[ih] A comment on the seven layer model

[Jack Haverty]

On 4/22/25 13:58, Steve Crocker wrote:
> Jack,
>
> I liked your comment, "I gave up long ago on trying to stuff this into 
> a 7-layer diagram and explain it."
>
> I was part of the original group that designed the first set of host 
> level protocols for the Arpanet.  From the beginning we thought in 
> terms of thin layers that provided useful services, with the proviso 
> that others would build on, ignore and build around, or insert other 
> layers in between as needed
>
> I turned my attention away from protocol design when I moved to 
> (D)ARPA in 1971 and focused on AI and other topics. When I re-engaged 
> with the network architecture and discovered OSI had determined there 
> were exactly seven layers, I nearly fell over laughing.
>
> The seven layer model has been useful, but it is not complete or 
> definitive.
>
> Steve
>

My first encounter with Networking was when I became one of Lick's 
thesis students, and got thoroughly indoctrinated into his 
"Intergalactic Network" vision.   Later he was my boss as we worked to 
implement some of his vision with not enough computer or networking 
power.   Computers would be somehow connected through networks, every 
user would have their own "personal computer", and those computers would 
interact to help humans do whatever humans do, only occasionally 
actually interacting with the human through some kind of UI.

That picture doesn't fit into the 7-layer model, which was derived from 
the world of telephony and "calls".  It only addressed what was 
happening during the times when the human was interacting with some 
single computer to use some program.  The notions of Presentation or 
Session is a clue to its intermittent and human-centric nature.  I think 
the 7-layer model actually slowed down progress towards the new way of 
Lick's vision.  Maybe still does.   Not just incomplete, but also 
obstructionist.

Lick's vision was much more that the computers would all be mostly 
talking to each other.   I found it interesting to read recently that 
someone connected two AIs to each other, and they developed their own 
language to better communicate amongst themselves.

I think Lick would like today's Internet, which seems to me pretty close 
to his vision, but he'd also see the problems that still need to be 
addressed.

Jack
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