HCON host communication is established through several types of adapters and interfaces. Managing this connectivity involves:
HCON software communicates with a host through a 3174/3274 control unit or its equivalent, such as an integrated communications adapter in 4361 and 9370 systems. All control unit attachment protocols are supported, including:
Note: HCON does not support a direct attachment using BSC (without 3X74).
HCON supports standalone attachments, such as a Node T2.1 connection to a mainframe host. TCP/IP connection is available when communicating to a host using an 8232 or 3172 Interconnect Controller. The Telnet 3270 protocol is supported.
This table shows HCON attachments, interfaces, and capabilities.
| HCON Attachment and Interface Relationships | ||||
| Attachment | Type | Interface | DLC | Host Printer |
| 3174/3274 | SNA | DFT mode | Coax | No |
| 3174/3274 | Non-SNA | DFT mode | Coax | Yes |
| Standalone | SNA | Node T2.1 | SDLC, Token-Ring Ethernet X.25 | Yes (LU1, LU3) |
| 5088/6098 | Non-SNA | Coax | No | |
| 3172/8232 | TCP/IP | Telnet 3270 | Token-Ring, Ethernet, IEEE 802.3 X.25 FDDI | No |
| Channel | TCP/IP | Telnet 3270 | ESCON Block Multiplexer | No |
With SNA connectivity and the capability to support multiple communications adapters, the limiting factor for HCON sessions is the number of expansion slots on a particular machine (usually 4 to 8). Capability is also limited by the number of cards of each type that the operating system supports.
The operating system has direct access to any customer SNA network. The choice of connectivity is dependent on the system environment and geographical location. These variables affect response time for an application:
The HCON Connectivity figure shows the connectivity capability of the HCON 3270 emulation program.
