The OSI Reference Model is useful because it gives some commonly used terminology, though it might mislead you into thinking that there is only one way to construct a network. The reference model was designed by an organization known as the International Standards Organiza- tion (ISO). The ISO decided it would be a good idea to standardize computer networking. Since that was too big a task for a single committee, they decided to subdivide the problem among several committees. They somewhat arbitrarily chose seven, each responsible for one layer. The basic idea is that each layer uses the services of the layer below, adds functionality, and.
