Protocol Suites
Network protocols define rules for handling data and communicating in a particular networking environment. Individual protocols operate at specific layers in the OSI reference model. A protocol suite is a group of protocols designed to work together. More ...
Network Operating Systems
The purpose of a network is to permit users share resources located on other computers and to share peripheral devices such as printers. A network operating system (NOS) is specialized systems software designed to provide networking functionality. More ...
IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP)
Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) is used by IPv6 hosts for Router Discovery, Neighbor Discovery and Duplicate Address Discovery. More ...
IPv6 Multicast Addresses
An IPv6 multicast address defines a group of devices known as a multicast group. Unlike IPv4, there is no broadcast address in IPv6. Instead, IPv6 uses multicast. A packet sent to a multicast group always has a unicast source address. More ...
Introducing OpenStack
OpenStack is one of the most popular cloud computing management packages. OpenStack provides a common platform for controlling clouds of servers, storage, network, and even application resources. OpenStack is managed through a web-based interface, a command-line interface (CLI), and an application programming interface (API). More ...
Wireless Standards - 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11i Explained
The IEEE 802.11 family of standards which provides for Wireless Ethernet or (Wi-Fi) has evolved over the years. This article explains the differences between 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n and 802.11i. More ...
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Explained
In the early days of TCP/IP each device on a network had stored on its hard disk a configuration file that an administrator used to manually assign a static IP address. Today a network administrator is no longer required to maintain an IP and MAC address configuration file a server. Every device on a network is automatically assigned a unique IP address by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). More ...
T-Carrier - A Complete and Comprehensive Guide
T-carrier was introduced in 1962 by AT&T Bell Laboratories. A T1 line has the capacity of transmitting 1.544 Mbps and it can also be used to send 24 digitized voice channels. Dispite its age, because of its reliability, T-carrier is the most commonly used digital transmission service in the US, Canada, and Japan. More ...
Major Protocols in the TCP/IP Suite
This is a chart of the layers of the TCP/IP Suite and the major protocols in each layer. As you move your mouse pointer over each protocol acronym, a brief description of the protocol appears. This is not a comprehensive list. More ...
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Protocol
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol is a protocol that handles routing for IP traffic. Because it is based on an open standard, OSPF is very popular in many corporate networks today and has many advantages. More ...
IPv6 Flow Label Field
The IPv6 Flow Label field is used to help identify all the packets within the same flow to ensure that all the packets receive the same type of handling by the IPv6 routers. More ...
TCP Windowing
It would be inefficient to return an ACK message as each segment is received. The number of segments received before an ACK message is returned is called the TCP receive window size. More ...
Network Gateways
When networks with different protocols, such as Ethernet and Token Ring need to be connected together, this requires reconstruction of the data packets. To do this, information from above the network layer is required. A gateway is a device that can function at all seven layers of the OSI model. More ...
IPv6 Address Format
IPv4 is running out of addresses. IPv6 was designed to solve this problem therefore it is important
to understand the format of an IPv6 address. More ...
TCP/IP Utilities
TCP/IP comes with a set of command line utilities that a network technician can use to manage and troubleshoot a network. PING is used to test the ability of two hosts on a network to communicate. More ...
