Subject: Re: Terminology

From: Charles Perkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 09:54:32 -0700 (PDT)

Chip,

>                             Here's another few cents'
> worth (no offense if they're rejected!):
> 
> * waveform

I don't know what about waveforms is particular to ad-hoc networking.

> * power control
>
> * pathloss
>
> * spatial reuse
> 
> * link-level (or MAC-level) acknowledgement
> 
> * scenario = (laydown, pathloss matrix, mobility, traffic)
> 
> * beacon

All these are good, and should be included.  However, I am not
familiar with the terms "laydown" and "pathloss matrix".  Can you
elaborate on them?

> In our group, we differentiate "potential neighbors" from "neighbors",
> since in densely populated radio nets, the network algorithms may not
> choose to use every potential neighbor as a forwarding agent, ie,
> it may select only the "better" potential neighbors to act as neighbors.

I'd prefer to keep the word neighbor to mean physically within
range, not colored with protocol functionality or policy.

> As another aside, we use the terms "radio broadcast", "radio unicast",
> and "radio multicast" to talk about link-level features, and "network..."
> to talk about the network-level features. Thus a radio broadcast will
> reach only potential neighbors, but a network broadcast will reach
> all nodes in the net.

On the one hand, I don't think we should limit the discussion to
radio, so that the above terms might have to be translated to be
"wireless broadcast", etc.  On the other hand, "network broadcast",
for instance, may show promise, but gets confusing when trying to
figure out exactly what the "network" is.  Perhaps "link broadcast"
would be preferable to "local broadcast", and so on for the other
terms.  If people don't like "system-wide broadcast" for the larger
operation, maybe "mesh broadcast" is better, but I don't think it
rolls off the tongue so well.

> -- Chip

Regards,
Charlie P.

PS. to whom it may concern: definitions for suggested terms are always
    gratefully accepted.