 Sockets
 Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

Sockets
 In this paradigm, the process acting as Server opens a socket
using a well-known (or known by client) port and waits
until some client request comes.

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 The second process acting as a Client also opens a socket
but instead of waiting for an incoming request, the client
processes ‘requests first’.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 When the request is reached to server, it is served. It can
either be an information sharing or resource request.

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Remote Procedure Call
 This is a mechanism where one process interacts with
another by means of procedure calls.
 One process (client) calls the procedure lying on remote
host.
 The process on remote host is said to be Server. Both
processes are allocated stubs.
 This communication happens in the following way:

 The client process calls the client stub.

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 It passes all the parameters pertaining to program local to it.

 All parameters are then packed (marshalled) and a system

call is made to send them to other side of the network.
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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)

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 Kernel sends the data over the network and the other end
receives it.
 The remote host passes data to the server stub where it is
unmarshalled.
 The parameters are passed to the procedure and the
procedure is then executed.
 The result is sent back to the client in the same manner.

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By: Zigiju N. (Msc in IT)