Category:Terms

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720p: 720 progressive lines. Refers to the amount of lines shown on a screen per frame, the higher amount of lines the clearer the picture quality.

700 Mhz: (A.k.a beach front) Considered the best and most expensive frequency because it has longer waves that are able to travel further and go through walls.

A

 * AM: Amplitude Modulation - a technique used in electronic communication for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. It works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent
 * ADSL: asymmetric digital subscriber line, a broadband communication technology that allows users to connect to the internet. It connects using the existing telephone wire connection but allows for much higher transfer speeds in comparison to classic dialup services. Allows for telephone calls to be made simultaneously.

Ad-hock: made up on occasion rather than being of a pre-planned structure.

Algorithm: computer algorithms are mathematical formulas that allow computers to make decisions. Easier to explain as a decision tree for the computer.

B

 * Bandwidth: the amount of data that can be transmitted in an amount of time.Usually expressed in bits per second.
 * Bit: A unit of information expressed as either a 0 or 1 in binary notation. Meassure of transmission "speed". example 10Mbs (please note small 'b' indicates that it is bits)
 * Byte: A group of 8 bits. Measure of storage, capacity (drives) example 10 MBs (please note capital 'B' indicates that it is bytes)
 * Bot Net: a bot is a robot. A network of computers that are used in an attack that do whatever they are told. Many computers used in a bot net do not know they are being used for this.

Bill & Keep: the bill is created for the company but it is never given out. Used when two companies have an agreement.

BDU: Broadcasting Distribution Undertaking, cable, satellite.

C

 * CRTC: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission - is the public regulatory agency for broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada
 * Connectionless: the transfer of information does not require a secure connection to be made. Such as UDP procotol.

D

 * DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the central research and development orgranization for the US Department of Defense
 * DSL: Digital Subscriber Line, is a family of technologies that provide internet access  by transmitting digital data  over the wires of a local telephone network
 * Defacto standard: a standard that is acceped as a matter of fact. Not official.

Dejured standard: a standard that is voted in and is an official standard.

DNS: Domain name system. is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities.

Distributed denial of service: a denial of service attack where the attackers are in many different places

E

 * end-to-end principle: a network design principle which states that application-specific functions should reside on the end hosts of the netowkr and not in intermediary nodes.
 * Early adopter: a person who is the first to buy and utilize a new technology that is just introduced.

Electro Magnetic Spectrum: the spectrum of electromagnetic waves that exists through which messages can be sent. Such as radio or television. It’s measured in Hertz.

F

 * FM: Frequency Modulation - a technique used in electronic communication for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. It works by varying its frequency in relation to the information being sent
 * Flash Memory: storage device that is made of chips.

G
GHz: gigahertz, one GHz represents 1 billion cycles per second, it is used as a measure of speed for computer microprocessors.

H

 * HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, an application protocol for the World Wide Web
 * Hard Drive: storage device that is a rotational, is magnetic and is non volatile( if powered off the message remains there)

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language, a coding language used on webpages and presented to you through your web browser

HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is a set of protocols used on the world wide web that define how a server will format a response to a request.

https: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. is a widely-used communications protocol for secure communication over a computer network.

Hypertext: A software system that links topics on the screen to related information and graphics.

I

 * Incumbent: In telecommunications, incumbents are the telephone companies of the past (eg. Rogers, Bell) that now offer internet/cable services.
 * Internet: Comes from Internetworking. Computers being able to talk to one another.

Integrated Circuitboard(IC): the circuit board onto which electronic equipment is built. Such as a mother board.

IPO: Initial Public Offering

IPv6: is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is intended to succeed IPv4, which is the communications protocol currently used to direct almost all Internet traffic.IPv6 will allow the Internet to support many more devices by greatly increasing the number of possible addresses. Supports 2^128 addresses.

IPTV: IP Television. Television over the internet. Allows for interaction and on demand video.

Impediment: an obstacle towards your goal.

J

 * Jitter: variation in the time it takes for packets to arrive

L
Latency: a measure of how long it takes a packet to make a round trip from sender to receiver. Measured in ms(milliseconds). The higher the latency the more difficult it becomes to do live things such as playing multiplayer games or online video calls.

M

 * Monopoly: sole provider of a certain.good/service in the market, not inherently illegal
 * Mbit/s: megabits per second. A measure that represents the amount of mega bits that will be transferred in a second.

MP3: MPEG Layer III, is an audio standard for encoding sound into a digital format.

MVPD: Multi-channel video programming distributor.

N

 * NCP: Network Control Protocol, was the first Host-to-Host protocol. The Network Working Group (NWG) under Steve Crocker finished NCP in December 1970. With NCP, applications could be developed such as email in 1972.
 * NAT: Network address translation. Because of lack of address space inside the company network individual machines have a set of IP address while the whole network has one address. The NAT makes this translation and helps route the message to the final destination.
 * Non-propriatery- not commercial. A public technology. TCP/IP, open standard micro usb

NDA: non disclosure agreement. An agreement where no one is allowed to mention the details that are part of the agreement.

NM: nano meter. The billionth of a meter.

O
OSI: Open system interconnection. A model that represents the protocol stack for interworking. A competing technology to TCP/IP.

Overhead: in networking overhead is the amount of bits that are not part of the original message when sending a message through the network. These bits are for routing purposes and are added to the original message.

P

 * packet: in computer networking a packet is a unit of data that is routed through the network. The packet contains information from a bigger set of data (ex. an email) and is reasembeled at the receiving end.
 * Predation: predatory pricing employed by a large incumbent to drive out small competitors, then raise the prices again.
 * Protocol: an agreed upon set of procedures that alow two nodes to communicate electronically.
 * PSTN: (Packet Switched Telephone Network) is the network of the public switched telephone network. Works by making direct end to end circuits for the duration of the telephone call.
 * P2P: peer-to-peer, refers to a computer network in which the user computers act as both the servers and client. A user’s computer would send requests to other computers and would also respond to requests made to it.

Q
QoS: Quality of service.

R

 * Real-time: data is being received at the same time as it is sent

S

 * Server Latency: amount of time for the server to respond to your request
 * SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

T
TCP: is a best effort service. It is reliable and is connection based. (protocol)

TCP/IP: The two key protocols used on the internet that makes communication possible.

Topologically: another way of saying geographically. In networks being topologically away from a server would be similar to saying living far away from the server.

U
UDP: Assumes it is not important to make sure that the data has arrived at the destination (protocol like TCP)

UGC: User generated content. Content that is created by the users such as Facebook or twitter. This content is what attracts other users.

USB: Universal Serial Bus, a universal connection port that can be used by devices to connect through a cable to other electronic devices. Ie. Keyboard to laptop, game controller to gaming console, phone to charger.

URL: uniform resource locator, a set of characters that references another location on the internet.

V
Variable Bitrate(VBR): is a term used in telecommunication and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. The higher the bit rate the more information availble at the current time. Example: if you are listening to a song and the current bitrate is at 320 Kbs then in the particular second you are getting 320 Kbs of sound data, but in the next second you could have a bitrate of 56 Kbs so you would have less sound information at the time (if there is a pause in the song)

VPN: Virtual Private Network. A network that is made over the internet. Not psychically connected but the computers act as if they were part of the same local network. Uses tunneling, which is a way of sending private information over the internet and shielding while in transit.

Virtual circuit: a circuit through which information flows such as the telephone network circuit, however it is a virtual circuit so in reality the direct stream is created by software and not by hardware.

VOIP: Voice over IP. Used to make phone calls over the internet.

W
W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web

World Wide Web: Invented in 1991. An application that runs on the internet. Displays pages that are written in HTML through a web browser.