Filter
Top Products
7000 Series L3 Managed Switch Reference Manual for Software v2.0
C-4 Glossary
AVL tree
Binary tree having the property that for any node in the tree, the difference in height between the left and
right subtrees of that node is no more than 1.
B
BPDU
See “Bridge Protocol Data Unit” on page 5.
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