ISOOSIstandarden

ISOOSIstandarden, commonly referred to as the OSI model, is an international standard framework developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to enable interoperable communications between open systems. It is defined by the ISO/IEC 7498-1 standard and describes a seven-layer reference model that partitions communication responsibilities into: Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application. The model is conceptual, specifying the functions that each layer should perform and the interfaces between layers, rather than prescribing specific protocols.

History and purpose: Work began in the 1970s and 1980s under ISO (with ITU-T involvement) to provide a universal framework for network interoperability. The core document ISO 7498-1 introduced the seven-layer architecture; later ISO/IEC 7498-1 aligned the standard with Joint ISO/IEC standardization.

Impact: The OSI model became a foundational teaching and design aid, shaping the way engineers discuss network interactions. In practice, the TCP/IP protocol suite emerged as the dominant transport for internetworking, and many OSI protocols were not widely deployed. Nevertheless, the OSI reference model remains a useful abstraction for network architecture and for mapping standards to layers.

Current status and usage: ISOOSIstandarden continues to be cited in academic and professional contexts; some standards and protocols reference OSI layer mappings, security, and service definitions in relation to particular layers. The term ISOOSIstandarden is used in several Nordic languages to refer to the OSI standard as a whole.