bmh@tigger.cs.unc.edu (Brad Hemminger) (11/17/90)
We will be participating in a project that will require running some already devleoped X Window System applications over a prototype high speed network. It appears that a good route for us is to get tcp/ip running over this network, so that X and other network stuff falls out for free (?). What I'm looking for is information on what is required in order to get tcp/ip running over an arbitrary network. I.e. is the source public domain and what parts would need changing? Are their commercial companies specialize in this? An alternative might be to just port X to run an alternative protocol. Any suggestions on what protocol or how much work this would be? This would run on a sun sparc server type machine. Thanks, Brad Hemminger bmh@rad.unc.edu Dept of Radiology (919) 966-2998
mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (11/17/90)
> We will be participating in a project that will require running some > already devleoped X Window System applications over a prototype high > speed network. It appears that a good route for us is to get tcp/ip > running over this network, so that X and other network stuff falls > out for free (?). Yes. If you can turn your network into an IP transport, a whole lot of stuff drops out for free, including X. > What I'm looking for is information on what is required in order to > get tcp/ip running over an arbitrary network. The requirements are few and fairly simple. About all that's necessary is for one machine to be able to send a datagram (which may be of limited size, though this limit must be no less than some value on the order of five or six hundred bytes) to some other machine on the network. Under Berkeley UNIX, that being my principal area of expertise, this amounts to providing a network interface driver. I have written (at least) two of these which I can distribute; they may provide useful templates, or one of them may be useful in its own right. (Send me mail if you're interested.) > I.e. is the source public domain and what parts would need changing? Most modern systems come with the layers above IP, and much of the IP layer, already provided; all you need to do is provide the interface between IP and the hardware - the network interface driver I mentioned above. How you go about this depends on your system. > Are their commercial companies specialize in this? I'm sure there are lots of consulting firms that would be happy to take your money for it; I don't know of any that specialize in networking. > An alternative might be to just port X to run an alternative > protocol. Any suggestions on what protocol or how much work this > would be? Anything will do, as long as it provides (or can be made to provide) a reliable flow-controlled sequenced byte stream. TCP does excellently, as do DECnet stream connections. If you expect to use the MIT code, you will need to hack on a module or two in Xlib and a module or two in the server to accommodate your new connection method; look for UNIXCONN or DNETCONN (I think - this is from memory) to find the relevant places. der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (This is beginning to shade off of X into TCP/IP; maybe consider moving it, depending on which portion you reply to?)