CompTIA ITF+ Practice Test

Routing occurs in the Network layer of the OSI model, which is the third layer. This layer is responsible for determining the best path for data to travel across a network. It manages logical addressing and is crucial for directing packets through diverse routes, ensuring they arrive at their intended destination. The primary function of routers, which operate at this layer, is to take the data packets and analyze their address information to forward them appropriately based on the destination address. This process is essential for communication between different networks and is foundational for data transmission over the internet. The other layers primarily serve different functions: the Application layer is focused on enabling user applications to interact over the network, the Transport layer handles the reliability and integrity of data transmission, and the Data Link layer deals with the physical transmission of data over network mediums. Each of these layers provides distinct capabilities that are essential but do not encompass the functions associated with routing data packets.