interworking

standard Systems or components, possibly from different

origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking

depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces

between the components. The term implies that there is some

difference between the components which, in the absence of

common standards, would make it unlikely that they could be

used together. For example, software from different

companies, running on different hardware and operatingsystems can interwork via standard network protocols.

(1998-11-22)