What You Need To Know; Before You Begin - ZyXEL Communications P-870HN-51B - V1.0 Manual

Chapter 5 WAN Setup

5.2 What You Need to Know

Encapsulation Method
Encapsulation is used to include data from an upper layer protocol into a lower
layer protocol. To set up a WAN connection to the Internet, you need to use the
same encapsulation method used by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). If your
ISP offers a dial-up Internet connection using PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) or PPPoA,
they should also provide a username and password (and service name) for user
authentication.
WAN IP Address
The WAN IP address is an IP address for the ZyXEL Device, which makes it
accessible from an outside network. It is used by the ZyXEL Device to
communicate with other devices in other networks. It can be static (fixed) or
dynamically assigned by the ISP each time the ZyXEL Device tries to access the
Internet.
If your ISP assigns you a static WAN IP address, they should also assign you the
subnet mask and DNS server IP address(es) (and a gateway IP address if you use
the Ethernet or ENET ENCAP encapsulation method).
ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a LAN and WAN networking technology that
provides high-speed data transfer. ATM uses fixed-size packets of information
called cells. With ATM, a high QoS (Quality of Service) can be guaranteed. ATM
uses a connection-oriented model and establishes a virtual circuit (VC) between
two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins.
PTM
Packet Transfer Mode (PTM) is packet-oriented and supported by the VDSL2
standard. In PTM, packets are encapsulated directly in the High-level Data Link
Control (HDLC) frames. It is designed to provide a low-overhead, transparent way
of transporting packets over DSL links, as an alternative to ATM.

5.3 Before You Begin

You need to know your Internet access settings such as encapsulation and WAN IP
address. Get this information from your ISP.
68
P-870HN-51b User's Guide