subnetwork

1. A collection of equipment and physical transmission media that forms an autonomous whole and that can be used to interconnect systems for purposes of communication. 2. Specifically, a collection of open system interconnection (OSI) end systems and intermediate systems under the control of a single administrative domain and using a single network access protocol. Note: Examples of subnetworks are private X.25 networks and collections of bridged local area networks. [After Bahorsky]