Architecture Atlas

Naming map

Rosetta.

Same roles, different labels. This table maps equivalent teaching names across vendors and papers. It does not claim product feature parity or invent unpublished terminology.

Equivalents

Concept crosswalk

ConceptMappingsNotePages
Access / leaf stage
  • Clos / leaf-spine papers Leaf
  • Many DC designs ToR (top-of-rack)
  • Campus CVD language Access switch
Same fabric role, different naming eras. Atlas diagrams use leaf/ToR kinds where authored.
EVPN L3 gateway placement
  • IETF / vendor EVPN guides Asymmetric IRB
  • IETF / vendor EVPN guides Symmetric IRB
Asymmetric keeps the gateway at the ingress leaf; symmetric routes via a distributed anycast gateway with symmetric VTEP paths. See the EVPN-VXLAN walkthroughs.
SD-WAN overlay control plane
  • Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN docs OMP / TLOC
  • Generic teaching term Overlay control plane
Vendor-specific protocol names are cited on the SD-WAN page; this row is a naming map only.
Global traffic steering
  • DNS / GSLB Name-based steering
  • IP anycast Routing-based steering
  • AWS public docs Global Accelerator (cited pattern)
Mechanisms are not interchangeable; the anycast page contrasts them from public sources.
Edge L4 load balancing
  • Cloudflare engineering Unimog
  • Generic Anycast + local LB
Company pages describe only what public posts disclose.