How OptiConnect works

 

The OptiConnect network connects multiple unique systems or logical partitions using the System i™ high-speed bus technologies.

The mechanism used by OptiConnect software to access database files on another system is modeled after the mechanism used by distributed data management (DDM). DDM uses a DDM file and Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) to redirect file access operations to another system. Similarly, OptiConnect uses DDM files and a special transport service to redirect file access operations to another system in an OptiConnect network. Thus, OptiConnect can achieve transport efficiencies that are not possible with a more general purpose, wide-area communications protocol.

Two things differentiate OptiConnect from traditional communications-based distributed operations. The first is a high-speed connection mechanism that takes advantage of the I/O bus or memory bus structure to connect multiple systems or logical partitions. The second is a device driver that is embedded in the operating system. This device driver streamlines the application access to data on a remote system. After OptiConnect establishes system connections, much of the APPC protocol stack is bypassed. The OptiConnect fast-path connection for database transactions provides DDM access to databases anywhere in the OptiConnect network at a fraction of the standard communications code path. Data warehouse, Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA^®), and data propagation functions, such as journaling, can use this technology.

 

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