Network Basic Input/Output System (NetBIOS) allows different applications to communicate over a LAN. It operates at the OSI session layer over Ethernet or Token Ring. It was developed in the 1980s by IBM and was adopted by Microsoft.
References:
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/NetBIOS
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windowsnetworking/g/netbios.htm