OSI-SNA Interconnections

As Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) becomes an international standard, it is gaining support in both industry and government agencies. One of the major applications of OSI is to act as an intermediary between heterogeneous networks. This paper discusses a scheme for interconnecting a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network with OSI. This scheme is based on a joint study between IBM Japan and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation conducted during 1984. Fundamental relationships between OSI session and transport layers and SNA Logical Unit type 6.2 are explored. An OSI-SNA gateway structure is examined, and data units, address translation, and exception handling are discussed.