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Glossary


Telecommunications, computing, and internetworking technologies often have an enormous amount of jargon associated with them. This jargon makes it possible to speak precisely and quickly to others who are in-the-know, but can also drastically increase the learning curve for newcomers. We offer this page as a quick reference guide for common terms, acronyms, and other abbreviations that NYC Mesh technical teams use on a regular basis.

A

︎︎︎Antenna    Antenna, router and radio are often confused- see our FAQ
︎︎︎AP    a wifi Access Point
︎︎︎ARIN    American Registry for Internet Numbers- where you get your ASN
︎︎︎ASN    Autonomous System Number that identifies your network on BGP for peering. NYC Mesh’s number is AS395853

B

︎︎︎Backhaul    very high bandwidth connections, usually point to point.
︎︎︎BGP     This is the routing protocol of the Internet. We use it to connect at an IXP
︎︎︎BMX6    An ad-hoc mesh protocol we use. (BatMan eXperimental 6)
︎︎︎BuB    “Bottom up Broadband” The beneficiaries of the networks actively participate in the planning, deployment and maintenance tasks.

C

︎︎︎Captive portal    a web page that is shown before connecting to the Internet normally
︎︎︎Cjdns    Caleb James DeLisle’s Network Suite. Encrypted IPv6 mesh protocol.
︎︎︎Clearnet    the regular internet as opposed to the hidden web (Tor, I2P, Freenet)
︎︎︎Commons    The commons include public libraries, the Internet, parks and roads and some mesh networks. Guifi has a “Wireless Commons License”.
︎︎︎CPE    Customer premises equipment (e.g. a LiteBeam, NanoStation, home router). ISP jargon

D

︎︎︎Dark fiber    fiber cable that is not connected.
︎︎︎DHCP    or “Automatic” setting will automatically try to get you an IP address and subnet mask

E

︎︎︎Ethernet cable    The cable we use that has 8 wires for carrying data and power

F

︎︎︎FFTF    Fiber From The Farms Broadband Initiative – Guifi term for BuB
︎︎︎FNF    Free Network Foundation

G

︎︎︎Guifi    The largest community owned network, based in Catalonia, Spain

H

︎︎︎HNA    Host and Network Association information used by mesh protocols

I

︎︎︎IPv4    the most common version of the Internet Protocol (IP), An IPv4 address consists of four octets e.g. 192.168.1.20
︎︎︎IPv6    6th version of Internet Protocol. Designed to replace IPv4. (e.g. 2001:db8:0:1:1:1:1:1)
︎︎︎ISP    Internet Service Provider
︎︎︎IXP    Internet Exchange Point, where internet networks come together to peer or exchange traffic between their networks. (An IXP is a network and not really a “point” or a building)

J

K

L

︎︎︎LIR    local Internet registry, an organization that has been allocated a block of IP addresses by a regional Internet registry (RIR)
︎︎︎LuCI    (pronounced Lucy) Lua Unified Configuration Interface, the web interface in OpenWRT

M

︎︎︎MANET    Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork

N

︎︎︎NAT    Network address translation- a method of remapping one IP address space into another
︎︎︎node    WiFi router or other routing devices in a particular location on a network

O

︎︎︎OLSR    Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (popular mesh protocol)
︎︎︎OpenWRT    Open source Wireless Receiver/Transmitter (WRT) software
︎︎︎OSPF     a popular dynamic routing protocol

P

︎︎︎Peering     An agreement between two networks to connect and exchange traffic without charge
︎︎︎P2P    Point-to-point connection between two antennas
︎︎︎P2MP    Point-to-multipoint connection (e.g. between one sector antenna and multiple smaller antennas)
︎︎︎POE    Power over ethernet (how Ubiquiti routers get 24 volt power)

Q

R

︎︎︎Radio    The wireless receiver/transmitter part of a router  ︎︎︎Router    Antenna, router and radio are often confused- see our FAQ
︎︎︎RIR    Regional Internet registry

S

︎︎︎Sector antenna    a directional antenna designed to connect to many other antennas. Typical “sectors” are 90 degrees or 120 degrees
︎︎︎ SSID    Service set identification- the Wi-Fi access point name
︎︎︎Supernode    This is a large install, typically with a fiber connection and many sector and point-to-point antennas

T

U

V

W

︎︎︎WAP    Wireless Access Point
︎︎︎WDS    Wireless Distribution System, A mesh protocol we use
︎︎︎WISP    Wireless ISP
︎︎︎WNDW    Wireless Networking in the Developing World – essential book
︎︎︎WRT    Wireless Receiver/Transmitter software (WRT)

X

Y

Z