See the packet definition in Sihan’s note.
Packet and frame are both small parts of the message in the network. The main difference between a packet and a frame is the association with the OSI layers. The packet is the unit of data used in the network layer, a frame is a massage used in the data link layer. A frame contains more information about the transmitted message than a packet.
*Network layer: This layer organizes and transmits data between multiple networks.
*Data link layer: This layer concerns data transmission between the nodes within a network and manages the connections between physically connected devices such as switches.
Framing is a point-to-point connection between two computers or devices consisting of a wire in which data is transmitted as a stream of bits, it’s the units of digital transmission.
There are two types of frames: fixed-length and variable-length frames. In fixed-length framing, the size of the framework is the delimiter. Hence there is no need to set a boundary for the frame. In variable-length framing, it’s difficult to determine the start and end of a frame. Hence it’s essential to define the start and end of a frame.
Reference:
https://www.bmc.com/blogs/osi-model-7-layers/
https://www.baeldung.com/cs/networking-packet-fragment-frame-datagram-segment#:~:text=The main difference between a,transmitted message than a packet.
When a host wants to send data to another host through the internet, the data(e.g. video, audio, picture, text, etc) will split into smaller files which are called packets. The packet will be received by a router and then send to the destination host. At the destination, all these small parts (packets) have to be reassembled, belonging to the same file.
The router can only receive the whole rocket and pass it to the next router or the hose. It’s called store-and-forward transmission. Therefore, the packet helps to higher the efficiency of network transformation, because it allows the router to receive and send the packet at the same time. The segregation of data into small packets enables efficient data transportation and better utilization of the network medium/channel. More than one user, application, and/or node may take turns sending and receiving data without permanently retaining the underlying medium/channel, as in a circuit-switched network.
Is it only for TCP?