Glossary - 3Com 3CB9E7 - CoreBuilder 9000 Chassis Switch Getting Started Manual

G
LOSSARY
ambient air temperature
The temperature of air that surrounds any electrical
part or device. Usually refers to the effect of such
temperature in aiding or slowing down removal of
heat by radiation and convection from the part or
device in question.
ASIC
Application Specific Integrated Circuit. A chip that is
custom designed for a specific application.
ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A transfer method
used for LAN and WAN. ATM carries voice, video, and
data at speeds up to 2.2 Gbps and can integrate
geographically distant disparate networks. Also called
cell relay.
autonegotiation
A feature that allows some ports to automatically
identify and negotiate speed and duplex mode with a
receiving device.
backbone
The main segment of a campus network, to which are
attached department networks, or ribs.
backplane
The main bus that carries data within a chassis.
bandwidth
Data measured in bits per second that a channel can
transmit. The bandwidth of an Ethernet segment is
10 Mbps; the bandwidth for a Fast Ethernet and FDDI
segment is 100 Mbps; and the bandwidth for Gigabit
Ethernet is 1000 Mbps.
bridge
Equipment that connects different LANs, allowing
communication between devices on separate LAN
segments. Bridges are protocol-independent, but
hardware-specific, with communication limited to the
data link layer (Layer 1) and physical layer (Layer 2) of
the OSI reference model.
BUS
The set of functions implemented in an ATM network
that provides LAN-to-LAN transmission support while
a LAN connection is being established.
bus topology
An architecture that has all of its nodes connected to
a single cable.
campus network
A LAN that consists of several smaller LANs within
and between buildings.