Fun_People Archive
8 May
The OSI Relationship Layer Model

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed,  8 May 96 14:43:41 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: The OSI Relationship Layer Model

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: Diane Tang <dtang@plastique.Stanford.EDU>

Some friends and I were talking about relationships one day while avoiding
work, and came up with the:

OSI Relationship Layer Model

	-- strangers --
	-- met on Internet --
	-- friends --
	-- kissing friends --
	*********************
	*  murky area of    *
	*    dating         *
	*********************
	-- exclusive girlfriend/boyfriend --
	-- living together --
	-- engaged --
	-- married --
	-- enemies --

We call it the OSI Relationship Layer Model because:

	-- the interfaces are ill-defined
	-- you can only have peer-to-peer communication
	-- the functionality of the layers is murky and different at
	   different hosts -- you never know what layer you're in
	-- it takes a long time to get through all of the layers
	-- sometimes you really want to skip over a layer, and, well,
	   you're not allowed to in this model
	-- sometimes you want to go down a couple of layers, and then
	   go back up before reaching the bottom
	-- there are few reference implementations

Things outside the model:

	-- one night stands
	-- egg/sperm donor
	-- menage-a-trois
	-- mutual spanking (Kevin added that)

courtesy of Diane Tang, Elliot Poger, Kevin Lai, Debbie Shepard

© 1996 Peter Langston