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Figure 2-9. The Protocol Stack
Between two protocol stacks, members of the same layer
are known as peers and communicate by well-known (open
and published) protocols. Within a protocol stack, adjacent
layers communicate by an internal interface. This interface
is usually not publicly documented and is frequently
proprietary. It has some of the same characteristics of a
protocol and two stacks from the same software vendor may
communicate in the same way. Two stacks from different
software vendors (or different products from the same
vendor) may communicate in completely different ways. As
long as peers can communicate and interoperate, this has
no impact on the functioning of the network.
The communication between layers within a given protocol
stack can be both different from a second stack and
proprietary, but communication between peers on the same
OSI layer is open and consistent.
A brief description of the most commonly used functional
layers is helpful to understand the scope of how protocol
layering works.
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