Distributed Transaction Processing (DTP) allows a CICS transaction running in one system to communicate with a transaction running in another system. The transactions are written and designed to communicate with each other over the intersystem communication link. DTP provides facilities so that two programs can communicate with each other, signal each other with regard to their status, and jointly commit modifications to protected resources.
DTP takes place between programs that are designed to be a matched pair. Their activities, command utilization, error protocols, and message formats must all be coordinated. MSS enables running transactions to initiate and communicate synchronously with transactions in remote systems that support the APPC protocols.