How to Eat a T-Rex, OSI Style
The Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the largest dinosaurs. One
website I found re-created a T-rex, at 26 meters long! (See http://www.dinosaurvalley.com/drcdt/wld/.) So, what do
dinosaurs have to do with networking? Well, in the same general timeframe that
TCP/IP was evolving into a legitimate networking model in the business world, a
competing public networking model, called OSI, was being developed by an
organization called the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). If TCP/IP is like an elephant, the OSI
networking model is more like a T-Rex. In a word, it is huge! It is also
complex. In its defense, the ISO wanted to build the end-all networking modela
model that, once implemented by all computers on the planet, would allow
pervasive communications among all computers from all vendors in all countries
everywhere!
The short version of the history is this: Most computers in the
world use the TCP/IP networking model, and almost none use the OSI model.
Although the OSI model might have been the bigger networking model and might
have had some great features, it was developed much more slowly than TCP/IP. So,
TCP/IP took over the marketplace before OSI could be finished. (For you dinosaur
fans, yes, I know the T-Rex was faster than elephants, so the analogy fails
here.)
Also, you should be aware that ISO still plays an active role
in standards development today, working with the IETF, ITU, and other standards
bodies. So, although the OSI model lost out to TCP/IP, the organization that
created it thrives today.
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