Infrastructure Course Definitions Below you will find commonly used networking and infrastructure acronyms and terms you should know and understand. Skip to the page 4 for wireless terminology. Internet of Things (IoT) ¥ A proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data and interact with each other. WAN - Wide Area Network (i.e. the Internet – groups of networks connected together over long distances) LAN - Local Area Network (i.e. the Home’s network) Mbps/Gbps – abbreviation for millions of bits per second or megabits per second (Mbps) or billions of bits per second (Gbps, or Gigabits per second) and is a measure of bandwidth (the total information flow over a given time) on a telecommunications medium. Router/Switch/Hub ¥ Router: Device that moves data packets between different subnets (WAN LAN) or (LAN LAN) ¥ Switch: Device that makes point-to-point connections between MAC (Media Access Control) addresses on a LAN. Each connection can be 10/100/1000 Mbps (or greater) depending on the speed of the switch and the devices connected to it. Ð MAC address = hardware address of a device on a network Ð Backplane or Switching fabric – how much capacity the switch has for moving data between ports – should be at least 2x the rated connection speed of each port – example, a 24 port Gigabit switch should have 48 Gbs backplane rating or it may throttle data transfers ¥ Hub: Total of 10/100 Mbps for all connections. No data routing or filtering. All devices see all communications. Hubs are Not Recommended for use in home network situations. Gateway ¥ The device that packets must be sent to in order to leave the LAN. Router typically functions as the gateway in residential installations Modem (Short for Modulator/Demodulator) ¥ A device used to convert one form of a signal to another ¥ Needed to bring broadband into the home from the cable or phone company via a cable modem or DSL modem UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair wire ¥ 4 pairs of twisted wire ¥ Cat 5e and Cat 6 are capable of 1 Gigabit transfer speeds ¥ Cat 6A, 7 and 7A are capable of 10 Gbps transfer speeds ¥ 100 Meters (330 feet) single cable run length Ethernet ¥ Communications protocol allowing multiple devices to share a common transport mechanism. Example: Category 5e, 6 or 7 cable. ¥ Common are 10/100/1000Base-TX networks PoE (Power over Ethernet) ¥ Passes electrical power and data over the same Cat5e, 6 or 7 cable ¥ Power is injected via a PoE injector, a PoE switch or Midspan device ¥ Used for IP cameras, Voice over IP phones and other devices, including Control4 touch panels IP - Internet Protocol ¥ the principal communication protocol for routing packets of data across network boundaries ¥ The language of the internet and home networks Common Transport Protocols ¥ TCP - Transmission Control Protocol – tracks data sent to guarantee delivery of data is received in proper order ¥ UDP – User Datagram Protocol – sends out data messages with no tracking, error correction or guarantee of delivery Subnet – A portion of a network that has been segmented off through software or hardware IP address ¥ Four sets of numbers divided by a period with up to three numbers in each set. ¥ Current standard known as IPv4. ¥ An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on an IP network (Example: 192.168.0.12 – a 32 bit number) o Like a mailing address IPv6 ¥ Designed to allow the Internet to grow steadily, both in terms of the number of hosts connected and the total amount of data traffic transmitted. DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ¥ DHCP Server (usually in the router) is used to automatically assign devices on the network IP addresses. DHCP clients ask the DHCP server for an address. ¥ Only one DHCP server per subnet – otherwise there will be big problems! Static IP address • A permanent address assigned to a device on a network unlike DHCP assigned addresses which can change • Static addresses must be assigned outside of the range of addresses a DHCP server can assign or else the risk is run that another address would be assigned the same address as the static IP device IP Address Reservation • A method to permanently assign a static IP address to a device within the range of addresses a DHCP server can assign. This method is recommended for Control4 devices. NAT - Network Address Translation ¥ Translate an IP address in one subnet to another IP address to be used outside the subnet (192.168.1.10 in your home = 201.152.1.67 on the internet) ¥ Used because there are limited IP addresses on the internet ¥ Allows you to have one outside IP address for your house that all the internal, private IP addresses use ¥ First line of defense (basic firewall) for most routers Domain Name System (Server): DNS ¥ Translates domain names into IP addresses ¥ www.yahoo.com = 209.191.122.70 ¥ Usually the DNS server address is supplied by the ISP and the router gets it from the ISP through the cable/DSL modem ¥ For networking gear, you typically enter the router address as the DNS Server and let the router do the name/address translation for the device ¥ Port Forwarding (don’t do this!) ¥ Port forwarding allows remote computers (for example, computers on the Internet) to connect to a specific computer or service within a private local area network (LAN) ¥ This is not supported and not recommended in a Control4 installation to get MyHome mobile apps working outside the home. Use 4Sight. See Control4 KnowledgeBase more information on Port Forwarding or just ask Google why it is a dangerous thing. HDBaseT ¥ Technology for transmission of uncompressed high-definition video (HD), audio, power, home networking, Ethernet, USB, and some control signals, over a common category (Cat5e or above) cable with a standard connector (RJ45). NAS - Network attached storage • One or more hard drives used for storing data and is available to devices on the network. The NAS could also be available outside the customer’s home through an app or webpage login. The section below consists of terms specifically related to wireless networking Bluetooth is a wireless technology (2.4 GHz) for exchanging data over short distances. ZigBee is an open standard wireless protocol (802.15.4 using 2.4 GHz) that runs on low power radios and is ideal for sending simple commands around a house like telling a light to turn off or a door lock to unlock. WiFi – Wireless Fidelity, 802.11x, WLAN, wireless networking, etc. WLAN – Wireless Local Area Networking SSID – Service Set Identifier • The name of the WLAN the device is connecting to WEP/WPA –Wired Equivalent Privacy/WiFi Protected Access • Encrypts data transmissions on Wireless Network • Think of these as the network password • WEP and WPA are easily hackable, stick with WPA2 802.11b – 11 Mbps wireless protocol using 2.4 GHz 802.11g – 54 Mbps wireless protocol using 2.4 GHz 802.11a – 54 Mbps wireless protocol 5 GHz- Many wireless products DO NOT work with 802.11a access points 802.11n – more range, faster speed (up to 300Mbps - can be dual band – can use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) 802.11ac – latest generation of WiFi. 5 GHz capable of between 500 Mbps – 1 Gbps transmission speeds AP – Access Point (older term used to WAP – Wireless Access Point) • Needed to wirelessly distribute signals Wireless Router • Router with built in Access Point MIMO – Multiple Input/Multiple Output Antennas • Used to improve range and performance of access points
