Local networking and internetworking in the V-system

Local networking can be treated as a subset of internetworking for remote terminal access and file transfer. However, a distributed operating system, such as the V-System uses a local network more as an extended backplane than a fast, minature long-haul network. This paper describes the use of server-based “intelligent gateways” to provide internetworking using standard protocols in conjunction with an efficient light-weight protocol for V IPC on a local network. Besides providing good local network performance, this design allows a gateway to act as an access control mechanism, addressing some reliability and security issues that arise with local networks.