TCP/IP Configuration and Management Manual

TCP/IP Configuration and Management Manual—427132-004
Glossary-1
Glossary
This glossary defines terms used both in this manual and in other NonStop TCP/IP
manuals. Both industry-standard terms and NonStop terms are included. Because this
is a glossary for 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.
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. I1) For the Subsystem Control Facility (SCF), a characteristic of an entity. For
example, two attributes of a process might be its program file and its user ID. An
attribute is sometimes called a modifier. (2) In OSM client interfaces, a data item
associated with a system or cluster resource. All attributes can be viewed, and some
can be modified.