AB291A Fabric Clustering System Support Guide (12-port Switch), April 2004

Glossary
IETF
Glossary
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IETF Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a
large international community of network designers,
operators, vendors, and researchers guiding the
evolution of Internet architecture. See
http://www.ietf.org/overview.html.
IOC An I/O Controller (IOC) and Target Channel
Adapter (TCA) are the parts of an I/O unit. IOCs
provide I/O services and TCAs (Target Channel
Adapter) provide the transport services. The I/O
interface of the TCA is implemented by an I/O
Controller.
IP Internet Protocol. A layer-3 protocol (transport)
that uses a “best effort” approach to delivering
datagrams across networks.
IPoIB Internet Protocol over InfiniBand.
IT-API Interconnect Transport API. A user API for
RDMA-capable transports including InfiniBand.
kernel The kernel is loaded into RAM when the
system boots, and contains many critical procedures
that are needed for the system to operate. The
essential shape and capabilities of the system are
determined by the kernel, which can also be referred
to as the Operating System (OS).
LID Local IDentifier.
MAC The Media Access Control (MAC) address is a
unique hardware number. On an Ethernet LAN, it is
the same number as your Ethernet address. When a
host is connected to the Internet, a correspondence
table relates the IP address to your computer's
physical (MAC) address on the LAN. The MAC
address is used by the Media Access Control
sublayer of the Data-Link Layer (DLC) layer of
telecommunication protocol. There is a different
MAC sublayer for each physical device type. The
other sublayer level in the DLC layer is the Logical
Link Control sublayer.
MAD MAnagement Datagram.
MCAST Multicast message forwarding method that
simultaneously transmits messages to multiple
ports on a fabric.
MIB The Management Information Base (MIB)
defines the logical and physical characteristics of a
system. The “objects” in a MIB determine SNMP
agent characteristics.
MPI Message Passing Interface (MPI) is used in
computing clusters to provide high-speed and
scalable networks. A widely used set of standards for
message passing that emphasize portability and
ease-of-use; common in High Performance
Computing (HPC) applications.
NIC Network Interface Card.
NTP Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronizes the
clocks of networked computer systems. It
synchronizes system clocks to Universal Time (UTC)
for millisecond and sub-millisecond accuracy.
OSI Open System Interconnection.
OSPF Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a router
protocol preferred in larger autonomous system
networks over the Routing Information Protocol
(RIP). (RIP is a legacy protocol generally running on
older corporate networks.)
PPP Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is a layer-2
(data-link layer) service that runs IP across a serial
connection between two systems.
Protocol Stack A layered set of protocols that work
together to provide a set of network functions. Each
intermediate protocol layer uses the layer below it to
provide a service to the layer above.
QoS Quality of Service.
RARP Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
allows a LAN system to query a gateway server for
its IP address. The gateway server uses the MAC
address of the requestor to locate the IP address in
the ARP table and returns the IP address to the
requestor. This is typically used to setup new
systems.
RDMA Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)
allows a network adapter, with the remote
application’s permission, to move data into and out
of the application’s buffers. It is typically used by
Fibre Channel devices for block storage transfers,
clustering applications, and InfiniBand.
RED Random Early Detection (RED) is an
algorithm to monitor traffic load at points in the
network and stochastically discard packets as
network congestion increases.
RIP Routing Information Protocol.