O

OAM cell

Operation, Administration, and Maintenance cell. ATM Forum specification for cells used to monitor virtual circuits. OAM cells provide a virtual circuit-level loopback in which a router responds to the cells, demonstrating that the circuit is up, and the router is operational.

OAM&P

Operations Administration Maintenance and Provisioning.

OARnet

Ohio Academic Resources Network. Internet service provider that connects a number of U.S. sites, including the Ohio supercomputer center in Columbus, Ohio.

object instance

Network management term referring to an instance of an object type that has been bound to a value.

OC

Optical Carrier. Series of physical protocols (OC-1, OC-2, OC-3, and so on), defined for SONET optical signal transmissions. OC signal levels put STS frames onto multimode fiber-optic line at a variety of speeds. The base rate is 51.84 Mbps (OC-1); each signal level thereafter operates at a speed divisible by that number (thus, OC-3 runs at 155.52 Mbps). See also SONET, STS-1, and STS-3c.

ODA

Open Document Architecture. ISO standard that specifies how documents are represented and transmitted electronically. Formerly called Office Document Architecture.

ODI

Open Data-Link Interface. Novell specification providing a standardized interface for NICs (network interface cards) that allows multiple protocols to use a single NIC. See also NIC.

OEMI channel

See block multiplexer channel.

Office Document Architecture

See ODA.

Ohio Academic Resources Network

See OARnet.

OIM

OSI Internet Management. Group tasked with specifying ways in which OSI network management protocols can be used to manage TCP/IP networks.

OIR

online insertion and removal. Feature that permits the addition, replacement, or removal of cards without interrupting the system power, entering console commands, or causing other software or interfaces to shut down. Sometimes called hot swapping or power-on servicing.

ONC

Open Network Computing. Distributed applications architecture designed by Sun Microsystems, currently controlled by a consortium led by Sun. The NFS protocols are part of ONC. See also NFS.

ones density

Scheme that allows a CSU/DSU to recover the data clock reliably. The CSU/DSU derives the data clock from the data that passes through it. In order to recover the clock, the CSU/DSU hardware must receive at least one 1 bit value for every 8 bits of data that pass through it. Also called pulse density.

online insertion and removal

See OIR.

on-the-fly packet switching

See cut-through packet switching.

open architecture

Architecture with which third-party developers can legally develop products and for which public domain specifications exist.

open circuit

Broken path along a transmission medium. Open circuits will usually prevent network communication.

Open Data-Link Interface

See ODI.

Open Document Architecture

See ODA.

Open Network Computing

See ONC.

Open Shortest Path First

See OSPF.

Open System Interconnection

See OSI.

Open System Interconnection reference model

See OSI reference model.

Operation, Administration, and Maintenance cell

See OAM cell.

OPS/INE

Operations Provisioning System/lntelligent Network Element. A Bellcore OSS that provides provisioning services for intelligent network elements. See also OSS.

Optical Carrier

See OC.

optical fiber

See fiber-optic cable.

Organizational Unique Identifier

See OUI.

OSI

Open System Interconnection. International standardization program created by ISO and ITU-T to develop standards for data networking that facilitate multivendor equipment interoperability.

OSI Internet Management

See OIM.

OSINET

International association designed to promote OSI in vendor architectures.

OSI reference model

Open System Interconnection reference model. Network architectural model developed by ISO and ITU-T. The model consists of seven layers, each of which specifies particular network functions such as addressing, flow control, error control, encapsulation, and reliable message transfer. The lowest layer (the physical layer) is closest to the media technology. The lower two layers are implemented in hardware and software, while the upper five layers are implemented only in software. The highest layer (the application layer) is closest to the user. The OSI reference model is used universally as a method for teaching and understanding network functionality. Similar in some respects to SNA. See application layer, data link layer, network layer, physical layer, presentation layer, session layer, and transport layer.

OSPF

Open Shortest Path First. Link-state, hierarchical IGP routing algorithm proposed as a successor to RIP in the Internet community. OSPF features include least-cost routing, multipath routing, and load balancing. OSPF was derived from an early version of the IS-IS protocol. See also IGP, IS-IS, and RIP. See also Enhanced IGRP and IGRP in the Cisco Systems Terms and Acronyms section.

OSS

Operations Support System. A network management system supporting a specific management function, such as alarm surveillance and provisioning, in a carrier network. Many OSSs are large centralized systems running on mainframes or minicomputers. Common OSSs used within an RBOC include NMA, OPS/INE, and TIRKS.

OUI

Organizational Unique Identifier. The 3 octets assigned by the IEEE in a block of 48-bit LAN addresses.

outframe

Maximum number of outstanding frames allowed in an SNA PU 2 server at any time.

out-of-band signaling

Transmission using frequencies or channels outside the frequencies or channels normally used for information transfer. Out-of-band signaling is often used for error reporting in situations in which in-band signaling can be affected by whatever problems the network might be experiencing. Contrast with in-band signaling.