Transport Layer Interface
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In computer software, specifically networking, the Transport Layer Interface (TLI) was the networking API provided by AT&T UNIX System V Release 3.0, and was the System V counterpart to BSD sockets. TLI was later standardised as XTI, the X/Open Transport Interface.
Although TLI and STREAMS were first introduced with SVR3, no actual protocol implementations were provided until SVR4 shipped with TCP/IP support. It was expected at the time that the OSI protocols would supersede TCP/IP, and TLI is designed from an OSI model-oriented viewpoint, corresponding to the OSI transport layer.
TLI and XTI were never as widely used as BSD sockets, and although they are still supported in SVR4-derived operating systems such as Solaris (as well as the non-Unix Mac OS in the form of Open Transport), sockets are now the de-facto standard networking API.
[edit] See also
- X/Open Portability Guide, the predecessor to POSIX.
- Computer networking, outlining the major networking protocols.
