Difference between PACKETS and FRAMES

sujai M J picture sujai M J · Jul 16, 2015 · Viewed 126.4k times · Source

Two words commonly used in networking world - Packets and frames.

Can anyone please give the detail difference between these two words?

Hope it might sounds silly but does it mean as below

A packet is the PDU(Protocol Data Unit) at layer 3 (network layer - ip packet) of the networking OSI model.

A frame is the PDU of layer 2 (data link) of the OSI model.

Answer

Malt picture Malt · Jul 16, 2015

Packets and Frames are the names given to Protocol data units (PDUs) at different network layers

  • Segments/Datagrams are units of data in the Transport Layer.

    In the case of the internet, the term Segment typically refers to TCP, while Datagram typically refers to UDP. However Datagram can also be used in a more general sense and refer to other layers (link):

    Datagram

    A self-contained, independent entity of data carrying sufficient information to be routed from the source to the destination computer without reliance on earlier exchanges between this source and destination computer andthe transporting network.

  • Packets are units of data in the Network Layer (IP in case of the Internet)

  • Frames are units of data in the Link Layer (e.g. Wifi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc).

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