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From: Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm,comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: How Scalable Is 3172 Channel Attached To An IBM Host?
Message-ID: <38393@cup.portal.com>
Date: 23 Jan 91 23:45:32 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 17

I need to get an idea for the maximum number of users that I can
get to connect to an IBM mainframe using TCP/IP.  I'm interested
in factors that limit performance (e.g., I'm assuming that probably
50% of the host CPUs time is going to be spent just running the
TCP connection for each user); I am particularly interested in 
any bottlenecks that would physically prevent more than a given number
of users from connecting.  I'm assuming that a single 3172 probably
supports a finite number of concurrent TCP connections to the IBM
host, but could you use multiple 3172s, or multiple gateways from
some other manufacturer, that would allow you get many hundreds of
concurrent connections?  Today I might only need a few hundred connections.
Over time this number might approach 1000 concurrently connected users,
so I need a scalable architecture.  Any thoughts on this are 
appreciated.

Thanks,
Will Estes        (apple!cup.portal.com!Will)