Channels

A channel is a communication link used by distributed queue managers. There are two categories of channel in WebSphere 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 WebSphere MQ client to a queue manager, and responses from a queue manager to a WebSphere MQ client.

These need to be considered when designing your application, but a program will be unaware of WebSphere MQ channel objects. For more information, see WebSphere MQ Intercommunication and WebSphere MQ Clients.