Transport Driver Interface

The Transport Driver Interface (TDI) is a common interface for drivers (such as the Windows 2000 redirector and server) to use to communicate with the various network transport protocols. This allows services to remain independent of transport protocols. Unlike NDIS, there is no driver for TDI, which is a specification for passing messages between two layers in the network architecture.

Microsoft developed TDI to provide greater flexibility and functionality than is provided by existing interfaces (such as Winsock and NetBIOS). All Windows 2000 transport providers directly interface with the Transport Driver Interface. This allows the TDI to provide a consistent interface for the transport protocols. The TDI specification describes the set of functions and call mechanisms by which transport drivers and TDI clients communicate. The specific software requirements on both sides of the interface are provided by adherence to the TDI specification. Some applications, such as NetBEUI, do not directly interface to the TDI layer.

Note: The TDI feature is deprecated and will be removed in future versions of Microsoft Windows. Depending on how you use TDI, use either the Winsock Kernel (WSK) or Windows Filtering Platform (WFP). For more information about WFP and WSK, see Windows Filtering Platform and Winsock Kernel. For a Windows Core Networking blog entry about WSK and TDI, see Introduction to Winsock Kernel (WSK).