Chapter Summary

For a network to work, someone has to plan. Those plans take the form of standards and protocols, without which any network implementation would fail.

Networking models combine a large set of standards and protocols, with the intent that if network hardware and software use the combined set of standards, the network will work well. Originally, vendors created their own proprietary networking models, with the two most popular being IBM's SNA and DEC's DECnet. Vendor proprietary networking models eventually fell by the wayside, with an open networking modelTCP/IPbecoming the world's most popular networking model.

TCP/IP defines its standards and protocols using RFC documents. In fact, it gets its name from two of the most popular protocols: IP and TCP. TCP/IP also refers to standards from other standards organizations, notably the IEEE, ITU, and ISO for LAN and WAN standards, respectively.

Another public networking model, OSI, did not have real success in the marketplace, and practically speaking, is interesting mostly as a history lesson. However, the layers of the OSI networking model are still important today because most documentation and terminology relating to networking models use the terms inside the OSI model.