xnet
XNet is a term that has been employed in several distinct technical contexts to denote network-related technologies and platforms. In its earliest usage, XNet referred to a proprietary packet‑switching protocol developed in the late 1980s by the company XSystems for use in high‑speed data communication between mainframes and minicomputers. The protocol was designed to allow dynamic routing and reduced latency compared to earlier Serial Data Link Control implementations. Although it was eventually superseded by TCP/IP in the commercial sector, the protocol was widely adopted in a handful of specialized scientific and defense applications.
In the early 2000s, the name reappeared in the context of network virtualization when XNet Software launched
A third, more recent incarnation of XNet is a community‑driven open‑source project that focuses on emulating
Across all of its incarnations, XNet has played a role in advancing network research, supporting specialized