Protocol stack: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:14, 5 April 2004

Revision as of 18:24, 13 April 2004

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In practical implementation, protocol stacks are often divided into three major sections for media, transport, and applications. A particular [[operating system]] or platform will often have two well-defined software interfaces, one between the media and transport layers, and one between the transport layers and applications.

The media-to-transport interface defines how transport protocol software makes use of particular media and hardware types ("card drivers"). For example, this interface level would define how [[Internet protocol suite|TCP/IP]] transport software would talk to [[Ethernet]] hardware. Examples of these interfaces include [[Open Data-Link Interface|ODI]] and [[NDIS]] in the [[Microsoft Windows]] and DOS world.

The application-to-transport interface defines how application programs make use of the transport layers. For example, this interface level would define how a [[web browser]] program would talk to [[TCP/IP]] transport software. Examples of these interfaces include [[Berkeley sockets]] and [[SysV Streams]] in the [[Unix]] world, and [[Winsock]] in the Microsoft world.

''General protocol suite description:''