terminology - technical definition

The terminology used in the computer and telecommunications field adds tremendous confusion not only for the lay person, but for the technicians themselves. What many do not realize is that terms are made up by anybody and everybody in a nonchalant, casual manner without any regard or understanding of their ultimate ramifications. Programmers come up with error messages that make sense to them at the moment and never give a thought that people actually have to read them when something goes wrong. In addition, marketing people turn everything upside down, naming things based on how high-tech and sexy they sound. And, the worst of all is naming specific technologies with generic words. See naming fiascos and technical writer.

Following is an example of two routing protocols that are used to keep routers up-to-date with network information. OSPF and IS-IS do similar things; in fact, OSPF evolved from IS-IS, yet every element associated with these standards has a different name. This constant changing of names, changing of menus, changing of parameters, etc., is what makes this field incomprehensible and discourages a lot of good people from entering it.

  IS-IS                   OSPF
  Subdomain             - Area
  Level-1 area          - Non-backbone area
  Level-2 subdomain     - Backbone area
  L1L2 router           - Area Border Router
  Any Intermediate      - Autonomous System
    System                  Boundary Router
  End system            - Host
  Intermediate system   - Router
  Link                  - Circuit
  Protocol data unit    - Packet
  Designated            - Designated Router
    Intermediate System
   (no equivalent)      - Backup Designated Router
  Link-State PDU        - Link-State Advertisement
  IIH PDU               - Hello packet
  Complete Sequence     - Database description
    Number PDU