The network world is full of terms, which can be enigmatic even for more advanced network specialists. That is why we decided to create Grandmetric’s Glossary – a place where all of terminology will be explained in the simplest possible way. In our Glossary, you can find terms connected to network and wireless world. If you want to search for specific word, use our search bar to get the definition in which you are interested.
3DES |
3DES – Triple Data Encryption Algorithm is an improvement of DES as it is a symmetric-key block cipher as it chains three instances of DES with different keys. |
3GPP |
3rd generation Partnership Project – The joint standardization partnership responsible for telecommunication standard development. |
5GC |
5G Core Network – the core network specified for 5G by 3GPP. It is specified as in the Reference Point Architecture or as Service Based Architecture. See also https://www.grandmetric.com/2017/06/05/5g-core-network-a-short-overview/ https://www.grandmetric.com/2018/03/02/5g-core-network-functions/ |
5GPPP |
5G Public Private Partnership – Partnership initiated by the EU Commission and industry manufacturers, telecommunications operators, service providers, SMEs and researchers to develop 5G network. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/07/10/towards-5g-new-5g-ppp-projects-kick-off-5g-ppp-phase2/ |
AAA |
Authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) – network security services provide primary frameworks through which sets up access control on the router or access server. See also |
AAS |
Active Antenna System – is an advanced BS platform which uses the active antennas to optimize structure, cost, and performance features. |
ACL |
Access Control List – access control lists gives permission and also prevents unauthorized traffic from entering or exiting a network. See also |
AES |
Advanced Encryption Standard is a symmetric block cipher used by the U.S. government to protect classified information and it is implemented in software and hardware globally to encrypt sensitive data. |
AH |
Authentication Header is a protocol that is part of the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and it checks the integrity and verifes the packet. |
AP |
Access Point- is a hardware networking devices that uses wireless connection when connecting to an network. |
ARP |
Address Resolution Protocol a protocol used by the Internet Protocol (IP) to map IP network addresses to the hardware addresses used by a data link protocol. The protocol operates below the network layer as a part of the interface between the OSI network and OSI link layer. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2016/11/26/proxy-arp-cisco-asa-and-anyconnect/ |
ARQ |
Automatic Repeat Request – scheme whereby the receiving terminal requests retransmission of packets which are detected to be erroneous. |
BGP |
Border Gateway Protocol – a protocol that is used to manage packets routes across the internet by exchanging routes and reachability information between routers. See also |
BS |
Base Station – A piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network |
CN |
Core Network – central part of a telecommunications network that provides various services to customers who are connected by the access network (e.g. LTE CN is called EPC, and 5G CN is called 5GC) See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/06/05/5g-core-network-a-short-overview/ |
D2D |
Device to Device – direct communication between two mobile users without participation of the core netwrok or base station. |
DH Group |
Diffie-Hellman Group – allows two devices establish a shared secret by exchanging cryptographic keysover an unsecure network. |
DHCP |
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol – a network protocol that is used in assigning an IP address to a computer configured in a network by the DHCP server. See also |
DMRS |
Demodulation Reference Signal – Signal in uplink transmission is used for channel estimation and for coherent demodulation which comes along with PUSCH and PUCCH. |
DPI |
Deep Packet Inspection checks the data part of a packet as it passes an inspection point, and aslo searches for protocol non-compliance, viruses, spam, intrusions, or defined criteria to decide whether the packet if it is to be routed to a different destination. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/knowledge-base/research/overview-of-next-generation-firewall-security-products-medium-scale-enterprise/ |
DTP |
Dynamic Trunk Protocol is a proprietary networking protocol developed by Cisco Systems for the purpose of negotiating trunking encapsulation between endpoint devices of a link. |
E-UTRA |
Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access – an evolution of the 3G UMTS radio-access technology towards a high-data-rate, low-latency and packet-optimized radio-access technology |
EIGRP |
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) – an enhanced distance vector protocol that uses Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) for shortest path calculation. See also |
eLAA |
enhanced License Assisted Access – the improved version of the operating of the LTE in the unlicensed spectrum. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/02/22/lte-advanced-pro-and-unlicensed-spectrum/ |
eNB |
evolved Node B – The base station in LTE systems. |
ESP |
Encapsulating Security Payload is a protocol within the IPSec that supports configurations of encryption and aunthentication only which is also not provided for the packet header. |
etsi |
european telecommunication standrad institute – standardization organization in the telecommunication industry in Europe. |
FDD |
Frequency Division Duplex – a way to organize radio access, where the transmitter and receiver operate at different carrier frequencies. |
FTP |
File Transfer Protocol- network protocolthat is used between the client and the sever for file transfers. |
GLBP |
Gateway Load Balancing Protocol – one of the NHRP kind protocols that protects traffic from a router or circuit failure. See also |
gNB |
Next Generation NodeB – Base station in 5G New Radio systems. |
HA |
High Availability- refers to whereby a system is able to function and to operate continuously for a long time without having problems. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/knowledge-base/research/overview-of-next-generation-firewall-security-products-medium-scale-enterprise/ |
HARQ |
Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request – the simultaneous combination of Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC). |
HSRP |
Hot Standby Router Protocol is a routing protocol that is used as backup in the event of router failure. The protocol is mainly applied in multi-access, multicast or broadcast capable LAN. |
HTTP HTTP HTTP |
eMTC (aka LTE Cat-M, while in fact, CAT-M is just a definition of UE type/category supporting eMTC) is a low power wide area (LPWA) wireless technology developed by the 3GPP to address the growing need for a solution to address the requirements for IoT applications and Machine-Type Communication (MTC) in terms of cost and power consumption reduction without any significant change to the current LTE deployment. |
HTTPS |
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) communication protocol in which data being transmitted between web server and browser is encrypted and it is secure. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/knowledge-base/research/overview-of-next-generation-firewall-security-products-medium-scale-enterprise/ |
ICMP |
Internet Control Message Protocol is a protocol used by routers for error reporting and providing information on the system functional operations. |
IKE |
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) is a protocol which can be used in the security for virtual private networks’ (VPNs) during negotiations and accessing of the network to random hosts. |
IKEv2 |
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) version 2 is an improvement of IKE but it has improvements such as denial of service attack, fewer cryptographic methods and standard mobilty support e.t.c. |
IoT |
Internet of Things – the inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items which enable these objects to collect and exchange data. See also
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IP |
Internet Protocol – is used when communication is to be send and receive between computers over the Internet networks, local area networks (LAN) and enterprise networks. See also |
IP SLA |
Internet Protocol Service Level Agreement Monitor – active monitoring feature which allows to determine connectivity by checking IP destination availability or measuring specific parameters of the network along the given path. See also |
IPsec |
IP Security is a combination of protocols that make the Internet Protocol such as the use of encryption and securing VPN (Virtual Private network)between communication nodes. See also |
ISAKMP |
ISAKMP is a protocol that negotiates between two hosts on the building of the Ipsec after the IKE has aunthecated the keys by separating the negotiations into two phases: Phase one which creates the first tunnel, which protects later ISAKMP negotiation messages and Phase two which creates the tunnel that protects data. |
ISE |
Cisco Identity Services Engine is a network administration software which enables that is used when enforcing created security and access policies for devices connected to the organization’s routers and switches. See also |
ITU |
International Telecommunication Union – agency of the United Nations responsible for information and communication technologies. |
Iu |
Iu – the interface between Radio Network Controller and Core Network. |
LAA |
License Assisted Access – operation of the LTE system in the unlicensed spectrum using licensed LTE anchor. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/02/22/lte-advanced-pro-and-unlicensed-spectrum/ |
LACP |
Link Aggregation Control Protocol IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) is an open standard of Ethernet link aggregation. LACP allows Cisco switches to manage Ethernet channels between switches that conform the 802.3ad protocol. See also |
LAN |
Local Area Network – connects the computer hardware in a localized area such as an office or home. LANs implements the use of wired connections to link the computers to each other and to a variety of peripheral devices such as printers. |
LLDP |
Link Layer Discovery Protocol a neighbor discovery protocol that is used by devices to advertise information about themselves to other devices on the network. See also |
LTE |
Long Term Evolution – a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals |
LTE Advanced |
Mobile communiction standard, enhancement of the LTE system. |
LTE Advanced Pro |
Mobile communiction standard, further evolution of the LTE Advanced system. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2016/04/07/lte-advanced-pro-what-is-this/ |
MAC |
Medium Access Control – A sub-layer of radio interface layer 2 providing unacknowledged data transfer service on logical channels and access to transport channels. |
MBMS |
Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service – point-to-multipoint interface specification for cellular networks, designed to provide efficient delivery of broadcast and multicast services. |
MIMO |
Muliple Input Multiple Output – a system with multiple transsmitting and receiving antennas. |
mmWave |
milimetre Wave – the wave of extremely high frequency in the spectrum from 30 to 300 GHZ. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2016/07/26/5g-trends/ |
MST |
Multiple Spanning Tree – reduces the number of spanning tree instances to by letting you assign two or more vlans to a spanning tree instance, thus reducing CPU cycles needed to calculate STP for each VLAN separately. |
NAS |
Non-Access Stratum |
NAT |
Network Address Translation modifies network address by remapping one IP address space into another in Internet Protocol (IP) datagram packet headers while they are in transit across a traffic routing device. See also |
NB |
Node B – A logical node responsible for radio transmission / reception in one or more cells to/from the User Equipment. |
NB-IoT |
Narrowband Internet of Things – radio technology standard developed to enable a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunications bands. See also
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NG-RAN |
Next Generation Radio Access Network – the Radio Access Network specified for 5G system by 3GPP. It is composed of 5G NR and evolved LTE nodes. |
NGFW |
Next Generation Firewall is an improvement of the traditional firewall but with the NGFW it applies enhanced methodologies such as in-line deep packet inspection (DPI) and intrusion prevention system (IPS). See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/knowledge-base/research/overview-of-next-generation-firewall-security-products-medium-scale-enterprise/ |
NHRP |
NHRP is an ARP-like protocol that reduce NBMA network problems. NHRP is used to improve the computer traffic being routed over NBMA networks. See also |
NR |
New Radio – the 5G air interface as specified by 3GPP. It is based on OFDMA and as of Rel-15 is defined to work in the frequencies from 450MHz to 52.6GHz. |
NTP |
Network Time Protocol is able to synchronize the time of day between time servers and clients which are distributed so that the events can correlate when receiving system logs and other time-specific events from multiple network devices. See also |
OSI |
Open Systems Interconnection is reference model composed of seven layers, whereby each layers specifies functions in the network and it describes how information is transmitted and received from a software application in one computer moves through a network medium to a another computer. |
OSPF |
Open Shortest Path First is a routing protocol used in the Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It used to calculate the shortest and best path of the packet in inter-connected networks. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/08/25/where-to-use-static-and-where-to-use-dynamic-routing/ |
PAGP |
Port Aggregation Protocol – a protocol which is used for the automated, logical aggregation of Ethernet switch ports known as Ether Channel. See also |
PAT |
Port Address Translation is a type of network address translation. PAT is used when translating the same ip of the LAN, but with a different port number assignment. PAT is also known as overloading, port-level multiplexed NAT. |
PBR |
Policy Based Routing – offers the possibility to forward traffic based on defined criteria without verifying the IP routing table. The constructed policy is applied to interface. See also |
PCCH |
Paging Control Channel – a downlink channel that transfers paging information. |
PDCCH |
Physical Downlink Control Channel – channel that carries between others the downlink allocation information, uplink allocation grants for the terminal. |
PDCP |
Packet Data Convergence Protocol. |
PKI |
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) – enables the communication between two users to have a secure communication by providing cryptographic keys. SDN- Software defined networking uses open protocols, such as OpenFlow, to apply several kinds of network technology aimed at making the network as agile and flexible as the virtualized server and storage infrastructure of the modern data. |
PSK |
Pre- Shared Key, enables one to use the command-line interface to store plain text passwords securely format in NVRAM). The passowrds are of type 6 format encryption thus it is difficult to see the real passowrd though one is able to see the encrypted password and retrieve them but difficult to decrypt. |
PUSCH |
Physical Uplink Shared Channel – The channel used to carry uplink RRC signalling messages, UCI and application data. |
QAM |
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation – modulation scheme of the amplitude of two separate carrier waves, exactly 90 degrees out of phase with each other. |
QoS |
Quality of Service – The measurement of the overall performance of a service seen by the users of the network. |
Radio Access Network |
RAN – part of a mobile telecommunication system which implements a radio access technology. |
RAT |
Radio Access Technology – underlying physical connection method for a radio based communication network. |
RIP |
Routing Information Protocol enables the network information exchange between the routing devices. See also |
RIPv2 |
Routing Information Protocol Version 2 is a routing protocol that includes the subnet mask with the network addresses in its routing updates and distance vector routing protocol as defined in RFC 1723. See also |
RLC |
Radio Link control – layer 2 protocol used in UMTS and LTE on the air interface. |
RNC |
Radio Network Controller – governing element in the radio access network responsible for controlling the nodes. |
RRC |
Radio Resource Control – A sublayer of radio interface Layer 3, responsible for controlling the configuration of radio interface Layers 1 and 2. |
RSA |
RSA is a standard used to encrypt message or data over the internet. It uses two different keys whereby one is public and the other is private. |
RSTP |
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP works as an improvement of the STP by reducing loopbacks in a network. RSTPhas three port states which are discarding, learning, and forwarding. |
SA |
Security Association is the connection between two devices for sharing data,thus it implements IPSec for the connection to be secure. |
SD-WAN |
Software Defined Wide Area Network, SDWAN or SD-WAN is an application of one of the Software Defined Network (SDN) paradigm called data plane, control plane and management plane dissagregation. SD-WAN builds the communication overlay on the underying network regardless of its type like MPLS, radio links or DSL. SD-WAN simplifies maintenance process as whole WAN infrastructure can be monitored and modified from single pane of glass. Example of SD-WAN is Cisco Viptela – you can read more on our blog See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2018/02/19/cisco-viptela-sd-wan-components-connectivity-viptela-part-1/ |
SDA |
(Software Defined Access) is a framework of automatic and dynamic management of multiple network elements and the technology separates the control and the data-forwarding functions of network equipment, and centralizes the control functions of multiple network elements. |
SDN |
Software Defined Networking – the concept from computer/IP networks to decouple the Control-Plane (decision of where the traffic is sent) from User-Plane (actually forwarding the traffic) enabling efficient and separate optimization of each Plane. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2017/12/04/software-defined-network-sdn/ |
SNMP |
Simple Network Management Protocol – used by network administrators when they are monitoring the network devices. SNMP trap messages are sent to the server by the devices which monitors and analyze state of interfaces, routing protocols events and CPU or memory. See also |
SON |
Self Organizing Network – a network that is designed in such way, that planning, configuration, management, optimization and healing can be done austomatically. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/2016/08/25/self-organizing-networks-features-and-evolution/ |
SSH |
Secure Shell (SSH) – a networkprotocol used for concealing network services securely over an unsecure network. See also |
SSL |
Secure Socket Layer is used when the webserver and the browser want to connect the link is encrypted thus ensuring data privacy. See alsohttps://www.grandmetric.com/knowledge-base/research/overview-of-next-generation-firewall-security-products-medium-scale-enterprise/ |
STP |
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a Layer 2 protocol that prevents creation of loops in a network and also allows the creation of backup links in case of a link fail. See also |