D-Link DES-3326 User Manual page 93

DES-3326 Layer 3 Fast Ethernet Switch User's Guide
communicate within a stack (for example, within a given computer)
is left to the operating system programmers.
Figure 5-11. 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
Switch Management and Operating Concepts
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