Visara CNA-8000 Planning Guide - Manual (Page 10)

Chapter 1. CNA-8000 Overview
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The CNA-8000 also supports one FICON interface card for use in the PCI-Express slot.
Each interface on this card is capable of operating at maximum FICON speeds. Each
interface will support up to 16 CU images and 256 subchannels. This card comes in three
versions:
• Single FICON interface
• Dual FICON interface
• Quad FICON interface
Both Long Wave FICON and Short Wave FICON interfaces are supported. The
transceiver used by each environment is different so it will be necessary to determine
which is used in your environment and the appropriate interface ordered.
Up to three 4/16/100 Mbps Token Ring adapters or two Quad 10/100/1000 Mbps
Ethernet adapters may be installed to provide network access depending on available
slots.
A Quad Serial Interface (QSI) is also available for supporting remote SDLC PU2
platforms through four RS-232 or V.35 interfaces at speeds up to T1/E1.
TN3270 Gateway Server
The CNA-8000 functions as a TN3270 gateway capable of supporting as many as 16,384
TN3270E clients spread over as many PUs (Host Circuits) as necessary. These PUs may
be directed to any of the upstream LPARs configured. Host connectivity is established
through configuration of Host Circuits that will appear as if they were downstream PU2
nodes communicating through the SNA Gateway feature.
SNA Gateway Feature
The CNA-8000 provides SNA gateway functionality to SNA PU2 platforms using XCA
(External Communications Adapter) technology. Through this technology, SNA PU2
platforms are defined on the host to VTAM using Switched Major Nodes. Each XCA
definition allows up to 255 downstream PU2 platforms and all of their associated LUs to
communicate with the host through their switched PU2 definitions. Each XCA definition
provides a communication pipe between one of the ESCON or FICON interfaces and one
of the network interfaces of the CNA-8000. Additional XCA definitions may be created
to allow communication between an ESCON or FICON interface and a different, or even
the same network interface. Multiple (up to 8) XCA definitions may be made to
communicate through a single network adapter. ESCON and FICON resources are
allocated to use one subchannel per XCA defined. Using this technology thousands of
downstream PUs can be supported through a single CNA-8000.
Migrating from Token Ring to Ethernet
The CNA-8000 supports SNA communication (LLC) through Ethernet as well as through
Token Ring. This may allow you to easily migrate from Token Ring environments to
Ethernet environments, especially if you are currently using a router to provide DLSw
communications to remote sites.