GE MDS Mercury Series, Reference Manual

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05-4446A01, Rev. C Mercury Reference Manual 173
and tear down connections with various access points as it moves
through the access points' territory.
Mode
—
See Device Mode.
MTBF
—Mean-Time Between Failures
Multiple Address System (MAS)
—See
Point-Multipoint System.
NMEA—
National Marine Electronics Association
.
National body that
established a protocol for interfacing GPS data between electronic
equipment.
Network Name
—User-selectable alphanumeric string that is used to
identify a group of radio units that form a communications network. The
Access Point and all Remotes within a given system should have the
same network address.
Network-Wide Diagnostics
—An advanced method of controlling and
interrogating GE MDS radios in a radio network.
NTP
—Network Time Protocol
Packet
—The basic unit of data carried on a link layer. On an IP net-
work, this refers to an entire IP datagram or a fragment thereof.
PING—
Packet INternet Groper. Diagnostic message generally used to
test reachability of a network device, either over a wired or wireless net-
work.
PKI—
Private Key Infrastructure. A set of policies and technologies
needed to create, store, and distribute Public Key Certificates used to
protect the security of network communications.
Point-to-Multipoint System
—A radio communications network or
system designed with a central control station that exchanges data with
a number of remote locations equipped with terminal equipment.
Poll
—A request for data issued from the host computer (or master PLC)
to a remote device.
Portability
—A station is considered connected when it has successfully
authenticated and associated with an access point. A station is consid-
ered authenticated when it has agreed with the access point on the type
of encryption that will be used for data packets traveling between them.
The process of association causes a station to be bound to an access
point and allows it to receive and transmit packets to and from the access
point. In order for a station to be associated it must first authenticate
with the access point. The authentication and association processes
occur automatically without user intervention.