Page 264 - M. Abrahim Thesis

List of Terms and Acronyms

MAN

Metropolitan-area network. Network that spans a metropolitan area. Generally, a MAN spans a
larger geographic area than a LAN, but a smaller geographic area than a WAN.

Mb

megabit. Approximately 1,000,000 bits.

multicast address

Single address that refers to multiple network devices. Synonymous with group address.
Compare with broadcast address and unicast address.

Network

Collection of computers, printers, routers, switches, and other devices that are able to
communicate with each other over some transmission medium.

NIC

1. network interface card. Board that provides network communication capabilities to and
from a computer system.
2. Network Information Center. Organization whose functions have been assumed by the

Inter NIC.

OSI network address.

Address, consisting of up to 20 octets, used to locate an OSI Transport entity. The address is
formatted into two parts: an Initial Domain Part that is standardized for each of several
addressing domains and a Domain Specific Part that is the responsibility of the addressing
authority for that domain.

OSPF

Open Shortest Path First. Link-state, hierarchical IGP routing algorithm proposed as a successor
to RIP in the Internet community. OSPF features include least-cost routing, multipath routing,
and load balancing. OSPF was derived from an early version of the IS-IS protocol.

ping

packet internet groper. ICMP echo message and its reply. Often used in IP networks to test the
reachability of a network device.

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