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Bay rolls out SNA enhancements

Bay Networks has bolstered its SNA integration capabilities with a new version of BayRS routing software.

BayRS 11.02 features a suite of SNA router enhancements designed to ease the integration of IBM mainframe and mid-range systems with IP networks. The new features are designed to increase the scalability of mixed SNA/IP environments.

Bay's new software includes support for Data Link Switching (DLSw) Version 2, multiple Physical Unit Type 1 (PU1) devices and DLSw Backup Peers. DLSw allows SNA traffic to flow over an IP network.

DLSw Version 2 enables a single router to scale to support larger networks. By establishing a TCP/IP session between routers only when required, DLSw Version 2 lets one router support a greater number of sessions typical of large SNA networks, Bay said.

For AS/400 environments, BayRS Version 11.02 supports PU1 devices, which are Synchronous Data Link Control-a-tached controllers such as the IBM 5294 and 5394. Support for PU1 in BayRS increases network availability by allowing network managers to locally acknowledge packets and prevent SNA session timeouts.

This enhancement also supports virtual multidrop that allows multiple PU1 devices.