The EISA bus is a joint development from Compaq and other PC manufacturers. The electronic transmission and reception of messages and text-based information without the need for the recipient to be present at the time of the transmission. Available either as a value-added service from providers such as GEIS, IBM and MCI or on LAN systems such as ccMail. De jure standards are evolving, but gateway software in the interim is now sufficiently mature to cope with most interactivity. The level of a network management system concerned with collecting network management information from, and setting parameters on the network elements.
Network elements consist of data communications and telecommunications equipment.
Emulation - Hardware or software, or a combination of the two, that behaves like another device or program, like PCs emulating dumb terminals. Encapsulation - The process of sending data encoded in one protocol format across a network operating a different protocol, where it is not possible or desirable to convert between the two protocols. For example, where Ethernet LANs attach to an FDDI backbone, it is not possible to convert between the different packet formats, so the Ethernet packet is encapsulated in its entirety inside an FDDI packet as it crosses the bridge on to the FDDI network. Also known as protocol tunneling. Entry point - An IBM network management term.