TCP/IP Guide

Remembering the OSI Model Layers: Some Mnemonics

If you spend any amount of time at all dealing with networking design or implementation issues, or learning about how the various protocols operate, the names and numbers of the various layers will eventually become second nature.

Many people, however, especially those just learning about networks, find it difficult to recall the names of all the layers, and especially, their exact order. For these people, a number of mnemonics have been created as memory aids. You probably remember mnemonics from elementary school. These are cute phrases in which each word starts with the first letter of an OSI model layer, arranged in the correct order. Some of these go in ascending layer number order, and some ...