Session Layer Functions & Services

The main tasks of the session layer are to provide:

• Session Establishment
• Session Release – Orderly or abort
• Synchronization
• Data Exchange
• Expedited Data Exchange

The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions between them. A session allows ordinary data transport, as does the transport layer, but it also provides enhanced services useful in some applications. A session might be used to allow a user to log into a remote time-sharing system or to transfer a file between two machines.

One of the services of the session layer is to manage dialogue control. Sessions can allow traffic to go in both directions at the same time, or in only one direction at a time. If traffic can only go one way at a time (analogous to a single railroad track), the session layer can help keep track of whose turn it is.

A related session service is token management. For some protocols, it is essential that both sides do not attempt the same operation at the same time. To manage these activities, the session layer provides tokens that can be exchanged. Only the side holding the token may perform the desired operation.

Another session service is synchronization. Consider the problem that might occur when trying to do a 2 hour file transfer between two machines with a 1 hour mean time between crashes. After each transfer was aborted, the whole transfer would have to start over again and would probably fail again the next time as well. To eliminate this problem, the session layer provides a way to insert markers after the appropriate checkpoints.