Developed by Apple Computer in the 1980 for macintosh computer networks. the original cabling system used in these networks is called localtalk. as appletalke became more popular and speed became an issue, aaple corp designed a faster version. appletalke pahse 2. aapletalke phase 2 complies with the IEEE 802 standeards and provides Ethernet support throught EtherTalk

these are the protocols apple talk uses:

apple talk address resolutions protocol - AARP
datagram delivery protocol - DDP
routing table maintenance protocol - RTMP
apppletalke echo protocol - AEP
appletalk transportation protocol - ATP
name-binding protocol - NBP
zone information protocol - ZIP
appletalk sesion protocol - ASP
printer access protocol - PAP
appletalke data stream protocol - ADSP
appletalk filing protocol - AFP

the protocols in the appletalk suite map to the network throught application layers of the OSI model at the physical and data layers are specificaion that enable apple talk to run over a variety of diffrent media using different media access methods

here you can see which protocol uses what layer of the OSI
application - AFP
presentation - AFP
session - PAP, ASP, ZIP and ADSP
transport - NBP, ATP, RTMP and AEP
network - AARP and DDP
data link - Ethertalk, TokenTalk, FDDITalk, LocalTalk
Physical - Ethertalk, TokenTalk, FDDITalk, LocalTalk

appletalke uses rtmp for routing. rtmp is a distance vector routing protocol afp is a protocol that enables file sharing in apppletalke networks

AppleTalk networks addresses are 24 bit long with 16 biets used for the network portions of the address and 8 bits for the node's address. the node address is self-assigned gvien this setup ther can be 65,000 networks with up to 256 nodes each

but thte limit of 256 nodes per newtork is eliminated in AppleTalk phase2 because in this version of the OS, multiple networks numbers can be assinged to a single network segemnt. is iss called an extended cable range. aAppleTalk networks can be dvidied into zones which are logical divisions of the netwrok that provide for easier adminsitration

when a compute rin an AppleTalk network connect ot the newtork, its broadcast its self-assinged node addres to see if it already exists in the nework and also obtain the newtork address from the local router. if its self-assinged node address already exists, the computer generates a new address until a unique address is acquired

its possibe to name noeds with a easy to remember name in AppleTalk newrok via the BNMP protocol a node's name
i have never used AppleTalk for anything so im not sure if this information was of any help to you, im just learning this now