What is Channel? - Middleware News

Channel types

A channel is a communication link used by distributed queue managers. There are two categories of channel in MQ:

• Message channels, which are unidirectional, and transfer messages from one queue manager to another.
• MQI channels, which are bidirectional, and transfer MQI calls from a MQ client to a queue manager, and responses from a queue manager to a MQ client. There are two types of MQI channel : server-connection and client-connection.

The definition of each end of a message channel can be one of the following types:

• Sender
• Receiver
• Server
• Requester
• Cluster sender
• Cluster receiver

Do not confuse message channels with MQI channels. There are two types of MQI channel : server-connection and client-connection.
A message channel is defined using one of these types defined at one end, and a compatible type at the other end. Possible combinations are:

• Sender - Receiver
• Requester - Server
• Requester - Sender (callback)
• Server - Receiver (server is used as a sender)
• Client-connection with Server-connection
• Cluster sender-cluster receiver