Facilitating Interprocess Communication in a Heterogeneous Network Environment.
Abstract
Passing information among processors with different internal data formating schemes has proven to be a major complication to computer networking efforts. Data format translation is necessary to support information exchange in a heterogeneous network environment. Three strategies for performing this translation for communications between a message sender and receiver are: translation by the receiver, translation by an intermediate translator, and the use of a standard intermediate format. The standard format is shown to be the most responsive to a set of general network design principles. The implementation of an intermediate format based interprocess communications scheme requires a mechanism for passing the semantic description of each string of data bits. Two alternative mechanisms for passing this information are discussed, and data tagging is selected as the more flexible. Other implementation considerations are examined, including possible problems in performing translation and the relationship formal translation has to other network message handling functions. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA043901
Entities
People
- Paul H. Levine
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology