Why do we still use the OSI model if the TCP/IP suite is what the internet actually runs on?

All answers to this question.

OSI is the language of professionals. If you say "it's a Layer 8 problem," everyone knows you're jokingly blaming the user!

   Answered 2024-03-16 by Betty Nelson

• Haha, true Betty! But seriously, the OSI model provides a standardized vocabulary that ensures a hardware engineer and a software dev are talking about the same thing.

     Commented 2024-03-17 by Kevin Garcia

Do you think the Session and Presentation layers are becoming irrelevant now that most encryption and session management is handled by the application itself?

   Answered 2024-03-17 by Joseph Baker

• Joseph, they aren't irrelevant, but they have definitely merged in practice. While modern apps handle these functions, the concepts of formatting and session persistence still exist. Thinking of them as separate layers helps in modular programming and security auditing, even if the "wire" doesn't see them that way.

     Commented 2024-03-19 by Charles Gonzalez

OSI is a "Reference Model," while TCP/IP is a "Protocol Model." We use OSI for troubleshooting because it provides more granular detail. If a developer says "it's a network issue," a tech can ask: "Is it Layer 1 (cable), Layer 2 (MAC/Switch), or Layer 3 (Routing)?" In 2023, while debugging a slow API, the 7-layer model helped us realize the issue was at Layer 6 (Presentation) because the JSON compression was misconfigured. If we only used the TCP/IP model, we would have just called it an "Application" problem, which is too broad to fix quickly.

   Answered 2024-06-05 by Nancy King