Short for Open Data-link Interface, an application programming interface (API) developed by Novell for writing network drivers. ODI separates the physical network layer (the Data-Link Layer in the OSI model) from the network protocol layer (the Transport Layer). As a result, the same network interface card (NIC) can be used to carry data for different protocols. For example, ODI allows a computer with just one NIC to be simultaneously connected to both an IPX/SPX network and a TCP/IP network.
