Technical data

request is executed once in a foreground process. If the mount request fails, the
request is retried in a background process. This allows the local system to continue
the boot procedure without waiting for the server to become available.
bandwidth
(1) Technically: The difference, in Hertz (Hz), between the highest and lowest
frequencies of a transmission channel. (2) Typically: The amount of data that can
be sent through a communications circuit.
baseband
A characteristic of any network technology that uses a single carrier frequency and
requires all stations attached to the network to participate in every transmission;
only one communication channel is provided at a time. See also broadband.
BBS
See Bulletin Board System.
Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND)
The implementation of a DNS server developed and distributed by the University
of California at Berkeley. Host name and address lookup service for the Internet;
implemented in a client/server model. The client software, referred to as the
resolver, allows client systems to obtain host names and addresses from servers
rather than from locally hosted databases.
Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)
The derivation of the original UNIX operating system developed by the Computer
Systems Research Group of the Department of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley. The Compaq UNIX
operating system is based on the BSD version of UNIX.
best-effort delivery
A characteristic of network technologies that will attempt to deliver data but will
not try to recover if there is an error such as a line failure. Internet protocols IP
and UDP provide best-effort delivery service to application programs.
BG driver
The Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS implementation of a network device
driver. See also device driver.
BGP
See Border Gateway Protocol.
big endian
The format for storage or transmission of binary data in which the most significant
bit (or byte) comes first. The reverse convention is called little endian.
BIND resolver
A set of library routines compiled into a client application like
telnet
or
ftp
that
formulates a query to ask a name server to look up name and address information.
BIND server
The software that responds to queries from BIND resolvers for name and address
lookups; can be local or distributed. See also cache server, forwarder server,
primary server,andsecondary server.
binding
DefiningaremotefilesystemtobeapartofthelocalOpenVMSfilesystem.
bits per second (bps or b/s)
Themeasureoftherateofdatatransmission.
Glossary–6