Network protocols should not be an issue for distributed databases. Protocol conversion routines such as Net8 permit synchronous channels (such as those on IBM mainframes) to communicate with the asynchronous UNIX world.
They also accommodate differences in topology so that LU6.2 can communicate with TCP/IP, and so on.

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Network protocols should not be an issue for distributed databases. Protocol conversion routines such as Net8 allow synchronous channels (such as those on IBM mainframes) to communicate with asynchronous Unix. They also accommodate differences in topology so that LU6.2 (Logical Unit 6.2 is an IBM-originated communications protocol specification dating from 1974, and is part of IBM's Systems Network Architecture). can communicate with TCP/IP.