Computer Networking › Section D · The network layer: data plane › Topic D.1
Forwarding, routing, and network service
The transport layer talks process to process, but something has to carry each packet across dozens of separate networks from one host to another. That is the network layer, and it splits its work into two very different jobs: forwarding and routing.
In this topic
- Where the network layer lives
- Forwarding: a local, per-packet decision
- Routing: a network-wide computation
- Data plane and control plane
- Worked example: data plane or control plane?
- Why the two run at different speeds
- The network service model
- The internet's choice: best effort
- Worked example: what best effort means for an application
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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