AppleTalk

AppleTalk is a suite of protocols developed by Apple Computer for computer networking. The implementation fairly rigorously followed the OSI model of protcol layering.

The LocalTalk implementation based on serial transmission mechanisms was one of the first protocols to allow a number of computers to be networked together with other devices such as printerss. A later implementation called EtherTalk operated over Ethernet.

AppleTalk is now considered clunky and often called 'verbose'. While AppleTalk does work in a Wide area network (WAN) environment, modern Apple computers use TCP-IP by default for networking over a WAN.

Under Mac OS X versions after v10.2, Rendezvous provides many of the features AppleTalk once did.

OSI Model	Corresponding AppleTalk layers
Application	AppleTalk filtering protocol
Presentation	---
Session	Zone information protocol Printer access protocol
Transport	Routing table maintenance protocol Name binding protocol
Network	Datagram delivery protocol AppleTalk resolution protocol AppleTalk upgrade routing protocol
Data link	EtherTalk LocalTalk TokenTalk FDDItalk
Physical	IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.5 FDDI