Hierarchical and Peer-to-Peer Integration

Although SNA hierarchical and APPN environments differ in many ways, IBM provides the means to integrate the two SNA networking models. As described in the previous section, APPN PU type 2.1 nodes can establish sessions with PUtype 5 mainframe host nodes used in hierarchical networks. APPN networks can also serve as interchange networks to connect hierarchical network domains.

More recently, IBM is upgrading hierarchical network components to perform APPN functions. For example, VTAM can now support its own native hierarchical networking model and APPN simultaneously. VTAM can also act as an interchange node to connect APPN networks.

IBM is currently working to provide a migration path to upgrade traditional hierarchical SNA networks to the APPN network model.

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