Network Address Authority

1. [Network] A management authority that allocates addresses used to create unique names.

2. [Fibre Channel]

A 4-bit field used to identify the controlling authority for guaranteeing uniqueness of World Wide Names (WWNs).

In a Fibre Channel environment, several Naming Authorities can be active at the same time, therefore Fibre Channel prepends the NAA field to World Wide Names to guarantee global uniqueness. An NAA =1, for example, indicates IEEE 48-bit Identifiers.