MULTIPROTOCOL TRANSPORT NETWORKING - ELIMINATING APPLICATION DEPENDENCIES ON COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS

The Multiprotocol Transport Networking (MPTN) architecture is a genera l solution that breaks the binding between distributed applications an d communications protocols. The MPTN architecture enables existing app lications to run unmodified over any communications protocol. In this paper, we first present the trends in networking that resulted in toda y's networks supporting multiple communications protocols. Next, we de scribe the classes of problems this support causes. The MPTN architect ure is described and presented as a solution to many of these problems . We also present several alternative solutions to the multiple commun ications protocol problem and compare them to the MPTN solution. Last, we describe the IBM AnyNet(TM) family of products that implement the MPTN architecture.