The OptiConnect network connects multiple unique servers or partitions, using one of the three high-speed internal bus technologies available on the iSeries™ servers. The mechanism used by OptiConnect software to access database files on another server is modeled after the mechanism used by Distributed Data Management (DDM). DDM uses a DDM file and advanced program-to-program communications (APPC) to redirect file access operations to another server. Similarly, OptiConnect uses DDM files and a special transport service to redirect file access operations to another server in an OptiConnect network. Thus, OptiConnect can achieve transport efficiencies that are not possible with a more general purpose, wide-area communications protocol.
Two things differentiate OptiConnect from traditional communications based distributed operations. The first is a high-speed connection mechanism that takes advantage of the I/O bus or memory bus structure to connect multiple servers or partitions. The second is a device driver that is embedded in the operating system. This device driver streamlines the application access to data on a remote server. Once OptiConnect establishes server connections, much of the APPC protocol stack is bypassed. The OptiConnect fast-path connection for database transactions provides DDM access to databases anywhere in the OptiConnect network at a fraction of the standard communications code path. Data warehouse, Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA®), and data propagation functions (such as journaling) can use this technology.