Evolution and Demise of Enterprise and Open Networks

This section discusses proprietary protocols and OSI protocols. The aim is not to explore every detail, which would take volumes, but rather to examine each protocol at a high-level. This discussion provides an account of the successes and failures of each protocol suite.

Systems Network Architecture

Released in 1973,SNA was IBM's blueprint for computer communications. SNA featured multiple domains in a strictly arranged hierarchy, which was ideal for the mainframe/terminal operational model. In addition, this represented a vast improvement over the single mainframe port-per-terminal approach that had been used previously. In many ways, SNA was a great contribution to networking because it ...

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