The words these pages use
What each word means on this site, in a sentence, with the page that says more.
| word | what it means here | more |
|---|---|---|
| appliance | a Sophos XGS box: two computers in one case - the host and the coprocessor | how it works |
| host | the appliance's x86 computer: it runs OPNsense, and reaches the front ports only through the coprocessor | how it works |
| coprocessor | the appliance's second computer, an ARM network processor - Marvell CN913x on the ARMADA family, Cavium CN83xx on OCTEON TX - which owns every front port | the families |
| family | the appliances built on one kind of coprocessor; each family has a driver of its own | the families |
| driver | the FreeBSD kernel module that speaks to the coprocessor: npuep on ARMADA, octep on OCTEON TX |
ARMADA, OCTEON TX |
| plugin | the OPNsense package around the drivers: its pages in the web interface, its settings, its scripts | the pages |
| front port | a socket on the panel - Port1, F1, A1 - named as on the metal; the host sees each as an interface (npup1, oxp0) |
front ports by model |
| tag | the coprocessor's name for a port, which travels with every frame between it and the host | front ports by model |
| switch | the chip behind most RJ45 ports (an 88E6193X); its ports reach the coprocessor over one link | front ports by model |
| cage | the socket an SFP or SFP+ transceiver goes into: 1 Gbit/s for SFP, 10 Gbit/s for SFP+ | what a cage carries |
| PHY | the chip between a MAC and a socket, which turns the coprocessor's lanes into a copper or fibre signal | the families |
| module bay | the slot in the front for an expansion module; on the 1U appliances it is the coprocessor's, on the desktops the host's | expansion modules |
| assembly number | the board's part number - AMDA0201-0003 is an XGS 136 - read from the planar serial; it says the model, the board revision does not |
front ports by model |
| board file | the vendor's description of one assembly: each port's label, socket and where it attaches | front ports by model |
| fast path | the coprocessor forwarding a connection port to port by itself, without the host | what works |
| flow offload | putting a connection the firewall has let through into the fast path | what works |
| give-back | the fast path handing a connection back to the host - when it ends, or when something the host must see happens to it | what works |
| IPsec association | the keys and settings of one direction of one IPsec tunnel; the coprocessor's engine can hold it and encrypt or decrypt for it | what works |
| ESP | the IPsec packet that carries the encrypted traffic | what works |
| NAT-T | ESP carried inside UDP port 4500, to cross a NAT on the way | what works |
| ESN | extended sequence numbers: 64-bit counters for an association that carries a great deal | ESN, measured |
| MTU | the largest packet a link carries in one piece; these appliances take up to 9000 bytes on every port | the MTU, measured |
| bypass | a pair of ports that relays join when the appliance is off or stalled, so the two networks stay connected | the 1U appliances |
| PoE | power over Ethernet: a port that powers what is plugged into it - labels 11 and 12 on the XGS 136 | PoE, measured |
| problem report | an issue the plugin files on its own when something goes wrong, when reporting is on | problem reports |
| port check | on a model not run here, its first boot holding the driver's ports against what its coprocessor reports | front ports by model |
| run here | a model this project has been run on, in the lab; every other model is added, untested | every model |
| the vendor's figures | the numbers in the vendor's datasheet, taken its own way; written as the vendor's, beside ours | how the measurements are taken |
The discussion of this page is held in the project's GitHub Discussions. Showing it here loads giscus from giscus.app and GitHub, and writing in it needs a GitHub account - what that means.