NBT Manual

NBT Manual—424773-001
Glossary-1
Glossary
This glossary defines terms used both in this manual and in other Compaq manuals that
describe TCP/IP. Both industry-standard terms and Compaq terms are included. Because
this glossary is for Compaq NonStop TCP/IP as a whole, not all of the terms listed here
appear in this manual.
address mask. A bit mask used to select bits from an Internet address for subnet addressing.
The mask is 32 bits long and selects the network portion of the Internet address and one
or more bits from the local portion.
address resolution. Conversion of an Internet address into a corresponding physical address.
Depending on the underlying network, resolution may require broadcasting on a local
network. See also address resolution
.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). The Internet protocol used to dynamically bind a high-
level Internet Address to a low-level physical hardware address. ARP applies only
across a single physical network and is limited to networks that support hardware
broadcast.
Advanced Projects Research Agency (ARPA). Former name of DARPA, the government
agency that funded the ARPANET and DARPA Internet.
ARP. See Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
.
ARPA (Advanced Projects Research Agency). See Advanced Projects Research Agency
(ARPA).
ARPANET. A pioneering long-haul network funded by ARPA (later DARPA) and built by
Bolt, Baranek, and Newman (BBN). It served as the basis for early networking research
as well as a central backbone during the development of the Internet.
asynchronous. A mode of serial-data transmission in which characters are sent at random;
there is no timing relationship between the end of one character and the start of the next,
that is, the transmission is not synchronized with a separate clock signal. The data
contains extra bits: a start bit to signal the beginning of a byte and one or more stop bits
to signal the end of the byte. These start and stop bits allow the receiver to determine the
correct synchronization.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). A transfer mode in which the information is
organized into cells.
attribute. In DSM, a characteristic of an entity. For example, two attributes of a
communications line might be its baud rate and its retry count. In a token-oriented
interface based on SPI, an attribute of an object is usually expressed as either a simple
token or as a field within an extensible structured token. See also simple token
or
extensible structured token
.
ATM. See Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
.