Network Programming with Rust

Layering in networks

Computer science often focuses on subdividing a problem into smaller, hopefully independent components that can be solved in isolation. Once that is done, all that is needed is a set of rules on how those components should communicate to have a solution to the larger problem. This set of rules, along with a pre-agreed data format, is called a protocol. A network is composed of a number of layers, each of which has a fixed purpose. Thus, each of these layers run one or many protocols, forming a stack of protocols. In the early days of networking, different people implemented their networks in different ways. When the internet was conceived, there was a need to make these networks communicate seamlessly. Since they were ...