I am learning about the 7 layers of OSI. But I am currently stuck trying to understand these bottom two layers. Specifically - who performs the actions in these layers? They are called software layers but does the browser itself do all of these and how? Or the browser passes it on to a different program? How does it work?
So for example, I type in my browser google.com then the browser will establish a connection and send GET / HTTP/1.1
to the server. But how exactly each of these layers come into play?
Here is my understanding so far.
7. Layer - Application layer (Browser, HTTP)
6. Layer - Presentation layer (??)
5. Layer - Session layer (??)
4. Layer - Transport layer (Operating System)
3. Layer - Network layer (Routers)
2. Layer - Data link layer (Switches and bridges)
1. Layer - Physical layer (Modem and cables)
In practice, the TCP/IP model is mostly used and all the three top layers (i.e. Application, presentation, and session) are managed by the application.
In the case of the web browser, the browser is going to:
session token
for each session. http header
of each response from the server (e.g. Content-Type: image/png or Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8)