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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsDaniel Dean Heimsoth, Everett Arthur McCassey, II, Gregory Lynn Morris, Chun-tang Milton Li
Estimating the term…
A session-oriented local area network (LAN) application and an ISO 8802-2 protocol driver code will cooperate in a new form of connectionless, session-oriented communication called Sideband. At each session start-up time, the LAN Application will communicate with the enhanced ISO 8802-2 based protocol driver on the local system and the LAN Application and the 8802-2 based protocol driver on the remote system to determine if they all support the Sideband. If Sideband is fully supported by both systems, Sideband will be activated for the session. To communicate on a session which has Sideband active, the LAN Application requests that data is to be sent using the Sideband. A check is performed to see if the data meets Sideband criteria. As Sideband is a connectionless medium, the additional code path needed to set up and track timers and to handle the resend attempts are saved in the protocol. If the LAN Application code is session-oriented, it will keep track of a timer which will cause the data to be resent along a non-Sideband path if a response is not received within a designated amount of time. Header information is stored and reused to increase the throughput and decrease the response time for the transmission of small network packets. In case the network at some points becomes unreliable, procedures are used to track the reliability of the network and to enable and disable Sideband in accordance with the reliability of the network.
In a computer network, a system for communicating in a session between a first and a second application in a first and second computer system respectively, a plurality of successive messages may be passed in the session using a mixture of protocols, comprising:
In a computer network, a method for communicating in a session between a first and a second application in a first and second computer system respectively, a plurality of successive messages may be passed in the session using a mixture of protocols, comprising the steps of:
In a computer network, a computer program product on a computer readable medium for communicating in a session between a first and a second application in a first and second computer system respectively, a plurality of successive messages may be passed in the session using a mixture of first protocol and second protocol, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass:…
Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass:…
Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass:…
Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions: in the transport layer [OSI layer 4]
Term ended 7 Oct 2014 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
This invention relates generally to data processing systems in an interconnected environment. More particularly, it relates to an improved method for transmitting small packets of data in a data processing system in an interconnected environment.
It is becoming increasingly prevalent to couple a plurality of data processing systems in an interconnected computing environment such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN). The networks are becoming increasingly complicated, with several different LAN networks of different protocols coupled together with the data processing systems from multiple vendors in the network.
To assure that different network technologies can communicate with each other, most vendors provide capability to interface according to the IEEE and International Standard Organization's standards for Local Area Networks. ISO 8802-2 (IEEE Standard 802.2-1989) Logical Link Control Protocol describes the data link layer in a Local Area Network. ISO 8802-3 (IEEE Standard 802.3-1988) describes a bus utilizing CSMA/CD as the access method. ISO 8802-4 (IEEE Standard 802.4-1985) describes a bus utilizing token passing as the access method. ISO 8802-5 (IEEE Standard 802.5-1989) describes a ring utilizing token passing as the access method. ISO 8802-7 describes the ring utilizing a slotted ring as the access method. This family of standards deals with the physical and data link layers as defined by the ISO open systems interconnection reference model.
FIG. 1 depicts a typical workstation which would be coupled to a network environment in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 2 depicts a plurality of workstations in a network environment according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 depicts the code modules in the memory of a workstation using LAN Server and NetBIOS according to ISO 8802-2 and the present invention.
A representative hardware environment is depicted in FIG. 1, which illustrates a typical hardware configuration of a workstation in accordance with the subject invention having a central processing unit 10, such as a conventional microprocessor, and a number of other units interconnected via a system bus 12. The workstation shown in FIG. 1 includes a Random Access Memory (RAM) 14, Read Only Memory (ROM) 16, an I/O adapter 18 for connecting peripheral devices such as disk units 20 to the bus, a user interface adapter 22 for connecting a keyboard 24, a mouse 26, a speaker 28, a microphone 32, and/or other user interface devices such as a touch screen device (not shown) to the bus, a communication adapter 34 for connecting the workstation to a data processing network and a display adapter 36 for connecting the bus to display device 38.
The preferred embodiment of the subject invention is an IBM Personal System/2 with the IBM OS/2 operating system installed. Detailed descriptions of the hardware and software environment are provided in PS/2 Hardware Interface Technical Reference, S10G-6457, IBM Corporation (1991), and OS/2 Presentation Manager Programming, SC28-2700, IBM Corporation (1992). While the invention will be described in terms of this hardware and software, one skilled in the art will recognize that other operating systems and hardware can be supported without undue experimentation. Also resident on the computer system is the OS/2 LAN System Software support including the software making up the subject invention. The system software used in the previous release is described in the following publications available from IBM and incorporated herein by reference: IBM Operating System/2 Local Area Network Server Version 2.0 Information and Planning Guide (G236-0162); IBM Local Area Network Server Programs (Specification Sheet) (G360-2753); and IBM Local Area Network Technical Reference (SC30-3383).
Interconnected computing environments are becoming much more prevalent. Network environments are becoming more varied, consisting of different LAN technologies, multiple vendors and multiple adapters. There is also a higher performance requirement and a greater need for network management. FIG. 2 is an illustration of a typical computer network environment comprising a plurality of interconnected workstations similar to that shown in FIG. 1.