Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Does TCP/IP "comform" to ISO/OSI? Message-ID: Date: 25 Aug 88 06:07:28 GMT References: <5883@nsc.nsc.com> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 9 Saying that something conforms to the OSI reference model is essentially meaningless, so yes, TCP/IP does conform. The reference model is the basic conceptual layering. You can use those layers to analyze just about any protocol suite. What you're thinking of is the ISO protocol suite. That's a specific set of protocols, and TCP/IP doesn't follow it. As far as I can tell, vendor statements that their (non-ISO) protocol follows the OSI reference model is almost entirely hype. At best it means that the design is close enough to ISO that eventual migration to the ISO protocols will be easier than with a protocol suite that is very different in philosophy.