SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28, 1992 -- Cisco Systems and IBM'sEnterprise Systems Division have jointly developed a first-of-its-kind demonstration to transport data between high-end IBMmainframe computers across a heterogeneous router-based networkrunning multiple protocols.
The demonstration takes place in Cisco's Interop booth(#1809) Oct. 28-30. It involves new-generation IBM ES/9000mainframes with IBM's state-of-the-art 17-megabyte-per-secondESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection) channels, and two ofCisco's high-end AGS+ internetwork routers.
William F. Beausoleil, IBM Fellow in IBM's EnterpriseSystems Division, said, "Open systems and high-performance clientserving are no longer reserved for the workstation domain. IBMES/9000 mainframes are now achieving a new dimension of systemperformance in this arena."
Bing Liao, Cisco IBM product marketing manager, said, "Thistechnology demonstration proves for the first time that a router-based internetwork is capable of supporting high-end IBMmainframes as full participants in the multiprotocol environment.This opens the door for a broad range of new applications, suchas multimedia video/imaging, LAN data servers and high-speedmainframe internetworking."
Liao said the demonstration will run two simultaneous appli-cations: host-to-host transport of high-speed source-sink trafficbetween ES/9000 mainframes; and Digital Video Interface (DVI)applications, running between an OS/2 client and the ES/9000s,that use the Network File System (NFS) to retrieve digitized andcompressed audio video files over TCP/IP. Neither applicationshows any performance degradation over the ATM network.
In the demonstration, each ES/9000 mainframe is connected toan ESCON Gateway; the ESCON technology uses fiber-optic cableover distances of up to 9 kilometers (versus the older multi-wirecopper cable, which was limited to less than 125 meters). TheESCON Gateway is linked to the Cisco AGS+ over a 100-megabit-per-second FDDI ring using Cisco's FDDI interface card; the AGS+forwards up to 65,000 packets of FDDI traffic per second. Thetwo AGS+ units are connected via Cisco's 45-Mbps HSSI (High-SpeedSerial Interface) card to DSU/CSU devices from Digital Link;between the DSU/CSUs sits a standard ATM interface. The OS/2client is connected to the AGS+ via Cisco's 16-Mbps Token Ringinterface; the AGS+ forwards up to 25,000 packets per second ofToken Ring traffic per interface.
Cisco Systems, Inc., is the leading worldwide supplier ofhigh-performance, multimedia and multiprotocol internetworkingproducts, including routers, bridges, communication servers andnetwork management software. Cisco technology can be used tobuild enterprise-wide networks linking an unlimited number ofgeographically dispersed LANs, WANs, and IBM SNA internetworks. In theUnited States, Cisco is traded over-the-counter under theNASDAQ symbol CSCO.
Posted: Oct 30 15:31:57 1992
