Terminology

Following is a set of nominal definitions for terminology encountered throughout the rest of this document. Additional details will be provided within relevant sections.

Requirements:

• The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, when they appear in this document, are to be interpreted as described in IETF RFC 2119.

Node:

• A conceptual entity that represents a Bristlemouth device's participation within a Bristlemouth network
• A node is NOT limited to a single piece of hardware or software, but encompasses the complete implementation of the core protocol functions necessary to participate in the network.
  • It may be split across multiple hardware or software elements (e.g. a Network Coprocessor + User Device pair)
  • The concept of a Virtual Node or Proxy Node is also supported, wherein one software element represents another device or software element (possibly one which uses a completely different communication protocol or paradigm of operation) and enables its participation within the Bristlemouth network. As long as all of the appropriate Bristlemouth network protocol features and behavioral requirements are implemented, it should be indistinguishable from any other Bristlemouth Node.

Node ID:

• A 64-bit identifier representing a node uniquely within any Bristlemouth network

Network Interface:

• A virtual communication interface belonging to a node, which provides access to a Bristlemouth network through a collection of one or more physical communication interfaces, called ports.

Port:

• A specific, real communication interface, tied to a physical transceiver
  • Often tied to a single Bristlemouth connector pair, though use of the Bristlemouth connector is not mandated or even detectable from a software protocol perspective
• Is usually associated with a unique peripheral interface, like a serial port, ethernet interface, SPI device, etc., but may sometimes share a peripheral/driver interface with other ports

Router:

• A node which has more than one active port, and thus must perform routing and network discovery/formation functions across all active ports

End Device (ED):

• A node which has only one active port, and thus is not expected to perform any routing/forwarding functions, but still needs to perform discovery functions with any peers connected to its one port

Network Co-processor (NCP):