Appendix A - Terminology¶
Aggregation Server¶
A server that combines a customer’s outgoing traffic from each leg and splits incoming traffic down each leg. There can be multiple aggregation servers.
Application Programming Interface (API)¶
A method of allowing one computer system to integrate with another computer system.
Bandwidth¶
The amount of data a network connection can transmit or receive in a given period of time (usually seconds).
Bond¶
A collection of legs, connected IPs, CPE NAT IPs, routes, and other settings. A bond is assigned to a single aggregator and can be moved between aggregators.
Bonder¶
A device at a client site that sends and receives traffic over multiple legs.
Bonding¶
The software running on a client bonder or aggregator that splits and combines network traffic.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)¶
A method of routing and subnetting in IP networks. CIDR eliminated the previous class-based method of subnetting the IP address space with a variable-length subnet masking method.
CIDR notation¶
A compact method of expressing IP addresses and network masks, such as ” 203.0.113.0/24”. Compare to the older dot-decimal notation such as “203.0.113.0/255.255.255.0”.
Client Premises Equipment (CPE)¶
See bonder.
Connected IP¶
IP addresses used for bonded traffic into and out of the device, as well as routing to customer equipment attached to the Connected IP’s interface.
Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)¶
An encryption protocol for datagrams. Defined in RFC 4347.
Delta¶
The difference in one-way delay between the highest-latency and lowest-latency legs in a bond.
Differentiated Services¶
A networking standard for class-based traffic management.
Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP)¶
The differentiated services class requested by a packet.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)¶
A protocol that allows a computer to request an IP address and other network settings from a server.
Firewall¶
A device or software program that inspects network traffic before allowing it into or out of a network.
Flow Sequence Recovery Engine (FSRE)¶
An algorithm that restores the original order of packets in a flow after they have been subject to reordering.
Flow¶
A stream of data from a source to a destination, or between a source and multicast or broadcast targets. For example, a TCP connection is made up of two flows, because TCP is bi-directional.
Flowlet¶
An algorithm that minimizes out-of-order packet delivery by splitting bursts of traffic in a single flow into sub-flows called “flowlets”. Each flowlet is assigned to a single leg. The flow may be assigned to a different leg after an idle period.
FSRE max hold¶
The longest time a packet should be held by the FSRE algorithm while waiting for packets that were sent before it.
Intelligent Delay-Managed Packet Queuing (IDMPQ)¶
An algorithm that constantly analyzes link delay, speed, queue size, and traffic characteristics to make packet distribution decisions that minimize packet reordering and delay variation.
International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI)¶
An identifying number assigned to every cellular device, worldwide.
Jitter¶
The variation in latency of a network connection.
Latency¶
The round-trip time between two hosts connected by a network. Latency increases when the number of routers between the hosts increases or when the amount of traffic queued at the routers between the hosts increases.
Leg¶
A single Internet connection connected to a bonder.
Management Server¶
The web interface where bonds are configured and monitored. There is only one management server. Prior to 2013.4, this was frequently called a configuration server.
Network Address Translation (NAT)¶
A process used in most private networks that assigns private IP addresses to machines in the network and routes their Internet traffic through a single public IP.
Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE)¶
A tunnelling protocol commonly used by ADSL providers for its management and security properties.
Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)¶
A method to boot computers from the network rather than from locally-attached disks. It is used to easily install Bonding on a new bonder without requiring a CD-ROM or USB drive on the device.
Reordering¶
The process of receiving packets in an order other than that in which they were sent, holding them for a time, and resending them in the original order. This function is critical to the performance of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), especially when bonding connections with very different characteristics, such as a DSL line and a cable line.
Representational State Transfer (REST)¶
The name of a common design used by modern web-based APIs.
Route¶
Static routes that can be used for additional IP blocks operated by the customer.
Throughput¶
The amount of data a network connection has sent or received in a given period of time (usually seconds).
Voice-over-IP (VoIP)¶
A network application that allows phone calls to be made over the Internet.
Round trip time (RTT)¶
See latency.
Secure Shell (SSH)¶
Secure Shell, a protocol for encrypted data transfer between two computers. It is most often used for console sessions but can also be used to transfer files and tunnel insecure protocols.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)¶
A method of encrypting TCP connections between hosts.
Send queue size¶
The send queue size measures the amount of data that has been queued for sending on a leg but has not yet been sent.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)¶
An industry-standard protocol for monitoring and managing network devices.
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)¶
A protocol for preventing loops in a bridged Ethernet network.
Throughput¶
Throughput is the amount of data successfully transferred by a connection in a given period of time. Throughput depends on the rated bandwidth of a leg as well as other characteristics, such as packet loss the presence of non-Bonding traffic on the leg.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)¶
The main protocol used in Internet traffic. It offers reliable transfers between computers on a network but its throughput is reduced significantly when packets are received out of order.
Tunnel¶
A method of capturing IP packets on one network, moving them across intermediate networks, and releasing them on another network. This process is usually transparent to the sender and receiver of the tunnelled traffic.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)¶
A protocol used on the Internet for transmitting data that requires timely delivery rather than in-order delivery. It is used for applications such as VoIP and many tunnelling processes.
X.509¶
A cryptographic standard for certificates and public key infrastructure. X.509 certificates are a key component in SSL encryption.