4 Understanding the Communication Layers

The primary function of Oracle Net is to establish and maintain connections between a client application and an Oracle database server.

Oracle Net is comprised of several communication layers that enable clients and database servers to share, modify, and manipulate data.

• Understanding Oracle Net Stack Communication for Client/Server Applications
  A database server is the Oracle software managing a database, and a client is an application that requests information from the server. The way the client and server communicate is known as the client/server stack.
• Using Oracle Net Stack Communication for Java Applications
  The Oracle Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Drivers provide Java applications access to an Oracle database. Oracle offers two JDBC drivers.
• Using Oracle Net Stack Communication for Web Clients
  
• Understanding Oracle Protocol Support Layer
  A network protocol is responsible for transporting data from the client computer to the database server computer. This section describes the protocols used by the Oracle Protocol Support layer of the Oracle Net communication stack.