Networks and Protocols
October 21, 1998

• From a user's perspective, communication networks facilitate the exchange of information between two remote computers.
• From a network perspective, the information bits are carried over a number of links and must be forwarded (routed) by a number of intermediate hosts (routers).
• From a user's perspective, it is highly desirable that the details of the transporting network are hidden (transparent).
• This objective leads to the idea of layered protocols.

  

Figure 2.39: Network