On the use of directory services to support multiprotocol interoperability

Multiprotocol systems are a vital tool for achieving interoperability in today's heterogeneous communication networks. An important aspect of these systems is the need to determine which of the multiple available protocols will be used to carry out a given communication task; an uninformed choice can result in failure to communicate when communication should be possible. The authors consider ways to make information about hosts' supported protocol configurations available through directory services. They discuss various representation approaches, and describe a working implementation of a multiprotocol application exemplifying their approach.<
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