HP-UX IPv6 Porting Guide (February 2007)

Introduction
Terminology
Chapter 14
Terminology
This section provides brief definitions of some common general IP and IPv6 terms.
General IP Terminology
Node: A device that implements IP (either IPv4 or IPv6 or both).
Router: A node that forwards IP packets not explicitly addressed to itself.
Host: Any node that is not a router.
Link: A logical connection between two nodes. Here, a link is the layer below IP such as
Ethernet, PPP, or ATM networks. A link also includes IPv6 traffic encapsulated within IPv4
packets, also known as tunneling.
Name Service: A database that maps host names to IP addresses. Common Name Services are
Domain Name System (DNS) or the /etc/hosts file.
Site: An organization’s Intranet, perhaps geographically disbursed.
IPv6 Terminology
IPv4 Address: A 32-bit IPv4 address
IPv6 Address: An 128-bit IPv6 address
IPv4-only node: A node that implements only IPv4. An IPv4-only node does not understand
IPv6.
IPv6-only node: A node configured for IPv6 only. An IPv6-only node does not understand IPv4.
IPv4/IPv6 node: A node that implements both IPv4 and IPv6.
IPv6 node: A node that implements IPv6. IPv4/IPv6 and IPv6-only nodes are both IPv6 nodes.
IPv4 node: A host that implements IPv4. IPv4/IPv6 and IPv4-only nodes are both IPv4 nodes.