Theory

Layered abstraction models are an incredibly useful tool to reason about the myriad functions that even simple engineering systems must employ, especially when computers are involved. They take highly unique engineering components, identify commanality among them, and what interfaces they provide, and then in chaining several of these abstractions together, an engineering practitioner is provided with a relatively simple model to describe complex behaviour. Given how useful they are, how would one make a layered abstraction model? The Open Systems Interface, or OSI, model for network communication has an answer in ISO/IEC 7498-1. Read more...