Then There Was Two

And Then There was Two

Within the "Information Technology" field there are two household names that are quickly associated with network design, server needs and web base usage, Linux and Windows. Depending on the user needs and/or requirements, will in most cases drive the decision as to which product will be used. What makes up the design and support of these two products? Are they similar or is one better then the other? I will describe the architecture design of these two, as well as how these two products connect between software and hardware components that allow computers to function and work together as networks. Both products are made up of layers which perform various functions, to include specific, simultaneous, individual as well as multitasking.

Windows Layers

At first glance you'll noticed that the architectural layout of network layers of both products are described using, Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) Reference Model. The OSI model describes a modular approach to networking, with each layer responsible for designated aspect of the networking process. Models assist in understanding how networks function by providing a structure to use as a comparison.

The Windows Network is made up off five layers, Basic Network Service, Interprocess Communication, Network Application Programming Interface, Network Protocol and Network Driver Interface Specification, which is then divided by two boundaries, Transport Driver Interface(TDI) Boundary Layer and Network Driver Interface Specification(NDIS) Boundary Layer. See attached figure 1.

Basic Network Service, support network user applications by providing services. Which include network address management, name services, file services and advanced network services such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Quality of Service (QoS).

Interprocess Communication, support client/server computing and allocated processing. Some of the services that they support are remote procedure calls (RPC), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), named pipes/mailslots, and Common Internet File System (CIFS).

Network Application Programming Interface, provides standard programming interfaces for network applications and services. They support Winsock, NetBIOS, Telephony API (TAPI), Messaging API (MAPI), WNet API and other services.