The LLC sublayer provides error-free transfer of data frames from one node to another.

Windows supports several variations of miniport drivers including WDM miniport drivers, miniport call managers (MCMs), and miniport intermediate drivers. The NIC is controlled by a software device driver called the miniport driver. In the Windows network architecture, the MAC sublayer is implemented in the NIC. The MAC sublayer manages access to the physical layer, checks frame errors, and manages address recognition of received frames. The data link layer is further divided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) into two sublayers: media access control (MAC) and logical link control (LLC). The data link layer sends frames between physical addresses and is responsible for error detection and recovery occurring in the physical layer. In Windows, the physical layer is implemented by the network interface card (NIC), its transceiver, and the medium to which the NIC is attached. The physical layer carries the signals for all of the higher layers. It describes the electrical/optical, mechanical, and functional interfaces to the physical medium. This layer manages the reception and transmission of the unstructured raw bit stream over a physical medium. The physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model. Microsoft Windows network drivers implement the bottom four layers of the OSI model. The following diagram illustrates the OSI model. A well-defined interface between each pair of adjacent layers defines the services offered by the lower layer to the higher one and how those services are accessed.'

Each layer offers specific services to higher layers while shielding these layers from the details of how the services are implemented.

Introduced in 1978, the ISO Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference model describes networking as 'a series of protocol layers with a specific set of functions allocated to each layer. The Microsoft Windows operating systems use a network architecture that is based on the seven-layer networking model developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This topic discusses the Windows network architecture and how Windows network drivers implement the bottom four layers of the OSI model.įor general information on all seven layers of the model, see the OSI model.

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