- Open Data-link Interface
- Abbreviated ODI. A Novell specification, released in 1989, that allows multiple network interface card device drivers and protocols to share a single network interface card without conflict.ODI defines an interface that separates device drivers from protocol stacks and lets multiple protocol stacks share the same network hardware. Here are the main components:• The multiple-link interface driver (MLID) manages the sending and receiving of packets to and from the network.• The link-support layer (LSL) is the interface layer between the device driver and the protocol stacks. Any ODI LAN driver can communicate with any ODI protocol stack via the LSL.• The MLI (Multiple-Link Interface) communicates with the network interface cards through an MLID and consists of three main components:• The media-support module (MSM), which manages the details of interfacing ODI MLIDs to the LSL and to the operating system.• The hardware-specific module (HSM), which is specific to a particular network interface card. It handles adapter initialization, reset, shutdown, packet reception, timeout detection, and multicast addressing.• The topology-specific module (TSM), which manages operations that are specific to a particular media type, such as Ethernet or token ring.
Dictionary of networking . 2014.
