D-Link DWL-3500AP Administration Guide - Page 163

Glossary wireless local area network. It is also referred to as the Network Name. There are no restrictions on the characters that may be used in an SSID. Standalone Mode In Standalone Mode, the D-Link AP acts as an individual access point in the network, and you manage it by using the Administrator Web User Interface (UI) or the CLI. Static IP Address See IP Address. STP The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is an IEEE 802.1 standard protocol (related to network management) for MAC bridges that manages path redundancy and prevents undesirable loops in the network created by multiple active paths between client stations. Loops occur when there are multiple routes between access points. STP creates a tree that spans all of the switches in an extended network, forcing redundant paths into a standby or blocked state. STP allows only one active path at a time between any two network devices (this prevents the loops), but establishes the redundant links as a backup if the initial link should fail. If STP costs change, or if one network segment in the STP becomes unreachable, the spanning tree algorithm reconfigures the spanning tree topology and reestablishes the link by activating the standby path. Without STP in place, it is possible that both connections may be simultaneously live, which could result in an endless loop of traffic on the LAN. Subnet Mask A Subnet Mask is a number that defines which part of an IP address is the network address and which part is a host address on the network. It is shown in dotted-decimal notation (for example, a 24-bit mask is shown as 255.0.0.0) or as a number appended to the IP address (for example, 10.90.90.91/24). The subnet mask allows a router to quickly determine if an IP address is local or needs to be forwarded by performing a bitwise AND operation on the mask and the IP address. For example, if an IP address is 192.168.2.128 and the netmask is 255.255.255.0, the resulting Network address is 192.168.2.0. The bitwise AND operator compares two bits and assigns 1 to the result only if both bits are 1. Supported Rate Set The supported rate set defines the transmission rates that are available on this wireless network. A station may be able to receive data at any of the rates listed in this set. All stations must be able to receive data at the rates listed in the Basic Rate Set. SVP SpectraLink Voice Priority (SVP) is a QoS approach to Wi-Fi deployments. SVP is an open specification that is compliant with the IEEE 802.11b standard. SVP minimizes delay and prioritizes voice packets over data packets on the Wireless LAN, thus increasing the probability of better network performance. T TCP The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is built on top of Internet Protocol (IP). It adds reliable communication (guarantees delivery of data), flowcontrol, multiplexing (more than one simultaneous connection), and connection-oriented transmission (requires the receiver of a packet to acknowledge receipt to the sender). It also guarantees that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent. TCP/IP The Internet and most local area networks are defined by a group of protocols. The most important of these is the Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), the de facto standard protocols. TCP/IP was originally developed by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, also known as ARPA, an agency of the US Department of Defense). Although TCP and IP are two specific protocols, TCP/IP is often used to refer to the entire protocol 163