| Term |
Description |
| A-MPDU |
A-MPDU (Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit) and A-MSDU (Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit) are types of packet aggregation mandatory in the 802.11n (and draft 2.0) wireless networking.
A-MPDU/A-MSDU packet aggregation is part of the 802.11n standard that increases throughput, at a potential performance penalty of increased data retransmission. |
|
| A-MSDU |
A-MPDU (Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit) and A-MSDU (Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit) are types of packet aggregation mandatory in the 802.11n (and draft 2.0) wireless networking.
A-MPDU/A-MSDU packet aggregation is part of the 802.11n standard that increases throughput, at a potential performance penalty of increased data retransmission. |
|
| ad-hoc |
| ad-hoc mode (a.k.a peer-to-peer mode, or Independent Basic Service Set - IBSS) in wireless networking refers to a framework in which devices or stations communicate directly with each other, without the use of an access point. Ad-hoc mode is useful for establishing a network where access points do not exist. |
|
| ADSL |
| ADSL (asymmetric DSL) is a type of Digital Subscriber line (DSL) that provides greater downstream(download from provider to consumer) bandwidth at the expense of lesser upstream (upload) speed. |
|
| AES |
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard, a.k.a. Rijndael) is a symetric block cypher developed by belgian cryptographers Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, that won the NIST's contest for a replacement of DES (Data Encryption Standard).
AES currently supports 128, 192 and 256-bit keys and encryption blocks, and can be extended in 32-bit multiples.
AES is usually used in WAP for protecting WLANS, and it reportedly has never been cracked. |
|
| AIMD |
| AIMD (Additive Increase / Multiplicative Decrease) is the congestion control protocol used in TCP. It involves increase-by-one and decrease-to-half (per window of packets acknowledged) strategy for congestion window adjustment. |
|
| ARP |
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a protocol for mapping IP adresses to MAC (Media Access Control) physical machine adresses.
ARP uses an ARP cache table to maintain a correlation and convert between each MAC address and its corresponding IP address in both directions.
ARP is used in all Ethernet/IP networks to resolve IP addresses to physical device addresses. It is not routable.
See also: RFC 826 |
|
| ARPANET |
| ARPAnet was a large WAN established in 1969, essentially the precursor to the Internet. ARPAnet was created by the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) to test new networking technologies. It originally linked UCLA and Stanford, followed by the University of Utah. |
|
| ASCII |
| ASCII (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) is the most common format for computer text files. In general, ASCII is the standard code for information interchange among dissimilar computers and computer programs, using a coded character set consisting of 7-bit coded characters (8 bits including parity check). |
|
| ATA |
ATA (Analog Terminal Adapter) is a device that connects an analog telephone to a VoIP network.
ATAs, usually have an Ethernet (RJ-48) jack, and an RJ-11 phone jack, and use either the SIP or IAX industry standard protocols. ATAs are also refered to as VoIP Gateways, TA (Terminal Adapter),or FXS Adapters. Some ATAs are locked to a particular VoIP provider. |
|
| ATM |
| ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is a high-speed network protocol designed to support both voice and data communication. ATM is composed of 53 byte cells having 48 byte payloads, does not involve routing and is especially good for real time voice and video. DSL implementations often use ATM as the underlying data-transport protocol beneath TCP/IP. |
|
| ATU |
ATU (ADSL Transceiver/Termination Unit) is a device that provides ADSL modulation of the telephone line, os simply an ADSL modem. The device at the server side is called ATU-C (Central office), the client's device is called ATU-R (Remote).
ATU-C/R are in essence the ADSL modems that sit on both sides of the telco copper loop. |
|
| AWG |
| AWG (American Wire Gauge) is a measure of the thickness of wiring - the lower the AWG number, the thicker the wire. Generally, thicker wire can carry electrical current longer distances and is less susceptible to interference. |
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| Term |
Description |
Glossary