Glossary
ADSL: Asymmetric digital subscriber line. One of four DSL technologies, ADSL is designed to deliver more bandwidth downstream (from the central office to the customer site) than upstream.Backbone: Part of a network that acts as the primary path for traffic that is most often sourced from, and destined for, other networks.
Bandwidth: Difference between the highest and lowest frequencies available for network signals.
The term is also used to describe the rated throughput capacity of a given network, medium or protocol.
Bandwidth Reservation: Process of assigning bandwidth to users and applications served by a network.
Involves assigning priority to different flows of traffic based on how critical and delay-sensitive they are.
This makes the best possible use of available bandwidth, and if the network becomes congested, lower-priority traffic can be dropped. Sometimes called bandwidth allocation.
CATV: Cable television. Communication system where multiple channels of programming material are transmitted to homes using broadband coaxial cable. Formerly called Community Antenna Television.
E1 and E3: Wide-area digital transmission scheme used predominantly in Europe. E1 carries data at 2.048 mbps while E3 carries it at 34.368 mbps.
GBps: Gigabytes per second. 1 GBps is approximately 1,000,000,000 bytes per second. Gbps is gigabits per second.
MBps: Megabyte per second. 1 MBps is appromixately 1,000,000 bytes per second. Mbps is megabits per second.
Multiplexing: Scheme that allows multiple logical signals to be transmitted simultaneously across a single physical channel.
Router: Network layer device that uses one or more metrics to determine the optimal path along which network traffic should be forwarded.