Just what is your FEP doing today - and what is it costing?

A LINCS SDLC Concentration Solution

Are you looking for a solution to any of the following SNA network situations:

• Need to add SDLC lines to your FEP
• Looking at adding a FEP to provide an SDLC connection
• Need to add Token Ring (NTRI) to your FEP
• Need to add Ethernet
• Need to add Frame Relay connections
• Need to add X.25 (NPSI) to your FEP
• Reduce FEP costs
• Eliminate old FEP
• Expanding beyond the capacity of your FEP

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you might want to take a look at the Visara 1174-25S product running the SNA Concentrator features.

Supports the following environments:

• ESCON
• Bus and Tag Channel
• SDLC
• Frame Relay
• X.25
• Token Ring
• Ethernet
• APPN

Use instead of:

• NTRI
• NPSI
• Additional LCs

Complement to Existing FEP

The 1174-25S is a dedicated communication processing platform (not a PC) that can be easily attached to an existing FEP, ESCON or Bus and Tag host channel, or host OSA, to provide a wide variety of dependable networking solutions at a very modest cost.

The 1174-25s platform can support from one to eleven communication cards, providing a large measure of expandability, to grow with your networking requirements.

Attachment to your FEP is typically in the form of one or more high-speed serial connections (up to T1/E1 speeds) or through one or more Token Ring connections. Ethernet, Frame Relay, and X.25 connections are also possible. The remaining slots of the 1174-25S can be populated by whatever networking connections you need, over 30 serial lines for support of SDLC, Frame Relay, or X.25 protocols, or up to ten Token Ring or 7 Ethernet LAN connections.

Two ESCON and/or two channel interfaces are available on the 1174-25S, to allow multiple host attachment and still provide several additional communication cards worth of networking.

Host definitions for the downstream devices are dependent upon the type of connection that the 1174-25S has with the FEP or the host. When connected directly to the channel, each DSPU will be defined as a channel attached major node. Connection through Token Ring, Ethernet, Frame Relay, or X.25 requires a Switched Major Node definition. Connection through an SDLC connection, allows the DSPUs appear as a multidrop non-switched SDLC line; Group Poll is supported. DSPUs connecting in through APPN DLUR are defined as Switched Major Nodes.

FEP Alternative

Remote SDLC Environments

The 1174-25S with 11 slots available for communication cards can support up to 7 HSC cards, each capable of supporting 4 ports, or up to 10 SCC cards, each capable of supporting 2 ports. These slots may also be used for ESCON, Channel (uses 2 slots for one interface), Ethernet, or Token Ring. An example configuration of the 1174-25S using Token Ring to connect to the FEP can concentrate up to 31 SDLC lines, using Switched Major Node definitions in VTAM.

A total of 1024 PUs can be concentrated through the 1174-25S, with appropriate numbers of SDLC lines and host connections installed. Each line can be independently configured for line speed, number of DSPUs, Group Poll, NRZ/NRZI, Multidrop/Point-to-Point, and maximum frame sizes (up to 4 KB). Each of the four lines of the HSC card is capable of running up to T1 and E1 speeds, each SCC line is capable of running up to 19.2 Kbps with both ports in use or 256 Kbps with one port in use.

Remote Frame Relay Environments

Let the 1174-25S support the Frame Relay connection to your network. With support for up to 250 PVCs per physical interface into the Frame Relay network, the 1174-25S can support up to 250 remote sites per interface. Even more remote sites may be supported by using multiple interfaces into the Frame Relay network.

Each interface into the Frame Relay network can be driven at T1 and E1 speeds if needed. A variety of LMIs are supported, ensuring compatibility with any Frame Relay providers network.

Remote X.25 Environments

With the 1174-25S and LINCS, there is no need to run NPSI on your FEP. The LINCS implementation for X.25 supports both PVCs and incoming SVCs. Line speeds supported by the 1174-25S go up to T1 and E1. Up to 250 PVCs and SVCs may be supported through a single interface. As many as 1024 remote PUs can be supported by utilizing multiple X.25 interfaces.

LAN Environments

Ever stymied by having a large Ethernet network in place, but your FEP only talks Token Ring? Or how about wanting to move controllers out of your computer room, but you can't settle for SDLC speeds, and you do not like the cost of upgrading your FEP for Token Ring? Let the 1174-25S provide those Token Ring and Ethernet interfaces for you. ESCON channel-attach the 1174-25S to avoid loading your FEP and provide optimum throughput, or if you have the capacity on your FEP, put one or more high speed connections (T1) between your FEP and the 1174-25S to provide the necessary throughput.

The 1174-25S can gateway up to 1024 PUs through your FEP or up to 512 through channel interfaces. LINCS software even provides PU concentration with its LU/PU mapping feature to reduce the number of PUs that you need to gen on your host.

APPN Support

LINCS running on a 1174-25S can also support APPN Network Node and Dependent LU Requester functions, to allow PU 2.1 concentration. APPN traffic is permitted over the same connections as traditional SNA traffic, making the 1174-25S one of the most dynamic APPN networking platforms in existence. And by connecting the 1174-25S directly to your channel, there is no need to implement APPN on your FEP.

Try it, We Think That You'll Like It

In many cases, the 1174-25S can cost less than an upgrade to your FEP, allowing you to recognize real savings within a few short months. With price, performance, flexibility, and reliability, the 1174-25S has it all. For an estimate, please contact your local Visara representative.