TCP/IP Guide

Name Spaces and Name Architectures

The main idea of a name system is to provide a way to identify devices using symbolic names. Like any identification mechanism, before it can be used, we must define the way that identification will be performed. Numeric addressing schemes (like IP addresses) have rules for how addresses are created and assign addresses to each device from their address space. In a similar way, devices in a name system are given names from the system's name space.

Name Space Functions

Of the three main components of a name system, the name space is the most abstract. It is also the most fundamental part of the system, since it actually describes how the names are created. There are several aspects to what the name space defines ...