Glossary

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) conceptually exists between the data link and Internet layers. ARP assists IP in directing datagrams to the appropriate receiving host by mapping Ethernet addresses (48 bits long) to known IP addresses (32 bits long).

The difference between the highest and lowest frequencies available for network signals. Also synonymous with wire speed, the actual speed of the data transmission along the cable.

A single board computer associated with an enclosure system that allows multiple blades to be housed in a standard server subrack, or enclosure, sharing resources such as power supplies and cooling fans. The server blade architecture is designed for computing density using a modular architecture for flexibility and scalability.

The Blade Support Chip is an H8 micro-controller that integrates a number of different communication mechanisms and provides low-level support for a number of functions.

A network communication system developed and standardized by DEC, Intel, and Xerox, using baseband transmission, CSMA/CD access, logical bus topology, and coaxial cable. The successor IEEE 802.3 standard provides for integration into the OSI model and extends the physical layer and media with repeaters and implementations that operate on fiber, thin coax, and twisted-pair cable.

A 100 Mbps network communication system based on Ethernet and the CSMA/CD access method.

Transmission method that allows switch and network card to transmit and receive concurrently, effectively doubling the bandwidth of that link.

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfers files to and from a remote network. The protocol includes the ftp command (local machine) and the in.ftpd daemon (remote machine). FTP enables a user to specify the name of the remote host and file transfer command options on the local host's command line. The in.ftpd daemon on the remote host then handles the requests from the local host. Unlike rcp, ftp works even when the remote computer does not run a UNIX-based operating system. A user must log in to the remote computer to make an ftp connection unless it has been set up to allow anonymous FTP.

A 1000 Mbps network communication system based on Ethernet and the CSMA/CD access method.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is the protocol responsible for detecting network error conditions and reporting on them. ICMP reports on: dropped packets (when packets are arriving too fast to be processed); connectivity failure (when destination host cannot be reached); redirection (which tells a sending host to use another router).

IP multipathing is a network load spreading and failover framework for Solaris hosts with multiple network interfaces connected to the same IP link.

The transport layer in the ISO 7-Layer Data Communications Protocol. This layer manages the transfer of data and assures that received and transmitted data are identical.

The application layer in the ISO 7-Layer Data Communications Protocol. This layer consists of standard communication services and applications that everyone can use.

This is defined by the destination 3-tuple consisting of the destination Virtual IP, port and protocol at which a particular service is offered. The service can be configured to load balance at Layer 4 or at Layer 7.

This is associated with a load balancing group. It decides where a connection should be load balanced to. It is a description of a pattern that the connection can be matched up with. The different types of rules supported are - URL, CGI, Cookie and IP rule.

Multi-homed host

In the internet environment, a single machine connected to multiple data links, which may be on different networks.

Sun's vision, architecture, and products for the next-generation data center as to how to aggregate and automate distributed resources including provisioning and virtualization.

NPU

Network Processor Unit. All software on the NPU deals with packet processing in the data path.

Round robin

A load balancing scheme that distributes incoming data, using each network interface in turn.

Static Load Balancing

A scheme for distributing requests to servers where the server selection is based on static attributes of the requesting client, for example geographic location, IP addresses, and so on.

Sun Fire B1600

A platform for horizontally scalable applications that do not depend upon symmetric multi-processing to provide increased performance in a multiprocessor environment. Horizontally scaled systems achieve higher performance by dividing the application load from the clients between replicated application instances each running it's own server. Each blade is a server meeting this requirement running its own instance of the operating system plus its own network application.

Sun ONE

Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) is an open framework that supports web services today and lays the foundation for the smart web services of tomorrow. Sun ONE enables organizations to create, assemble, and deploy smart web services.

Telnet

The Telnet protocol enables terminals and terminal-oriented processes to communicate on a network running TCP/IP.

TFTP

The trivial file transfer protocol (tftp) provides functions similar to ftp, but it does not establish ftp's interactive connection. As a result, users cannot list the contents of a directory or change directories. This means that a user must know the full name of the file to be copied. The tftp(1) man page describes the tftp command set.

Virtual LAN (VLAN)

A Virtual LAN is a collection of network nodes that are the same broadcast domain regardless of their physical location or connection point in the network. A VLAN serves a logical workgroup with no physical barriers and allows users to share information and resources as though located on the same LAN.

Weighted round robin

A method of distributing incoming data that allows administrators to assign how much traffic a server can handle relative to the other servers in the same group. Administrators can choose these weights based on server characteristics, such as number of CPUs or CPU speed.