Windows Sockets Direct Overview

Microsoft Windows Sockets Direct is a technology that, when possible, routes data at high speed and with high performance to and from Windows Sockets applications through a system area network (SAN) instead of the TCP/IP transport and an NDIS miniport driver.

Windows Sockets Direct is included in:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP2

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Appliance Kit SP2

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003

The following topics describe Windows Sockets Direct features and operations, the software components that enable Windows Sockets Direct, and the requirements for writing a SAN service provider and its associated proxy driver:

Windows Sockets Direct Architecture

Windows Sockets Direct Component Operation

Creating a Service Provider for a SAN

Creating a Proxy Driver for a SAN Service Provider