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Virtual Network Interface
A virtual network interface (VIF) is an abstract virtualized representation of a computer network interface that may or may not correspond directly to a network interface controller. Operating system level It is common for the operating system kernel to maintain a table of virtual network interfaces in memory. This may allow the system to store and operate on such information independently of the physical interface involved (or even whether it is a direct physical interface or for instance a tunnel or a bridged interface). It may also allow processes on the system to interact concerning network connections in a more granular fashion than simply to assume a single amorphous "Internet" (of unknown capacity or performance). W. Richard Stevens, in volume 2 of his treatise entitled TCP/IP Illustrated, refers to the kernel's Virtual Interface Table in his discussion of multicast routing. For example, a multicast router may operate differently on interfaces that represent tunnels tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network Interface Controller
A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface, and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus. The low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard, or is contained into a USB-connected dongle. Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as interrupt and DMA interfaces to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the TCP offload engine. Purpose The network controller implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a specific physical layer and data link layer standard such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kernel (computer Science)
The kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer's operating system and generally has complete control over everything in the system. It is the portion of the operating system code that is always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. A full kernel controls all hardware resources (e.g. I/O, memory, cryptography) via device drivers, arbitrates conflicts between processes concerning such resources, and optimizes the utilization of common resources e.g. CPU & cache usage, file systems, and network sockets. On most systems, the kernel is one of the first programs loaded on startup (after the bootloader). It handles the rest of startup as well as memory, peripherals, and input/output (I/O) requests from software, translating them into data-processing instructions for the central processing unit. The critical code of the kernel is usually loaded into a separate area of memory, which is protected from access by applicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TCP/IP Illustrated
''TCP/IP Illustrated'' is the name of a series of 3 books written by W. Richard Stevens. Unlike traditional books which explain the RFC specifications, Stevens goes into great detail using actual network traces to describe the protocol, hence its 'Illustrated' title. The first book in the series, "Volume 1: The Protocols", is cited by hundreds of technical papers in ACM journals. Volumes Volume 1: The Protocols After a brief introduction to TCP/IP, Stevens takes a bottom-up approach by describing the protocol from the link layer and working up the protocol stack. The Second Edition was published on 11/15/2011. Volume 2: The Implementation 500 illustrations, combined with 15,000 lines of actual code from the 4.4BSD-Lite release, serves as concrete examples of the concepts covered in Volume 1. Volume 3: TCP for Transactions, HTTP, NNTP, and the UNIX Domain Protocols This volume goes into detail on four topics: * T/TCP (TCP for Transactions) * HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Prot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IP Multicast
IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is the IP-specific form of multicast and is used for streaming media and other network applications. It uses specially reserved multicast address blocks in IPv4 and IPv6. Protocols associated with IP multicast include Internet Group Management Protocol, Protocol Independent Multicast and Multicast VLAN Registration. IGMP snooping is used to manage IP multicast traffic on layer-2 networks. IP multicast is described in . IP multicast was first standardized in 1986. Its specifications have been augmented in to include group management and in to include administratively scoped addresses. Technical description IP multicast is a technique for one-to-many and many-to-many real-time communication over an IP infrastructure in a network. It scales to a larger receiver population by requiring neither prior knowledge of a receiver's identity nor prior knowl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Addison-Wesley
Addison-Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles through the O'Reilly Online Learning e-reference service. Addison-Wesley's majority of sales derive from the United States (55%) and Europe (22%). The Addison-Wesley Professional Imprint produces content including books, eBooks, and video for the professional IT worker including developers, programmers, managers, system administrators. Classic titles include ''The Art of Computer Programming'', ''The C++ Programming Language'', ''The Mythical Man-Month'', and ''Design Patterns''. History Lew Addison Cummings and Melbourne Wesley Cummings founded Addison-Wesley in 1942, with the first book published by Addison-Wesley being Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Francis Weston Sears' ''Mechanics''. Its first computer book was ''Progra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loopback
Loopback (also written loop-back) is the routing of electronic signals or digital data streams back to their source without intentional processing or modification. It is primarily a means of testing the communications infrastructure. There are many example applications. It may be a communication channel with only one communication endpoint. Any message transmitted by such a channel is immediately and only received by that same channel. In telecommunications, loopback devices perform transmission tests of access lines from the serving switching center, which usually does not require the assistance of personnel at the served terminal. Loop around is a method of testing between stations that are not necessarily adjacent, wherein two lines are used, with the test being done at one station and the two lines are interconnected at the distant station. A patch cable may also function as loopback, when applied manually or automatically, remotely or locally, facilitating a loop-back test. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network Virtualization
In computing, network virtualization is the process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity, a virtual network. Network virtualization involves platform virtualization, often combined with resource virtualization. Network virtualization is categorized as either external virtualization, combining many networks or parts of networks into a virtual unit, or internal virtualization, providing network-like functionality to software containers on a single network server. In software testing, software developers use network virtualization to test software which are under development in a simulation of the network environments in which the software is intended to operate. As a component of application performance engineering, network virtualization enables developers to emulate connections between applications, services, dependencies, and end users in a test environment without having to physically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual Interface Architecture
The Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA) is an abstract model of a user-level zero-copy network, and is the basis for InfiniBand, iWARP and RoCE. Created by Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq, the original VIA sought to standardize the interface for high-performance network technologies known as System Area Networks (SANs; not to be confused with Storage Area Networks). Networks are a shared resource. With traditional network APIs such as the Berkeley socket API, the kernel is involved in every network communication. This presents a tremendous performance bottleneck when latency is an issue. One of the classic developments in computing systems is virtual memory, a combination of hardware and software that creates the illusion of private memory for each process. In the same school of thought, a virtual network interface protected across process boundaries could be accessed at the user level. With this technology, the "consumer" manages its own buffers and communication schedule while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
