Bandwidth Control in a Service Provider network

• Access / Aggregation Device - Devices that connect the End User to Your network. Probably some sort of "point-to-multipoint" thing such as:

- miniPCI card in the EdgeRouter (either WAP or Ethernet ports) - Wireless Access Point, separate from EdgeRouter - router with T1/T3/OC3s, etc. - DSLAM (Frame Relay / ATM switch) - Ethernet switch or bridge - Analog/ISDN modem bank - VPN concentrator

• Backhaul / Backbone - Links between PoPs and other PoPs or Central Office(s)
• Backhaul / Backbone Device(s) - Devices that route or bridge IP traffic bewteen PoPs and Central Office(s).
• Bandwidth Control - The act of prioritizing and rate limiting IP traffic.
• Bandwidth Control Device - A Mikrotik router performing Classification, Marking, Prioritization, and Rate Limiting on IP traffic.
• Border - The line between You and The Internet (your upstream internet providers and/or peers). The boundary between two different Autonomous Systems.
• Border Router(s) -

 ->In single-homed networks, the router connecting to upstream internet provider.  Could run external BGP or have default route with next hop of upstream provider.  
 ->In multi-homed networks, border routers most likely run external BGP
 ->For most IGP protocols like OSPF or EIGRP, this is the origination point(s) of the default route which gets distributed to the network. 

• Bridged interface - one or more physical interfaces that are linked together to form a single logical interface that can be used as a Bandwidth Control upload or download interface.
• Central Office - The physical location(s) where your network receives a connection from upstream providers and/or peers.
• Class - A bandwidth control grouping that defines a maximum upload and/or download speeds.
• Download - Traffic flowing FROM the internet TO the End User
• Download interface - The interface on the Bandwidth Control Device that is or connects to the Access Device.
• Edge - The line between "you" (the network where bandwidth control is being deployed, probably the reader of this document!) and the End User of "your" service.
• EdgeRouter - A router placed as close as possible to the edge of the network. Probably placed between Backhaul device and Access device
• End User / Customer / Client - The entity under bandwidth control. In general, this refers to the IP Address(es) assigned to the actual entity.

- For an ISP, this is a customer - For a school, this could be faculty, staff, or student. - For typical businesses & government, this is employees

• Upload - Traffic flowing FROM the End User TO the internet
• Upload interface - The interface on the Bandwidth Control Device that is or connects to the Backbone device
• You/Your - The entity performing bandwidth control, Most likely the reader of this document! From the End User's perspective, this could be the ISP, the school, or the business/government.