Technical data

block
A contiguous unit of user information grouped together for transmission, such as
the user data within a packet, excluding the protocol overhead.
boot file
A database file that BIND servers use to determine their type, the zones for which
they have authority, and the location of other BIND database files.
BOOTP
The mnemonic for Bootstrap protocol. The protocol used for booting diskless
systems remotely to a network. See also remote boot.
BOOTP database
A Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS database with entries for diskless
network clients that depend on a boot server to download their operating system
images.
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
The interautonomous system routing protocol used to exchange network
reachability information between autonomous systems. BGP runs over TCP.
One of a class of exterior gateway protocols, described in more detail in the BGP
section of UNIX reference page
gated.proto
(4).
bottleneck
A point in the network where traffic is delayed or blocked. Bottlenecks are the
limiting factors in network performance.
bound port
An I/O function specifying a port number and IP address for the device socket to
bind a port to a process.
bps
See bits per second.
bridge
A device that connects two or more physical networks and then stores and forwards
complete packets between them. A bridge can usually be made to filter packets
(that is, to forward only certain traffic).
broadband
A characteristic of any network that multiplexes multiple, independent network
carriers onto a single cable; usually using frequency division multiplexing.
Broadband technology allows several networks to coexist on one single cable;
traffic from one network does not interfere with traffic from another because the
"conversations" happen on different frequencies.
broadcast
A delivery system where a copy of a packet is sent simultaneously to many hosts;
can be implemented with hardware (for example, as in Ethernet) or with software
(for example, as in Cypress). See also multicast.
broadcast address
The address that designates all hosts on a physical network. The broadcast address
contains a hostid of all ones.
broadcast addressing
A type of multicast addressing in which all nodes receive a message simultaneously.
Glossary–7