Ports

A port represents a unique access point (such as a MAC/SAP address pair) in the local machine and is associated with a DLC process. Each DLC can have one or more ports. A port can be one of the following types:

Switched port

Can have one or more adjacent link stations that are active at any one time. (Note that this differs from the definition in SNA APPN Architecture Reference.)

Nonswitched port

Can have both point-to-point and multipoint link connections. Adjacent link stations on a nonswitched link connection must be defined by a Node Operator Facility component. Multipoint nonswitched links require primary/secondary relationships to be defined properly on all nodes to avoid unpredictable results.

SATF port

Uses a shared-access transport facility such as token ring. It allows connectivity between any pair of link stations attaching to the facility. The initial role for all link stations being activated on a token ring must always be defined as negotiable, so that link activation can be initiated through any link station.

Note:

SATF ports can also be associated with Connection Networks. In this case, topology updates are used to broadcast the address of the unique access point.