OSI Model: Presentation Layer and its Functions

Presentation layer is layer 6 of OSI model. Presentation layer concern about the syntax and semantics of information exchanged between systems. Presentation layer is also known as data translate because it translates the data in such a way the receiver will understand the data. After formatting the data, presentation layer passes data to the application layer for further processing and display. There are many other important functions of presentation layer.

Functions of Presentation Layer

Translation: Communicating systems exchange information of different formats such as string, numbers and so on. Presentation layer converts this information into bit stream before transmitting. The presentation layer on receiver converts these data into receiver-dependent format.

Encryption: To ensure privacy, presentation layer perform encryption at transmitter side and decryption at the receiver side.

Compression: The presentation layer performs compression to reduce the bits contained in the information. It reduces the bandwidth of information. Compression is important for transmitting multimedia such as text, audio and video.