Top 5 Most Mind Bending Network Names and Concepts

If you are a network engineer or network administrator you will appreciate the pain of learning some of these mind bending names and concepts. We've listed them in reverse order to save the best till last. Hope you enjoy them. 5. VTP � VLAN Trunking Protocol. I'm almost convinced that somebody named this protocol as a practical joke. You see, VTP does not actually trunk anything at all. However, it does work closely with the real VLAN trunking protocol which we innovatively know as 802.1q. For the uninitiated, it's a little like somebody naming a hose �water' and the actual water inside the hose H2O. 4. Multicast Routing. This is an incredibly powerful yet confusing notion to understand. Whilst normal networks have a known source and destination, multicast networks work in reverse hence giving rise to mind bending concepts such as RPF (Reverse Path Forward). These networks have senders that have no idea of the destination. In fact, no one entity on the network has a complete list of destinations. Packets find their way hop by hop by following group memberships until they eventually reach their destination. It's hardly an intuitive notion but definitely genius in its conception. 3. MPLS Experimental Bits � These three bits in an MPLS header seem to have fallen victim to bureaucratic process. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) couldn't come to a consensus for defining those three bits as the CoS (Class of Service) field despite the fact that CoS is this fields' primary function. Nevertheless, the reason it made No. 3 in the count down is not because it was not named CoS. The unfortunate labelling of these bits as �Experimental' has well and truly cemented this name a spot in the confused basket. google_ad_client = "pub-2311940475806896"; /* 300x250, created 1/6/11 */ google_ad_slot = "0098904308"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; Why did the IETF not call those bits �Universal Bits' or �General Use Bits' if indeed their function could not be agreed? The term �Experimental' is akin to calling an established aircraft a �test plane'. Despite being reliable it inspires no confidence. 2. HSRP � Hot Standby Router Protocol is used to provide redundant gateways for hosts. In most Cisco software the configuration of this technology is counter intuitive. To configure HSRP the keyword is �standby' is used. For example, in order to see HSRP instances the command �show standby' is issued. The problem with that is that standby is actually one of the HSRP states. It has an Active router and a Standby router. So conceptually you must type �show standby' (aka: show hsrp) to see the active router. It's the equivalent of typing �show the back' in order to see the front. 1. The MPLS S bit � This one makes me laugh every time. RFC 3032 defines MPLS Label Stack Encoding. There is one particular bit in this header that is set to �1' if it is the last entry in the label stack. In other words, if it's the last label � the bottom of the stack � then the bit is set to 1. Intuitively this bit should have been called the �BS' bit�Bottom of Stack, right? But it wasn't, it is just called the �S' bit. If you think about it BS makes more sense. When the �Bottom of Stack' is 1 (aka: True) then we know it is the last entry. It doesn't make sense to say if the �Stack' is 1 (aka: True) then it is the last entry, primarily because all previous labels were is the stack too. We needed to specifically say it is the �Bottom' of the stack. Why is that funny? Well, I would have thought that as professionals we could get past writing the acronym �BS' which also has some better known mainstream connotations. It seems prudish to sacrifice an accurate description for th e sake of bashfulness.

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