CCNP ENCOR 350-401 — Common Abbreviations Reference
134 unique abbreviations • Sorted A–Z • Exam: 350-401 ENCOR
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
802.1Q (no expansion) IEEE 802.1Q is the VLAN tagging standard for Ethernet, which inserts a 4-byte Infra – Layer 2 (VLAN Trunking)
VLAN tag into frames to identify VLAN membership.
802.1X (no expansion) IEEE 802.1X is the port-based network access control standard for authenticating Security (Access Control)
devices before they can use a LAN port or WLAN, commonly used with RADIUS
servers.
AAA Authentication, Authorization, and AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) is a framework for controlling Security (Device Access Control)
Accounting device and network access by verifying user identity, assigning permissions, and
logging usage1.
AAR Application-Aware Routing (SD-WAN traffic
path selection based on link performance)
ABR Area Border Router An OSPF router connected to the backbone area (Area 0) and at least one other 1,
OSPF area; responsible for summarizing routing information between areas.
ACL Access Control List ACL (Access Control List) is a set of router/switch rules that permit or deny traffic Security (Infrastructure Security)
based on criteria like IP address, protocol or port (used for network security and
traffic filtering).
AFI Address Family Identifier A BGP extension that specifies the network protocol being carried (e.g., IPv4 or
IPv6).
AIGP Accumulated Interior Gateway Protocol An optional BGP attribute used to maintain a path metric across multiple
autonomous systems.
AMP Advanced Malware Protection A Cisco security solution designed to detect and block malware in network
environments.
AP Access Point
API Application Programming Interface API refers to programmatic interfaces (often RESTful or XML/JSON-based) that Automation (DevNet/Controller
allow network automation tools to query or configure devices3. APIs)
ARP Address Resolution Protocol A protocol used to map a known Layer 3 IP address to a Layer 2 MAC address.
AS Autonomous System A network or collection of routers under the administrative control of a single 1,
organization, identified by an Autonomous System Number (ASN).
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuit A specialized hardware chip designed to perform specific network functions like
packet forwarding at high speeds.
AVF Active Virtual Forwarder A GLBP role responsible for forwarding traffic for a subset of the virtual MAC
addresses.
AVG Active Virtual Gateway A GLBP role that answers ARP requests for the virtual IP and assigns virtual MACs
to forwarders.
BDR Backup Designated Router An OSPF router that acts as a standby to take over the roles of the Designated 1,
Router (DR) if it fails.
BFD Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
BGP Border Gateway Protocol An Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) used to exchange routing information between
different autonomous systems on the Internet.
BGP / eBGP / Border Gateway Protocol / External BGP /
iBGP Internal BGP
BPDU Bridge Protocol Data Unit A BPDU is a Layer■2 message exchanged by switches running Spanning Tree Infra – Layer 2 (Spanning Tree)
(STP) protocols. (BPDU guard etc. protect the topology.)
BSR Bootstrap Router A PIM mechanism used for automated distribution of Rendezvous Point (RP)
information.
CAM Content Addressable Memory CAM (Content Addressable Memory) is a hardware table (on switches) that stores Architecture (Hardware Switching)
MAC address entries for exact-match forwarding decisions4.
CAPWAP Control and Provisioning of Wireless
Access Points (Tunneling protocol for
lightweight APs)
CBWFQ Class-Based Weighted Fair Queuing A queuing algorithm that provides bandwidth guarantees to user-defined traffic
classes.
CEF Cisco Express Forwarding CEF (Cisco Express Forwarding) is Cisco’s optimized L3 forwarding architecture Architecture (Switching
that maintains separate FIB (Forwarding Information Base) and adjacency tables for Mechanisms)
line-rate forwarding5.
CIR Committed Information Rate The average traffic rate in bits per second defined in a QoS contract.
CoPP Control Plane Policing CoPP (Control Plane Policing) is a security feature that filters and rate-limits Security (Infrastructure Security)
packets directed to a router/switch’s control plane CPU, protecting it from excessive
or malicious traffic6.
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
CoS Class of Service Layer 2 QoS marking bits found in the 802.1Q/p header.
CRUD Create, Read, Update, Delete (The four
basic functions of persistent storage/APIs)
DCA Dynamic Channel Assignment
DFS Dynamic Frequency Selection
DR Designated Router An OSPF router elected on multi-access network segments (like Ethernet) to 1,
manage adjacencies and the database exchange process to reduce LSA flooding.
DR / BDR Designated Router / Backup Designated
Router (OSPF topology roles)
DSCP Differentiated Services Code Point A 6-bit field in the IP header used for Layer 3 traffic classification and marking.
DTP Dynamic Trunking Protocol A Cisco proprietary protocol used to negotiate trunking between two switches.
EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol
EAPOL Extensible Authentication Protocol over EAPOL is the protocol used for IEEE 802.1X port-based authentication (4-way Security (Wireless and 802.1X)
LAN handshake) on LAN segments, carrying Extensible Authentication Protocol
messages7.
eBGP External Border Gateway Protocol eBGP (External BGP) is the inter-domain routing variant of BGP where peers reside Infra – Layer 3 (eBGP)
in different autonomous systems, used for exchanging routing info between
networks8.
EEM Embedded Event Manager Cisco EEM (Embedded Event Manager) is an on-device scripting tool that allows Automation (Controller/Automation)
automation of CLI-based tasks and responses to system events on
routers/switches.
EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol A routing protocol intended for use between different autonomous systems; BGP is
currently the only EGP used on the Internet.
EID Endpoint Identifier (LISP term: The IP
address assigned to the host endpoint)
EIGRP Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing EIGRP is Cisco’s advanced distance-vector (DUAL) interior routing protocol, Infra – Layer 3 (EIGRP)
Protocol providing fast convergence and efficient routing updates within a single autonomous
system9.
ERSPAN Encapsulated Remote SPAN (Port
mirroring across layer 3 routed networks)
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
EtherChanne (no expansion)* EtherChannel is Cisco’s term for a bundled link (LACP/PAgP channel) that Infra – Layer 2 (EtherChannel)
l aggregates multiple physical links into one logical link for increased bandwidth and
redundancy.
FHRP First Hop Redundancy Protocol FHRP is a generic term for protocols (like HSRP/VRRP) that provide a virtual Architecture (High Availability)
default gateway address for hosts, ensuring redundancy of first-hop routers10.
FIB Forwarding Information Base A table containing a mirror image of the routing information used by CEF for rapid
hardware forwarding.
Flexible Flexible Network Flow Monitoring (often called NetFlow or FNF) is Cisco’s enhanced flow-monitoring technology that Assurance (Traffic Monitoring)
NetFlow collects detailed IP traffic statistics for network performance and security
analysis11.
FRA Flexible Radio Assignment
FRR Fast Reroute
GLBP Gateway Load Balancing Protocol A Cisco proprietary FHRP that provides both redundancy and load balancing.
GRE Generic Routing Encapsulation GRE is an IP tunneling protocol used to encapsulate various layer-3 packets inside Virtualization (Tunneling)
IP (often paired with IPsec) for creating overlay or point-to-point links.
HSRP Hot Standby Router Protocol HSRP (Cisco’s FHRP) creates a virtual router on a LAN by electing an active and Infra – Layer 3 (First-Hop
standby router; it provides default-gateway redundancy so hosts use a single virtual Redundancy)
IP address10.
IGMP Internet Group Management Protocol A protocol used by multicast receivers to join groups and by routers to manage
group memberships.
IGP Interior Gateway Protocol A routing protocol designed to be used within a single autonomous system, such as
OSPF, EIGRP, or RIP.
IP SLA IP Service Level Agreement (Active traffic
monitoring and testing)
IPsec Internet Protocol Security IPsec is a suite of protocols that provides network-layer encryption and integrity for Virtualization (Secure Tunnels)
IP packets (VPN tunnels) between sites. Often used to secure GRE or transport
connections12.
IPSLA IP Service Level Agreement IPSLA is a Cisco feature that generates traffic to measure network performance Assurance (Network Assurance)
(latency, jitter, loss) for service assurance and troubleshooting (e.g. simulating
voice/video).
ISE Identity Services Engine (Cisco's
policy/network access control server)
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
IST Internal Spanning Tree A special STP instance (Instance 0) used by MST to carry BPDUs for all other
instances.
JSON JavaScript Object Notation JSON is a lightweight, text-based, language-independent data interchange Automation (Data Formats)
format13, commonly used for modern network device APIs and data encoding.
LACP Link Aggregation Control Protocol An industry-standard protocol (IEEE 802.3ad/802.1AX) for negotiating the dynamic 1,
formation of EtherChannel bundles.
LFA Loop-Free Alternate (Fast Reroute backup
path mechanism)
LISP Locator/ID Separation Protocol LISP is an overlay routing architecture that separates endpoint identifiers from Virtualization (Overlay Routing)
location addresses, supporting scalability and multi-tenant networks.
LLQ Low-Latency Queuing A queuing method that adds a strict-priority queue to CBWFQ for real-time traffic
like voice.
LSA Link-State Advertisement A data structure containing specific OSPF network topology information, such as 1,
router interfaces and IP addresses, which is flooded among neighbors.
LSDB Link-State Database A collection of all LSAs known to an OSPF router used to build a map of the 1,
network; all routers in the same area must have an identical copy.
LSU Link-State Update An OSPF packet that carries one or more Link-State Advertisements (LSAs)
between neighbors during database synchronization.
MAB MAC Authentication Bypass MAB is a fallback authentication method for 802.1X where a device’s MAC address Security (Wired Access Control)
is used for authentication when the device has no 802.1X supplicant.
MACsec Media Access Control Security MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) is a Layer-2 encryption and authentication protocol that Security (Link Encryption)
protects data on Ethernet links between switches or between switch and host14.
MDT Multicast Distribution Tree A path that IP multicast traffic follows through a network to reach receivers.
MED Multi-Exit Discriminator A BGP attribute used to influence inbound traffic from a different autonomous
system.
MSDP Multicast Source Discovery Protocol MSDP is a protocol used in inter-domain multicast (often with PIM-SM) that shares Infra – Layer 3 (Multicast)
active multicast sources between Rendezvous Points (RPs) in different domains.
MSTI Multiple Spanning Tree Instance A single STP tree created by MST to handle one or multiple VLANs.
MSTP / MST Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1s)
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
NAT Network Address Translation NAT translates private (inside local) IP addresses to public (inside global) Infra – Layer 3 (IP Services)
addresses for Internet access; basic NAT maps one-to-one (RFC 302215) between
IP realms.
NAT / PAT Network Address Translation / Port
Address Translation
NETCONF Network Configuration Protocol (Uses XML
over SSH)
NGFW Next-Generation Firewall
NTP Network Time Protocol A protocol used to synchronize clocks between network devices in a client/server
model.
OMP Overlay Management Protocol (The control
plane protocol for Cisco SD-WAN)
OSPF Open Shortest Path First A link-state interior gateway protocol (IGP) used to distribute routing information 1,
within a single autonomous system using the SPF algorithm.
PAgP Port Aggregation Protocol A Cisco proprietary protocol used for the automatic creation and negotiation of 1,
EtherChannel bundles.
PAT Port Address Translation PAT (a form of NAT Overload) extends NAT by mapping many private IP/port pairs Infra – Layer 3 (IP Services)
to a single public IP using different ports, allowing multiple hosts to share one public
address16.
PBR Policy-Based Routing PBR is a routing feature that allows traffic to be forwarded based on Infra – Layer 3 (Routing Concepts)
administrator-defined policies (e.g. route based on source/dest IP or packet
criteria), overriding normal routing.
PIM Protocol Independent Multicast PIM is a multicast routing protocol (modeled as independent of any unicast protocol) Infra – Layer 3 (Multicast)
used to build distribution trees (dense/sparse modes) for IP multicast traffic.
PIM-SM Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse
Mode
PTP Precision Time Protocol PTP (IEEE 1588) is a protocol for synchronizing clocks across a network with Infra – Layer 3 (IP Services)
sub-microsecond accuracy, often used in telecom and data center networks.
QoS Quality of Service QoS refers to mechanisms (classification, marking, queuing, policing, shaping) that Architecture (QoS Fundamentals)
manage and prioritize network traffic to meet performance requirements like
bandwidth or latency.
REST Representational State Transfer
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
REST API (no expansion) A REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) Automation (APIs)
uses HTTP methods (GET/POST/etc.) and JSON/XML to allow programmatic
access to device or controller functions3.
RESTCONF REpresentational State Transfer RESTCONF is a RESTful HTTP-based network management protocol (RFC 8040) Automation (APIs/Controllers)
ConFiguration Protocol for accessing YANG-defined data stores and operations on devices, complementing
NETCONF3.
RIB Routing Information Base The RIB is the router’s local collection of routes (from all sources) before best-path Architecture (Switching
selection, i.e. the routing table that CEF references to build its FIB17. Mechanisms)
RID Router ID A unique 32-bit number identifying a router within a routing protocol domain (OSPF, 1,
BGP, or EIGRP); can be manual or derived from an IP address.
RLOC Routing Locator (LISP term: The IP
address of the egress tunnel router)
ROAS Router-on-a-Stick A configuration method using a single physical router interface connected to a
VLAN trunk to route traffic between multiple VLANs.
RP Rendezvous Point In multicast PIM-SM, the common root of a shared distribution tree.
RPF Reverse Path Forwarding RPF is a security check (often used in multicast and unicast filtering) that verifies an Infra – Layer 3 (IP Services)
incoming packet’s source IP has a valid return route; packets failing RPF are
dropped18.
RRM Radio Resource Management
RSPAN Remote Switched Port Analyzer RSPAN extends SPAN by encapsulating mirrored traffic on a VLAN so it can be Assurance (Traffic Monitoring)
transported across switches for centralized analysis.
RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator
RSTP Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP (IEEE 802.1w) is an enhancement of STP that quickly recalculates the Infra – Layer 2 (Spanning Tree)
spanning-tree after a topology change, reducing convergence time compared to
classic STP.
SD-Access (Software-Defined) Access SD-Access is Cisco’s intent-based campus networking solution that uses a fabric Architecture (SD-Access)
architecture (with centralized controllers) to automate provisioning, security
(segmentation), and policy enforcement7.
SD-WAN (Software-Defined) Wide Area Network SD-WAN is an overlay WAN architecture that decouples the control and data Architecture (SD-WAN)
planes, using central controllers to manage wide-area connectivity and policies over
diverse links12.
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
SDA / Software-Defined Access
SD-Access
SDM Switching Database Manager Templates used to manage the allocation of TCAM memory resources for different
features on a switch.
SGT Scalable Group Tag (Formerly Security
Group Tag - used for microsegmentation)
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP is a standard protocol for monitoring and managing network devices (via Assurance (Monitoring/Alerts)
MIBs) by querying or receiving traps from routers/switches.
SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio
SPAN Switched Port Analyzer SPAN is Cisco’s port-mirroring feature that copies traffic from one or more source Assurance (Traffic Monitoring)
ports/VLANs to a monitor port for analysis.
SPF Shortest Path First The Dijkstra algorithm used by link-state protocols (like OSPF) to calculate the 1,
shortest loop-free paths to each subnet.
SPT Shortest Path Tree A multicast distribution tree where the source is the root of the tree.
SSM Source-Specific Multicast SSM is a multicast mode (PIM-SSM) in which receivers join channels identified by Infra – Layer 3 (Multicast)
(S,G) with a specific source, without using a Rendezvous Point; source discovery
may use MSDP.
SSO Stateful Switchover SSO is a high-availability feature where a standby router maintains full state Architecture (High Availability)
information, enabling an almost seamless failover if the active router fails1.
SVI Switched Virtual Interface A logical Layer 3 interface on a switch associated with a specific VLAN, used for
inter-VLAN routing.
TCAM Ternary Content Addressable Memory TCAM is a hardware memory in switches/routers that supports three-state lookups Architecture (Hardware Switching)
(0,1,X) for fast longest-prefix and multi-field matches (e.g. routing or ACLs)19.
TCN Topology Change Notification A specific BPDU used to inform other switches of a change in the network topology.
TLOC Transport Location (SD-WAN identifier
mapping an edge router to a specific WAN
transport)
TPC Transmit Power Control
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
vBond / The Orchestration Plane component of
SD-WAN Cisco SD-WAN
Orchestrator
VLAN Virtual Local Area Network A technology used to create multiple logical broadcast domains on a single physical
switch.
vManage / The Management Plane component of
SD-WAN Cisco SD-WAN
Manager
VNI VXLAN Network Identifier (A 24-bit value
used to identify specific virtual layer 2
segments)
VRF Virtual Routing and Forwarding VRF enables multiple virtual routing tables on one router/switch, isolating traffic (like Virtualization (Segmentation)
multiple virtual routers) so overlapping IP networks can coexist20.
VRRP Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol VRRP is a first-hop redundancy protocol (similar to HSRP) standardized by IETF, Infra – Layer 3 (First-Hop
where one router is elected as master to provide a shared virtual gateway IP, with Redundancy)
backups ready if it fails21.
vSmart / The Control Plane component of Cisco
SD-WAN SD-WAN
Controller
VTEP VXLAN Tunnel End Point (The switch/node
that encapsulates/decapsulates VXLAN
traffic)
VTP VLAN Trunking Protocol A Cisco proprietary protocol used to manage and propagate VLAN information
across a network of switches.
VXLAN Virtual Extensible LAN VXLAN is an overlay tunneling protocol that encapsulates Layer-2 frames in Virtualization (Overlay/Data
Layer-3 UDP packets, enabling large-scale virtualized network segments over IP Center)
networks.
WebAuth Web Authentication
WLC Wireless LAN Controller
WRED Weighted Random Early Detection A congestion avoidance tool that randomly drops packets based on their IP
precedence or DSCP markings.
Abbreviation Full Name / Expansion Definition & Context Exam Topic Source
YANG Yet Another Next Generation (data YANG is a data modeling language used to model configuration and state data for Automation (Data Modeling)
modeling language) network devices; it is the basis for NETCONF and RESTCONF interfaces.