Which protocol is part of the OSI Layer for application layer communications?

The selected protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), operates at the application layer of the OSI model, which is responsible for providing various network services directly to end-users. HTTP is specifically designed for transferring hypertext, which is a core aspect of the web, facilitating communication between web browsers and servers.

At the application layer, HTTP plays a critical role in how data is structured for requests and responses, enabling users to fetch web pages, images, and other web content through URLs. Its functionality—which includes methods like GET and POST, as well as the request/response architecture—highlights its importance in enabling user interaction over networks.

In contrast, protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) operate at lower layers of the OSI model, specifically at the network and transport layers, respectively. Ethernet Protocol pertains to the data link layer and is used for local area network communications. Each of these protocols serves a distinct purpose in the networking stack, but HTTP is the one specifically tailored for application-level tasks, which is why it is the correct choice in this context.