CICS product communication support

This section summarizes the support each CICS® product provides when it is in communication with another CICS product of the same type, and when it is communicating with each of the other CICS family products.

CICS on System/390 interproduct communication

Functions supported

CICS on System/390® supports all CICS intersystem communication functions.

Communication protocols supported

All CICS on System/390 products support SNA.

All CICS on System/390 products except CICS TS for VSE/ESA and CICS/VSE 2.3 can make use of the AnyNet® product, which allows SNA flows to be transmitted over a TCP/IP network.

Only CICS TS for z/OS® Version 2.2 and later support native TCP/IP connections to clients. The CICS External Call Interface (ECI) is supported, but not the External Presentation Interface (EPI) nor the External Security Interface (ESI). See Table 5.

Synchronization level supported

CICS on System/390 can support synchronization levels 0, 1, and 2. The synchronization level used depends upon the support available in the partner system. This is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. CICS on System/390 synchronization level support
CICS on System/390 CICS on Open Systems CICS/400 CICS Transaction Server for Windows
Maximum synchronization level supported: 2 2 2 1

CICS Transaction Server for Windows interproduct communication

Functions supported

CICS Transaction Server for Windows supports all CICS intersystem communication functions.

Communication protocols supported

CICS Transaction Server for Windows supports SNA, TCP/IP, and NetBIOS. The communication protocol that can be used is dependent upon the support available in the partner system. This is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. CICS Transaction Server for Windows communication protocol support
CICS Transaction Server for Windows CICS on Open Systems CICS on System/390 CICS /400
Communication SNA SNA SNA SNA
protocols TCP/IP TCP/IP
supported: NetBIOS
Note:
Distributed transaction processing is supported only by SNA.

Synchronization level supported

CICS Transaction Server for Windows supports only synchronization levels 0 and 1, and either level can be used with any partner CICS system.

CICS on Open Systems interproduct communication

Functions supported

CICS on Open Systems supports all CICS intersystem communication functions.

Communication protocols supported

CICS on Open Systems supports SNA and two types of TCP/IP:

The choice of communication protocol depends upon the function supported by the partner system, and is summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. CICS on Open Systems communication protocol, and synchronization level support
CICS on Open Systems CICS Transaction Server for Windows CICS on System/390 CICS/400
Communication protocols supported:
SNA
TCP/IP (1)
TCP/IP (2)
SNA
TCP/IP(1)
SNA SNA
Maximum synchronization level supported: 2 1 2 2
Note:
1. TCP/IP (1) -  CICS family TCP/IP support
2. TCP/IP (2) -  Encina PPC TCP/IP support

Synchronization level supported

CICS on Open Systems can support synchronization levels 0, 1, and 2 when using SNA and Encina PPC TCP/IP, and levels 0 and 1 when using CICS family TCP/IP. The synchronization level that CICS on Open Systems supports with other CICS systems is summarized in Table 3.

CICS/400 interproduct communication

Functions supported

CICS/400 supports all CICS intersystem communication functions.

Communication protocols supported

CICS/400 supports only SNA.

Synchronization level supported

CICS/400 supports synchronization levels 0, 1, and 2. The synchronization level you use depends upon the support available in the partner system. This is summarized in Table 4.

Table 4. CICS/400 synchronization level support
CICS/400 CICS on System/390 CICS on Open Systems CICS Transaction Server for Windows
Maximum synchronization level supported: 2 2 2 1

Related concepts
Configuring CICS for SNA communications
[[ Contents Previous Page | Next Page Index ]]