014.01.28.01. What is the significance of the physical layer in the context of the internet, and why is it necessary despite the internet being a software network?
Internet being a software network, if the user wants to talk to some other computer, he has to put the network(internet) layer on top of some kind of hardware, which is the physical layer. The physical layer includes the physical interface in the network.
Although the internet is mostly about software, when we want our computer to talk to another, we have to use the network layer on top of hardware. This hardware layer, called the physical layer, includes the physical connections that make communication possible. So, even though the internet is mainly software, the physical layer is important for the actual connections between our devices.
