RFC 1208 (rfc1208) - Page 2 of 18
Glossary of networking terms
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1208 INTEROP Pocket Glossary March 1991 address resolution: A means for mapping Network Layer addresses onto media-specific addresses. See ARP. ADMD: Administration Management Domain. An X.400 Message Handling System public service carrier. Examples: MCImail and ATTmail in the U.S., British Telecom Gold400mail in the U.K. The ADMDs in all countries worldwide together provide the X.400 backbone. See PRMD. agent: In the client-server model, the part of the system that performs information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or server application. See NMS, DUA, MTA. ANSI: American National Standards Institute. The U.S. standardization body. ANSI is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) AOW: Asia and Oceania Workshop. One of the three regional OSI Implementors Workshops, equivalent to OIW and EWOS. API: Application Program Interface. A set of calling conventions defining how a service is invoked through a software package. Application Layer: The top-most layer in the OSI Reference Model providing such communication services as electronic mail and file transfer. ARP: Address Resolution Protocol. The Internet protocol used to dynamically map Internet addresses to physical (hardware) addresses on local area networks. Limited to networks that support hardware broadcast. ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency. Now called DARPA, the U.S. government agency that funded the ARPANET. ARPANET: A packet switched network developed in the early 1970s. The "grandfather" of today's Internet. ARPANET was decommissioned in June 1990. ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One. The OSI language for describing abstract syntax. See BER. attribute: The form of information items provided by the X.500 Directory Service. The directory information base consists of entries, each containing one or more attributes. Each attribute consists of a type identifier together with one or more values. Each directory Read operation can retrieve some or all attributes from a designated entry. Jacobsen & Lynch
