The erly development of nerworks was disorganized in may ways. The early 1980s saw tremendous increases in the number and size of networks. As compaies realized the advantages of using networking technology, networks were added or expanded almost as rapidly as new network technologies were introduced.

By the mid-1980s, these companies began to experience problems from the rapid expansion. Just as people who do not speak the same language have difficulty communicating with eachother, it was difficult for networks that used different spesifications and implementations to exchange information. The same problem occurred with the companies that developed private or proprietary networking technologies. Propietary means that one or a small group of companies controls all usage of the technology. Networking technologies strictly following proprietary rules could not comunicate with tecnologies that followed different propietary rules.

To address the problem of network incompatibility, the international organization for standardization ( ISO ) researched networking models like Digital Equipment Corporation net ( DECnet ), system Network Architecture ( SNA ), and TCP/IP in order to find a generally applicable set of rules for all networks. Using this reserch, the ISO created a network model that helps vendors create networks that are compatible with other networks.

The open system interconnection ( OSI ) reference model released in 1984 was the descriptive network model that the ISO created. It provided vendors with a set of standards thet ensured greater compatibility and interoperability among various network technologies produced by companies around the world.

The OSI model has become the primary for network communications. Although there are other models in existence, most network vendors relate their products to the Osi reference model. This is specially true when they want to educate users on the use of their products. It is cinsidered the best tool available for teaching people about sending and receiving data on a network.