Cabletron Systems SFCS-200BX, SFCS-1000, SFCS-200WG manual Glossary

GLOSSARY

OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) - the 7-layer suite of protocols designed by ISO committees to be the international standard computer net- work architecture.

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Protocol - a routing algorithm for IP that incorporates least-cost,equal-cost, and load balancing.

Out-of-Band Management - refers to switch configuration via the serial port or over Ethernet, not ATM.

Packet Switching - a communications paradigm in which packets (messages) are individually routed between hosts with no previously established com- munications path.

PBX (Private Branch Exchange) - a private phone system (switch) that con- nects to the public telephone network and offers in-house connectivity. To reach an outside line, the user must dial a digit like 8 or 9.

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - a local-bus standard created by Intel.

PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) - a modulation scheme that samples the information signals and transmits a series of coded pulses to represent the data.

PDN (Public Data Network) - a network designed primarily for data trans- mission and intended for sharing by many users from many organizations.

PDU (Protocol Data Unit) - a unit of data specified in a layer protocol and consisting of protocol control information and layer user data.

Peak Cell Rate - at the PHY Layer SAP of a point-to-point VCC, the Peak Cell Rate Rpis the inverse of the minimum inter-arrival time T0 of the request to send an ATM-SDU.

Peer Entities - entities within the same layer.

PHY (Physical Layer) - the actual cards, wires, and/or fiber-optic cabling used to connect computers, routers, and switches.

g-14