TYBCA SEM 5 2016

What is TCP/IP reference model?

We have already discussed that we need a common set of rules to

communicate between different computers in the heterogeneous
computer network. One such common set rule is specified in TCP/IP
reference model. This is equivalent to the already discussed ISO-OSI
reference model. But it has 4 layers instead of 7 layers.

TCP/IP reference model named after two of its primary protocols. That
is Transmission Control Protocol which resides in Transport Layer and
the other one is Internet Protocol which resides in Internet Layer

What is a Protocol?

Protocol is a set of rules. Thus Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

means it is a set rules followed to perform the functionalities of
Transport Layer. Similalry Internet Protocol means it is a set of rules
followed to perform the functions of Interent layer in the TCP/IP
reference model

HETA J DESAI SDJ INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE,VESU NT

 TYBCA SEM 5 2016

1) Host to Netwrok Layer: The job of this layer is to transmit the

packets given by the Internet layer from the Host to the network to
which the Host connected.

2) Internet Layer: The job of this layer is to create the packet which is
known as Datagram and route it to the proper destination. It adds a lot
of control information so as to make the packet reach the correct
destination. The protocol present in this layer is known as Internet
Protocol (IP). IP is a connectionless protocol. Different pakcets created
in this layer may not follow the same path to reach the destination. For
example you want to send some packets to a Server in New York then
some packets may be sent through a specific route and some packets
may be sent through some other route and may not be the same route.
Why is it doing this? This is because, if a specific route through which it
sent the packet becomes busy then it will send the packet through
some other route. Becuase of this it may so happen that the packet
may not reach the destination in sequence and it will be the job of
upper layer to arrange the packets in proper sequence and recreate the
message.

3) Transport layer: The task of this layer is to establish the connection

between the peer entities in the source and destination host. Two
protocols reside in this layer one is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
which is reliable, connection oriented protocol and the other one is the
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) which is unreliable, connectionless
protocol. Other function of TCP is to flow control between the slower
and faster entities. TCP is also responsible for the errorless transmission
of packets from source to destination. At the source TCP divides the
stream of bits it receives from the upper layer and creates packets and
gives it to the Internet Layer. At the destination it assembles the
packets receieved in proper sequence even if the packets are received
out of sequence, check for errors and if any, it is notified to the

HETA J DESAI SDJ INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE,VESU NT

 TYBCA SEM 5 2016

Transport layer at the source machine and the Transport Layer at the
source machine resends the requested packet.

4) Application Layer: Different types of application and the protocols

reside in this layer and they handle different types of communication

Protocols and networks in the TCP/IP family

HETA J DESAI SDJ INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE,VESU NT