Protocol Layers, Service Models
May 2026
Layers
Application
The application layer exchanges messages to implement some application service using services of the transport layer
Transport
The transport layer protocol transfers messages from one process to another
It encapsulates application-layer messages with the transport layer header to createa a transport layer segment.
Network Layer
The network layer protocol transfers transport-layer segments from one host to anohter, using the link layer
It encapsulates the transport layer segment with a network layer header to create a network layer datagram
Link Layer
The link layer protocol encapsulates network datagrams with link-layer headers to create link-layer frames
Physical Layer
This is a wire, or the air sometimes