Access Control List. This is a list of commands or filter specifications that define the allowed accesses or uses of a device or other object.
ARPAnet
The original "Internet." The ARPAnet was the creation of the United States Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA evolved into the Department of Defense ARPA (DARPA). The original project that became the "Internet" we know today was an attempt to create a computer communications network that could survive a nuclear war. Luckily those parts of the design were never tested .
ASE
Autonomous System External. See OSPF or BGP RFCs for details.
BGP
Border Gateway Protocol. See also RFC-1771 and for IPv6 references see RFC-2545.
CIDR
Classless InterDomain Routing. RFC-1519. Removes the original definition of class in IPv4 addressing structures.
Cisco IOS
Cisco Internetwork Operating System. The software that runs Cisco routers. See http://www.cisco.com for details.
DiffServ
Differentiated Services. RFC-2474 among others. This is one of the two main contenders resulting from the development of QoS in the Internet IPv4 structure.
DMZ
DeMilitarized Zone. Taken from the military usage this refers to the network between the Internet router and the firewall system. The best reference is found in Building Internet Firewalls by Chapman and Zwicky.
FIB
Forwarding Information Base. Refers to the actual memory hash kept by an IP network stack for actually sending the routed packet on it's way.
ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol. RFC-792/950 for IPv4. Part of the Internet Protocol Suites.
IntServ
Integrated Services. This is the other half of the QoS growth curve.
See also [ DiffServ ]
IPROUTE2
Alexey N. Kuznetsov's powerful utility suite implementing Policy Routing in Linux. Refer to Chapter 4 for details.
IPSec
The IP Security protocol suite. Originally conceived as a security methodology for all IP packets (RFC-1825). Current standard is RFC-2401 and related RFCs. RFC-2401 is a very good read for anyone interested in network security in general.
IPv4
Internet Protocol Version 4. RFC-791. Get it, read it. This is the networking structure of the Internet as of 2000.
IPv6
Internet Protocol Version 6. RFC-2460. Ditto. This is the future of the Internet. Currently available in certain parts of the world and through tunnelling mechanisms.
LSA
Link State Advertisement.
See also [ OSPF ]
MAC
Media Access Control. The address defined by the IEEE that must be present in order for your network card to talk on the network. See any good basic networking primer for details.
MTU
Maximum Transmission Unit. The maximum size packet that can be transmitted through a network interface. Defined usually by the actual interface parameters.
NAT
Network Address Translation. The art of changing a packet's IP source or destination address from that which was originally used without notifying the original inserting system.
NOC
Network Operations Center. Informally sometimes referred to as the glass house. This is where the rare and costly specimens of technical talent are often ensconced. Usually full of computers.
OSPF
Open Shortest Path First. RFC-2328 latest (original RFC-1131) A link-state routing algorithm for dynamic routing.
QoS
Quality of Service. A catchall phrase that refers to providing different routing structures, traffic shaping, and packet paths depending on the needs and uses of the packet. (RFC-2386 and IEEE Transactions on Networking.) See also DiffServ and IntServ and Cisco IOS Quality of Service Solutions Configuration Guide, Release 12.1 (http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios121/121cgcr/qos_c/index.htm).
RIB
Routing Information Base. This is the concept of the "rest" of the routing information that specifies a route. The FIB is that actual forwarding mechanism part.
RIP
Routing Information Protocol. The original dynamic routing distribution mechanism. RFC-1058 is the original with RFC-2453 the current specification.
RPDB
Routing Policy DataBase. See Chapters 3 and 4 for details. This is the implementation of Policy Routing in Linux.
RSVP
Resource Reservation Protocol. Part of the IntServ/QoS structures. See RFC-2205/2750 for details.
TBF
Token Bucket Filter. A type of scheduling structure available under QoS. See the Linux kernel source for schedulers for details.
Token Ring
A LAN topology made popular by IBM.
TOS
Type Of Service. A data field within the packet header of IPv4 and IPv6. Standard values are defined by the Internet Naming Authority. Details can be found at http://www.iana.org.
UDP
User Datagram Protocol. Part of the IPv4 networking protocol suite. See IPv4 for details.
