Computer Science - Computer Networking Acronyms

This is a list of common Computer Networking Acronyms. Definitions/small descriptions will be updated over time.

802.5 - Token Ring
AAL5 - ATM Adaptation Layer 5
ACL - Asynchronous ConnectionLess Link
ADC - Analog to Digital Converter

• Converts a continuous signal into a digital one by encoding it in levels through binary.

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

• Commonly used by service company, model where company gives the user greater download than  upload speeds due to, attenuation factors to and from the service provider.

AES - Advanced Encryption Standard
AIFS - Arbitration Inter Frame Space
AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
AMPS - Advanced Mobile Phone System
AODV - Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector
AP - Access Point

• Allows access to internet services usually connecting to a wire 

APSD - Automatic Power Save Delivery
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency
ARQ - Automatic Repeat Query
AS - Autonomous System
BGP - Border Gateway Protocol
BOC - Bell Operating Company
BSC - Base Station Controller
CA - Collision Avoidance
CCK - Complementary Code Keying
CD - Collision Detection
CDMA - Code Division Multiplexing

• Uses linear independence to send multiple signals through a single channel. The idea is the following, the sender and receiver use the same code which form an orthogonal set with every code used in the channel. The senders and receivers all send and read from one channel. The senders simply allow superposition to sum their signals of ones and zeros, the zeros are usually sent as negative voltage but its still just a voltage difference so it doesn't matter much. The receivers remove the noise by multiplying each bit in the data stream by their own code, basically doing the same operation of the inner product in linear algebra to take advantage of the lack of linear combination for an orthogonal set of codes. This returns back a 1/1+ or 0 for the given code set out of the data stream. This retrieves the information out of the combined signal.
• This technology is used by Verizon Wireless, and was developed by Qualcomm. 
• In mobile technology, the signal gets put a Vocoder, or voice encoder that transforms the analog voice signal into digital. This data gets sent through some convolution encoding scheme, such as viterbi

CDN - Content Delivery Network
CFI - Canonical Format Indicator
CMTS - Cable Modem Termination System
CGI - Common Gateway Interface
CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing
CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRL - certificate revocation list
CSMA - Carrier Sense Multiple Access

• Checks for whether or not a channel is in use

CSNET - Computer Science Network
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
CTS - Clear to Send (CSMA/CA)
DAG - Directed Acyclic Graph
DAMPS - Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System
DCCP - Datagram Congestion Control Protocol
DCF - Distributed coordination function
DCT - Discrete Cosine Transform

• Used in JPEG Compression, similar to Fourier Transform, transform to wavespace

DES - Data Encryption Standard
DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHT - distributed hash table
DIFS - DCF inter frame spacing
DMCA - Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DMT - Discrete MultiTone
DMZ - DeMilitarized Zone
DNS - Domain Name System
DOCSIS - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
DOM - Document Object Model
DSLAM - Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
DTN - Delay-tolerant networking
DVMRP - Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
ECMP - Equal Cost MultiPath
ECN - Explicit Congestion Notification
EDGE - Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
EIFS - Extended Inter Frame Space
EPC - Electronic Product Code
FCFS - First come first served packet scheduling
FDD - Frequency Division Duplex
FDDI - Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FDM - Frequency Division Multiplexing
FEC - forward error correction
FEC - Forwarding Equivalence Class
FIFO - First in first out packet scheduling
FSK - Frequency Shift Keying
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
FTTH - Fiber to the Home

• Fiber optic to each individual home

FTTC - Fiber to the Curb

• Fiber optic to the curb of a neighborhood before reaching home

FSM - Finite State Machine
GCM - Galois/Counter Mode
GGSN - Gateway GPRS Support Node
GMSC - Gateway Mobile Switching Center
GPRS - General packet radio service
GPON - Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network
GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications
HDTV - High Definition Television
HEC - Header Error Control
HFC - Hybrid Fiber Coaxial
HLR - Home Location Register
HMAC - hash-based message authentication code
HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HSS - Home Subsciber Server
IAB - Internet Activities Board
iBGP - Internal Border Gateway Protocol
ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol
IDEA - International Data Encryption Algorithm
IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force
IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol
IMP - Interface Message Processor
IMT-2000 - International Mobile Telecommunications 2000

• Determines 3G standards

IOT - Internet of Things
IP - Internet Protocol
IPTV - Internet Protocol television
IRTF - Internet Research Task Force
IS-IS - Intermediate System to Intermediate System
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO - International Standards Organization
ISP - Internet service provider
ITU - International Telecommunication Union
ITU-T - International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication standarization section
IXC - Interexchange Carrier
IXP - Internet Exchange Point
JPEG -  Joint Photographic Experts Group
JSP - JavaServer Pages
JVM - Java virtual machine
L2CAP - Logical Link Control Adaptation Protocol
LAN - Local Area Network
LATA - Local access and transport area
LDPC - Low Density Parity Check Codes
LEC - Local Exchange Carrier
LEO - Low Earth Orbit Satellite
LER - Label Edge Router
LLC - Limited liability company
LLC - Logical Link Control
LSR - Label Switched Router
LTE - Long Term Evolution
MACA - Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
MAHO - Mobile Assisted Hand Off
MAI - Multiple Access Interference
MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
MANETs - Mobile Ad hoc NETworks
MFJ - Modified Final Judgement
MGW - Media Gateway
MIME - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output
MIPS - Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages
MOSPF - Multicast Open Shortest Path First
MPEG - Moving Picture Experts Group
MPLS - Multiprotocol Label Switching
MSC - Mobile Switching Center
MTSO - Mobile Telephone Switching Office
MTU - Maximum transmission unit
NAP - Network Access Point
NAT - Network address translation
NAV - Network Allocation Vector
NIC - Network Interface Controller/Network Interface Card
NRZ - non-return-to-zero
NRZI - non-return-to-zero inverted

• Superior to NRZ, can synchronize, receiver can get clock

NSAP - Network Service Access Point
NSF - National Science Foundation
OFDM - Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
OSI - Open Systems Interconnection
OSPF - Open Shortest Path First

• An adaptive routing protocol

OUI - Organizationally Unique Identifier
PAWS - Protection against Wrapped Sequence numbers
PCF - Point Coordination Function
PCM - Pulse-code modulation
PCS - Personal Communication Services
PGP - Pretty Good Privacy
PIM - Personal information manager
PIM - Protocol Independent Multicast
PIN - Personal Identification Number
PKI - Public-key infrastructure
PMD - Physical Medium Dependent
POP - Post Office Protocol
POTS - Plain old telephone service
PPP - Point-to-Point Protocol
PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network
QAM - Quadrature amplitude modulation
QPSK - Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
RAID - Redundant Array of Independent Disks
RED - Random Early Detection
RFC - Request For Comments
RFID - Radio-frequency identification
RNC - Radio Network Controller
ROHC - Robust Header Compression
RPC - Remote procedure call
RPR - Resilient Packet Ring
RSA - Rivest Shamir Adleman Algorithm
RSVP - The Resource Reservation Protocol
RTP - Real-time Transport Protocol
RTS - Request to Send (CSMA/CA)
RTSP - Real Time Streaming Protocol
SACK - Selective ACKnowledgement
SCO - Synchronous Connection Oriented Link
SCTP - Stream Control Transmission Protocol
SDSL - Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line
SGSN - Serving GPRS Support Node
SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm
SIFS - Short Inter frame space
SIG - Special Interest Group
SIM - Subscriber Identity Module
SIP - Session Initiation Protocol
SIPP - Simple Internet Protocol Plus
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SNR - Signal-to-noise ratio
SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol
SOF - Start of Frame
SONET - Synchronous Optical Network
SPE - Synchronous Payload Envelop
SSL - Secure Sockets Layer
SST - Structured Stream Transport
STS-1 - Synchronous Transport Signal-1
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
TDD - Test-driven development
TDD - Time division Duplex
TDM - Time-division multiplexing
TELNET - Network Virtual Terminal Protocol
THF - Tremendously High Frequency
TSAP - Transport Services Access Point
TPDU - Transport Protocol Data Unit
UDP - User Datagram Protocol
UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair
UMTS - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System 
URL - Uniform resource locator
VCI - Virtual Channel Identifier
VPI - Virtual Path Identifier
VDSL - Very high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line
VLAN - Virtual local area network
VLE - Variable Length Encoding
VLR - Visitor Location Register
VSAT - very small aperture terminal
WAN - Wide Area Network
WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WDM - wavelength-division multiplexing
WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy
WFQ - Weighted Fair Queueing
WPA2 - WiFi Protected Access 2
WSAN - Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks
XML - Extensible Markup Language
YUV - Luminous Hue Saturation

• Used in JPEG Compression