dition in which an increasing and insupport- able number of broadcast packets are generated. brouter A device that can transparently bridge protocols as well as route them. It is a hybrid of a bridge and a router. brownout operation An operation in response to heavy demand, in which main system voltages are lowered and power is reduced but not lost. Although conventional networking equipment is relatively immune to brownouts, the computer controlling the system is very sensi- tive to voltage variations and could fail under these conditions. Most equipment today has the capability to cope with these reductions, or a heavy-duty power supply or UPS can be furnished. BSC (Binary Synchronous Communications) A half-duplex, character-oriented data communications protocol originated by IBM in 1964. It includes control characters and proce- dures for controlling the establishment of a valid connection and the transfer of data. Also called bisync. buffer A storage device used to compensate for a difference in rate of data flow, or time of occurrence events, when transmitting data from one device to another. buffered network A real-time store-and-forward message-switching network, with comput- ers at the switching points that act as buffers for the packets. buffered repeater buffered repeater A hybrid device of a repeater and a bridge. Entire packets are received and retransmitted (as with a bridge), but no address filtering is implemented (as with a repeater). bundled A pricing strategy in which a service provider or manufacturer includes all prod- ucts-hardware, software, services, training, and the like-in a single price. burst In data communications, a sequence of signals counted as one unit in accordance with some specific criterion or measure. burst switching A switching method for switching digitized voice and data characters in an integrated fashion. bus (1) A physical transmission path or channel. A bus is typically an electric connection, with one or more conductors, wherein all attached devices receive all transm