
GS748T Smart Switch Hardware Installation Guide
Table C-1.  Glossary
| Ethernet | A LAN specification developed jointly by Xerox, Intel and Digital Equipment | 
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 | Corporation. Ethernet networks transmit packets at a rate of 10 Mbps. | 
| Fast Ethernet | An Ethernet system that is designed to operate at 100 Mbps. | 
| Gigabit Ethernet | An Ethernet system that is designed to operate at 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps). | 
| Fault isolation | A technique for identifying and alerting administrators about connections | 
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 | (such as those associated with switch ports) that are experiencing | 
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 | congestion or failure, or exceeding an  | 
| Forwarding | The process of sending a packet toward its destination using a networking | 
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 | device. | 
| Filtering | The process of screening a packet for certain characteristics, such as | 
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 | source address, destination address, or protocol. Filtering is used to | 
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 | determine whether traffic is to be forwarded, and can also prevent | 
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 | unauthorized access to a network or network devices. | 
| Flow control | A congestion- control mechanism. Congestion is caused by devices | 
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 | sending traffic to already overloaded port on a switch. Flow control prevents | 
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 | packet loss and temporarily inhibits devices from generating more traffic | 
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 | until the period of congestion ends. | 
| A system that allows packets to be transmitted and received at the same | |
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 | time and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link. | 
| A system that allows packets to transmitted and received, but not at the | |
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 | same time. Contrast with full duplex. | 
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This American organization | 
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 | was founded in 1963 and sets standards for computers and | 
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 | communications. | 
| IETF | Internet Engineering Task Force. An organization responsible for providing | 
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 | engineering solutions for TCP/IP networks. In the network management | 
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 | area, this group is responsible for the development of the SNMP protocol. | 
| IP | Internet Protocol. IP is a layer 3 network protocol that is the standard for | 
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 | sending data through a network. IP is part of the TCP/IP set of protocols | 
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 | that describe the routing of packets to addressed devices. | 
| IP address | Internet Protocol address. A unique identifier for a device attached to a | 
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 | network using TCP/IP. The address is written as four octets separated with | 
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 | periods  | 
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 | section and a host section. | 
| LAN | Local Area Network. A network of endstations (such as PCs, printers, | 
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 | servers) and network devices (hubs and switches) that cover a relatively | 
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 | small geographic area (usually not larger than a floor or building). | 
| Glossary |