What is the OSI Model

Dear Metro,

What is the OSI Model?

--John C. NY

Dear John,

Almost all computer networks today are based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard.

OSI was developed in 1984 by the International Organization for Standardization (known commonly as "ISO"), a global federation of national standards organizations which represents approximately 130 countries.

The core of this standard is the "OSI Reference Model," which is a set of seven layers that define the different stages that data must go through to travel from one device to another over a network. In this standard, control is passed from one layer to the next: 1) Application, 2) Presentation, 3) Session, 4) Transport, 5) Network, 6) Data-Link, and 7) Physical. There is generally little variation from this standard.

Metro
The IT Guy