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Mainframes and Networks: Hardware Connectivity On The Mainframe
Mainframes and Networks: Hardware Connectivity On The Mainframe
Hardware Channels
There are effectively three ways that network traffic can travel between an external network
and a z/OS host: through a channel-command word channel, a coupling channel, or a QDIO
channel.
CCW-based channels include parallel, ESCON, and FICON channels. A CCW can also be
used to talk to an OSA card. The CCW is the original I/O operation used for communications
with the channel subsystem. The CCW contains a channel command, such as read, write, or
control, along with the data address of the data area involved. The data is passed to the
channel subsystem. The channel subsystem communicates status of the I/O back to the issuing
application. When a channel communicates with an application in an asynchronous fashion, it
is referred to as a channel interrupt.
Communication among LPARs can be facilitated by Coupling Facility (CF) links. Coupling
Facility links are used to support the cross-system Coupling Facility, or XCF. The XCF
component in turn can be used to support the IP protocol.
The Open Systems Adapter is actually a network controller that you can install in a
mainframe I/O cage. The adapter integrates several hardware features and supports many
networking transport protocols. The OSA card is the strategic communications device for the
mainframe architecture. It has several key features that distinguish it from CCW-based
communications. Effectively, the OSA integrates the control unit and device into the same
hardware. It does so by placing it on a single card that directly connects to the central
processor complex I/O bus.
o QDIO is a highly efficient data transfer architecture, which dramatically improves
data transfer speed and efficiency for TCP/IP traffic. QDIO mode is referred to as
OSD because the CHPID type coded in the IOCDS is OSD.
o When the CHPID type is set to OSE, the OSA-Express card is functioning in non-
QDIO mode.
o The OSC CHPID type is available on newer mainframes running an OSA-Express2
card or an OSA-Express card with the Gigabit Ethernet feature. The OSC is a special
channel type that eliminates the need for an external console controller. The end
effect is that access to the HMC and to the z/OS system console is made easier. The
OSC CHPID can also be used to connect TN3270 sessions (with some limitations).
HiperSocket
The communication is through the system memory of the processor, so servers are connected
to form a "internal LAN."
The HiperSockets implementation is based on the OSA-Express Queued Direct I/O (QDIO)
protocol, hence HiperSockets is also called internal QDIO, or IQDIO. The microcode emulates
the link control layer of an OSA-Express QDIO interface.
SNA applications and transaction servers (like CICS) can use SNA or TCP/IP to send and
receive data. Industry standard internet applications can use TCP/IP to send and receive data. For
example, a z/OS server may run FTP, telnet, web servers (HTTP), and mail programs (Simple
Mail Transfer protocol, or SMTP).
Shown in the figure, z/OS Communications Server includes three major components, which
are:
TCP/IP
TCP/IP on z/OS supports all of the well-known server and client applications.
The TCP/IP started task is the engine that drives all IP-based activity on z/OS.
The TCP/IP profile data set controls the configuration of the TCP/IP environment.
The FTP server implements the FTP standard and can communicate with any FTP clients
on the network.
The TCP/IP started task is started as a program using Job Control Language (JCL).