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From: joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.lan,net.dcom,net.decus
Subject: What is "ISO"?
Message-ID: <424@gould9.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Mar-86 11:15:18 EST
Article-I.D.: gould9.424
Posted: Fri Mar 28 11:15:18 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Apr-86 23:58:06 EST
Organization: CACI, Inc. -- La Jolla, Calif.
Lines: 33
Keywords: TOPS, MAP, X.25, DECNET

Could someone please help me out?  I'm familiar with TCP/IP, and, to 
some degree, X.25.  I've even heard of MAP.  But what does it mean when 
someone says they will be using the "ISO" protocol?

I know that there is a 7-layer model proposed by ISO, and I'd always thought 
this meant you could mix- and- match at any layer (a pure hierarchy, for 
example).  But recently I've seen plugs that suggest ISO is a specific 
protocol, much like TCP/IP or XNS. 

What does it mean, "DECNET will conform to ISO?"  If, say, five years from 
now I want to hook my PC to the DDN or across a LAN to a BSD 4.9 machine, 
and they're all running "ISO", does that mean there will be an actual, known 
protocol at all 7 layers?  For programmer shops and office automation, will 
that be TOPS + ISO?  Would it also work, wholely or partly, with DECNET?

To get to the bottom line, is the standard well-defined enough that I can 
write an "ISO driver" that will talk to an arbitrary box some point in the 
future?  

If an analogy would help, I know my terminal must talk ASCII, for 
example, and the modem should conform to Bell 103, 212, or V.22 bis.
If I want to communicate between micros and mainframes, KERMIT works
well; between micros, XMODEM is popular.

Any information at all, references (articles and books) would be
appreciated.  Mail or post at your discretion.

(I got an "A" in Buzzwords 101.)
-- 
	Joel West	 	(619) 457-9681
	CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA  92037
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