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