The purpose of this combined survey and tutorial is to help programming and network professionals design and support SAA/LU 6.2 distributed networks and APPC cooperative processing applications. It accomplishes this purpose.

Part 1 of the book consists of five chapters and provides the necessary foundation on distributed networks and cooperative processing. Chapter 1 evaluates the major open architectures for enterprise computing in the 1990s: Systems Application Architecture (SAA), Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Chapter 1 concludes with a comparison of SNA/LU 6.2, OSI, TCP/IP, X.25, and NETBIOS. Chapters 2 through 5 provide an introduction to SNA distributed networks, the logical unit type 6.2, the physical unit type 2.1, Advanced Program-to-Program Communications (APPC), Common Programming Interface Communications (CPI-C), Systems Applications Architecture (SAA), and distributed network management issues. Part 2 of this book concentrates on distributed and cooperative processing application design issues using the Advanced Program-to-Program Communications (APPC) and the SAA Common Programming Interface Communications (CPI-C) distributed architectures. Chapter 6 evaluates and compares the APPC and CPI-C architectures. Chapters 7 and 8 cover in depth the APPC and CPI-C architectures and the design issues of distributed and cooperative processing applications. Part 3 of this book covers configuration and performance issues of SAA distributed networks and discusses various LU 6.2 implementations (APPC/MVS, CMS, VTAM, OS/2 EE APPC and APPN, OS/400 APPC and APPN, APPC/PC DOS, and other vendor logical unit type 6.2 implementations). In addition, the appendixes contain configuration, performance, LU 6.2 network message flows, and programming tips, as well as programming design examples. (From the Preface).

The book includes appendices, a glossary, and a substantial index. Its excellent organization allows the reader to either extract an overview of a topic or wade into serious detail.

The best features of this book are its organization and technical wealth. While many typographical errors occur, they do not seriously detract from the readability of the book. This work is excellent. The author has given seminars on the subject and addresses his audience appropriately. According to the preface, “this book is intended for distributed and cooperative processing application designers, programmers, analysts, and APPC and CPI-C implementors, as well as networking and technical staff, communications specialists, network planners, network designers, system programmers, and anybody who is involved with open system architectures and distributed standards.”

Many references are to IBM publications and products. The bibliography includes few academic references. Many diagrams, charts, and programming examples are provided. The index is adequate.

This book is not a textbook. While it contains many programming examples, no exercises or review questions are given.