7000 Series L3 Managed Switch Reference Manual for Software v1.0
C-4
Glossary
May 30, 2003 Beta Draft
BGP
See “Border Gateway Protocol” on page 4.
Backbone
The part of a network used as a primary path for transporting traffic between network segments.
Bandwidth
The information capacity, measured in bits per second, that a channel could transmit. Bandwidth examples
include 10 Mbps for Ethernet, 100 Mbps for Fast Ethernet, and 1000 Mbps (I Gbps) for Gigabit Ethernet.
Baud
The signaling rate of a line, that is, the number of transitions (voltage or frequency changes) made per
second. Also known as line speed.
BootP
See “Bootstrap Protocol.” on page 4.
Bootstrap Protocol.
An Internet protocol that enables a diskless workstation to discover its own IP address, the IP address of a
BootP server on the network, and a file to be loaded into memory to boot the machine. This enables the
workstation to boot without requiring a hard or floppy disk drive.
Border Gateway Protocol
BGP is a protocol for exchanging routing information between gateway host (each with its own router) in a
network of autonomous systems. BGP is often the protocol used between gateway hosts on the Internet. The
routing table contains a list of known routers, the addresses they can reach, and a cost metric associated with
the path to each router so that the best available route is chosen. Hosts using BGP communicate using the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and send updated router table information only when one host has
detected a change. Only the affected part of the routing table is sent. BGP-4, the latest version, lets
administrators configure cost metrics based on policy statements. (BGP-4 is sometimes called BGP4,
without the hyphen.) BGP communicates with autonomous (local) networks using Internal BGP (IBGP)
since it doesn't work well with IGP. The routers inside the autonomous network thus maintain two routing
tables: one for the interior gateway protocol and one for IBGP. BGP-4 makes it easy to use Classless
Inter-Domain Routing (Classless Inter-Domain Routing), which is a way to have more addresses within the
network than with the current IP address assignment scheme
Bridge Protocol Data Unit
BPDU is the IEEE 802.1D MAC Bridge Management protocol that is the standard implementation of STP
(Spanning Tree Protocol). It uses the STP algorithm to insure that physical loops in the network topology do
not result in logical looping of network traffic. Using one bridge configured as root for reference, the BPDU
switches one of two bridges forming a network loop into standby mode, so that only one side of a potential
loop passes traffic. By examining frequent 802.1d configuration updates, a bridge in the standby mode can
switch automatically into the forward mode if the other bridge forming the loop fails.
Summary of Contents for ProSafe GSM7324
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