Home > Glossary > Full Story

Terminologies Simplified

Quality of Service (QoS) A phrase describing how overall transmission quality, speed, and reliability improve as data transmission, error, and missing data packet rates are measured and then modified to eliminate problems.

Queue A line or list formed by items waiting for service, such as tasks waiting to be performed, stations waiting for connection, or messages waiting for transmission.

RADIUS (Remote Access DIalup User Service) An Internet-standard protocol (defined in RFC 2058) that carries a remote user's authentication and configuration information between a network access server and the company's designated authentication server; the authentication server contains a database that stores remote user account information.

Remote LAN Access The process of allowing branch offices, telecommuters, and traveling computer users to access the corporate LAN backbone over dedicated or dialed, digital or analog lines.

Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) A list containing the server IP addresses of ISPs whose customers send and perpetuate Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (UBE).

Remote management A management feature that uses bandwidth between sites over the management sub-channel established by the AIM (Ascend Inverse Multiplexing) protocol. Any Ascend unit can control, configure, and obtain statistical and diagnostic information about any other Ascend unit; multi-level security assures that unauthorized personnel do not have access to remote management functions.

Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) A proposed standard for controlling streaming data over the Web. RTSP is designed to efficiently broadcast audio-visual data to large groups.

Registered Jack-45 (RJ-45) An eight-wire connector commonly used to connect a computer onto a LAN, particularly an Ethernet LAN.

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) Routing information protocol teaches routers on a wide area network which routers have access to which addresses. This information is kept in a routing table on each router. As routers communicate with each other, they all update their routing tables to include each others' routing table information. In a large network environment, this exchange of information can keep the network connections up unnecessarily, and can result in very large routing tables on each router. You can apply a call filter to ignore RIP updates. You can also control how route information is propagated.

Router An interconnection device that can connect individual LANs. Unlike bridges, which logically connect at OSI Layer 2, routers provide logical paths at OSI Layer 3. Like bridges, remote sites can be connected using routers over dedicated or switched lines to create WANs.

Remote monitoring (RMON) A network management protocol that is used to gather network information from a single workstation.

Request for Comments (RFC) A series of numbered international documents that set standards which are voluntarily followed by many makers of software in the Internet community. Once an RFC becomes a standard, it cannot be modified or deleted. An RFC can be updated by a subsequent RFC with a new number.

Routing A device or setup that finds the best route between any two networks even if there are several networks to traverse.

Reverse caching The process of configuring the HTTP proxy to store files that reside on a Web server in the proxy's RAM cache.

Routing table A list of destinations known to the router. Routing tables are built and used based on three protocols:

RIP: Which continuously broadcasts routing updates every 30 seconds

ICMP: Which can dynamically redirect packets to a more efficient route

ARP: Which enables the Pipeline to respond to address queries with its own physical address

Rubber Bandwidth A term used to describe a communications channel whose bandwidth can be increased or decreased without terminating and re-establishing the channel. Typically used with inverse multiplexing.

RS-232 A set of EIA standards specifying various electrical and mechanical characteristics for interfaces between DTE and DCE data communications devices.