🚀 go-pugleaf

Some time ago I posted the following request on the list:
>> Date: Wed, 28 Mar 90 13:19:01 +0200
>> From: staale@jotun.nta.no (Staale Odegaard)
>> Message-Id: <9003281119.AA00867@jotun.nta.no>
>> To: iso@NIC.DDN.MIL
>> Subject: Looking for CONS products
>> Can anyone help me with the following:
>> 1.	Are there any available products supporting CONS in LAN
>> 	(X.25 PLP (ISO 8208 + ISO 8881) over LLC 2 (1)) ?
>> 2.	Are there any available products implementing "X.25 Interworking Unit"
>> 	(ISO TR 10029) ?
>> I'll post a summary of the response on the list.
>> Thanks
>> Staale Odegaard
>> Norwegian Telecomm, Research Department

Here are the replies (at last):

I received response from 3 suppliers; 1 UK vendor, 1 US vendor and a UK university 
computing service center.

None offer support of question 2. 

Concerning question 1:

1)	The UK vendor offer X.25 products which runs in STREAMS on a Unix V.3	
	system. They also have a Streams emulator which allows their code to be 
	run on non Unix systems. Their X.25 supports both LAPB over HDLC and 
	LLC-2 over Ethernet and Token ring. It supports the ISO CONS interface 
	and the new AT&T NPI interface (Network Provider Interface). 
	There is also a standard interface to support the X.25 facilities not
	accessable from a CONS interface like QOS. 
	They have been supplying such products to the UK Academic community for 
	a number of years, and the software available on an OEM basis. 
	They have >20 customers ranging from large Unix box suppliers to board
	manufacturers.

2)	The US vendor offer X.25PLP that run over both LLC2 and LAPB. They also
	provides both LLC2 and LAPB. So far, they are not offering X.25PLP over
	LLC2 as an end user product.

3)	The UK university computing service center offer X.25 PLP over LLC2 to
	support the UK Academic Coloured Book protocols (which provide FTP, Mail,
	JTMP and triple-X [terminal access]). The product is available on any 
	favor of UNIX for every manufacturer.

I also received a survey of the Pink Book Equipment on campus LAN's in the UK
academic community. The Pink Book specification uses X.25/LLC2 over CSMA/CD. 
The survey is included below.

Begin include -----------------------

Survey of Pink Book Equipment on Campus LANs.

The first step taken by the UK academic community on the road to the use of full
OSI standards for data communications was the adoption of X.25(84) and LLC2
protocols for use over CSMA/CD LANs. The implementation details of these protocols and other transition issues were documented in the Pink Book. These same protocols for use over CSMA/CD and other LAN technologies such as token ring have been
adopted by ISO (ISO 8881), Europe (ENV 41103) and UK Government (GOSIP CO LAN profile). These combined initiatives have led to the availability of Pink Book
products for most machine ranges of interest in the UK academic community. 
A survey of the number of systems using Pink Book ISO OSI protocols was carried 
out last November. Some of the highlights of the 35 replies that were received are
    
o	Pink Book implementations were running on 18 machine ranges including
	MSDOS, VAX/VMS, SUN, Hewlett Packard, Prime, Encore, Convex, IBM and 
	Amdahl VM/CMS, Pyramid, ICL 3980, IBM 6150 and Alliant.

o	There were over 400 multiport PADs and 60 X.25 gateways from two different
	suppliers in use. Many PCs on proprietary LANs were gatewayed to the Pink
	Book campus LAN via a PC acting as a file transfer and terminal access
	transparent gateway.

o	Over 1000 PCs had direct Pink Book connections, and over 500 major hosts,
	including 139 VAXes, 250+ SUNs and large mainframes such as IBM 3090s,
	Amdahl 5800s and ICL 3900s. The numbers for PCs and workstations such as
	SUN are increasing rapidly at present with the general availability of
	packages such as Rainbow for the PC.

o	The site with the most equipment running Pink Book was the University of 
	Manchester with 500+ systems. Sites such as Manchester, Exeter and 
	Edinburgh have 10 or more types of equipment from various vendors
	interworking. For example at Exeter the following equipment is on the 
	LAN - Pyramid, Convex, Prime, SUN, IBM 6150, Hewlett Packard, Spider PAD,
	Camtec PAD, Camtec X.25 gateway, Spider X.25 gateway, PCs running MSDOS.

New products are being announced which support Pink Book protocols. Netcomm are 
developing 2 Mbps X.25 to CSMA/CD CONS/CONS gateways which will be of interest for 
connections between Pink Book LANs and the X.25 packet switching LANs and JANET. 
An e-mail list for discussion of issues related to Pink Book LANs exists 
(ether@UK.AC.RUTHERFORD) and sites are encouraged to join it if they have not
already done so.
Les Clyne.

End include -----------------------

Staale Odegaard
Norwegian Telecomm, Research Department