Applications of OSI

The reader who has come this far might be forgiven for thinking that for so powerful and flexible a concept as OSI, its universal application can only be a matter of time. The unremitting and sometimes misleading publicity which OSI has received in the computer trade press over recent years has tended to purvey an image of a universal solution to all problems of data communications and system incompatibility. However, like all technologies it has strengths and weaknesses which limit the range of problems to which it can be successfully applied. The purpose of this chapter is to identify these limitations, and also describe some of the successful applications which are already being realised.