What is Gateway and Metric?

Answer 1

The Gateway is the device used to send network packets to when wanting to access another device not located on the same network. A gateway to another network or the internet the device is usually a Router - which determines what route the network packets take to get to their destination. because you can have many connections to different networks - there exists the possibility of having multiple gateways. The Metric determines which gateway is chosen first - a lower number means it is more likely to choose that gateway and not another with a higher number. Think of Metric as Cost - you tend to choose the cheapest route to try and get to your destination. You can have a Default Gateway - which would be the device always chosen first to try and route packets to their destination.

A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, a node or stopping point can be either a gateway node or a host (end-point) node. Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve pages to users are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company's network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway nodes.

In the network for an enterprise, a computer server acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server and a firewall server. A gateway is often associated with both a router, which knows where to direct a given packet of data that arrives at the gateway, and a switch, which furnishes the actual path in and out of the gateway for a given packet.

A metric is a standard unit of measure, such as meter or mile for length, or gram or ton for weight, or more generally, part of a system of parameters, or systems of measurement, or a set of ways of quantitatively and periodically measuring, assessing, controlling or selecting a person, process, event, or institution, along with the procedures to carry out measurements and the procedures for the interpretation of the assessment in the light of previous or comparable assessments.

Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it. This factor severely limits the applicability of metrics, for instance in comparing performance across domains. The prestige attached to them may be said to relate to a 'quantifiability fallacy', the erroneous belief that if a conclusion is reached by quantitative measurement, it must be vindicated, irrespective of what parameters or purpose the investigation is supposed to have.

In business, they are sometimes referred to as key performance indicators, such as overall equipment effectiveness, or key risk indicators. In the field of Facilities Management, a key metric is the Facility Condition Index, or FCI.