L-N

Latency

System or component response time, a measure of delay that incorporates device and application processing, taking into account the time to complete a task.

Limit

A boundary between conforming and nonconforming regions; is taken as an upper or lower limit for a performance characteristic.

Loosely coupled

In the distributed-computing flow model, when there may be little to no transfer of information between computing devices.

Low performance

An indicator that the service request or requirement's performance characteristics are less than a performance threshold determined for that network.

Maintainability

A statistical measure of the time to restore the system to fully operational status after it has experienced a fault.

Marking

Tagging an IP packet with a priority level, as part of traffic conditioning.

Mechanisms

Hardware and software that help a network to achieve each function.

Metadata

Additional information about the collected data, such as references to the data types, time stamps of when the data were generated, and any indications that these data reference any other data.

Metering

Measuring the temporal performance characteristics of a traffic flow, as part of traffic conditioning.

MIB selection

Determining which SNMP MIBs to use and apply, as well as which variables in each MIB are appropriate, for your network.

Mission-critical applications

Applications that require predictable or high reliability.

Monitoring

Obtaining values for end-to-end, per-link, and per-element network management characteristics.

Multipart flowspec

A flow specification that describes flows that have guaranteed requirements; may include flows that have stochastic and/or best-effort requirements.

Natural mask

The IP address mask that coincides with a class boundary.

Network address translation

The mapping of IP addresses from one realm to another. Typically this is between public and private address space.

Network analysis

Studying network components, its inputs and outputs, to understand network behavior under variable situations.

Network architecture

Developing a high-level end-to-end structure for the network. This includes the relationships between major architectural components of the network, such as security, network management, addressing, and routing.

Network design

Details (physically) the reference network architecture, evaluating and choosing technologies for each area of the network, as well as developing strategies to connect these technologies across the network.

Network element

An individual component of the network that participates at one or more of the protocol layers.

Network environment

Everything that is external to the network, such as the physical or business environments. Can also include users, applications, and devices, although they are usually considered with the network to be part of the system.

Network management

Providing functions to control, plan, allocate, deploy, co-ordinate, and monitor network resources.

Network perimeter security

Protecting the external interfaces between your network and external networks.

Network propagation delay

An estimate of how long it takes for a signal to cross a physical medium or link.

Network privacy

A subset of network security, focusing on protection of networks and their services from unauthorized access or disclosure.

Network requirements

Requests for capabilities in the network, usually in terms of performance and function, that are necessary for the success of that network.

Network security

The protection of networks and their services from unauthorized access, modification, destruction, or disclosure. It provides assurance that the network performs its critical functions correctly and that there are no harmful side effects.

Network services

Levels of performance and function in the network.

Nonbroadcast multiple access technologies

Network technologies that do not inherently have broadcast support.

See also Broadcast technologies.

Nonconforming traffic

Traffic that is outside of performance boundaries, as determined by metering (traffic conditioning).

Non-real-time applications

Applications with various end-to-end delay requirements, at times more stringent (in terms of the amount of delay) than real-time applications, but the destination will wait (within reason) until the information is received.

Northbound interface

A management interface that is oriented toward higher-level (thus up or northbound) management functions. This term is commonly used for the interface from network management to service or business management.