Networking acronyms and abbreviations

A ... B ... C ... D ... E ... F ... G ... H ... I ... J ... K ... L ... M ... N ... O ... P ... Q ... R ... S ... T ... U ... V ... W ... X ... Y ... Z

A

AAL

asynchronous transfer mode adaption layer

ABR

available bit rate

ACK

acknowledgement

ACM

Association for Computing Machinery

ADSL

asymmetric digital subscriber line

ADSU

asynchronous transfer mode data service unit

AF

assured forwarding

AH

authentication header

AIFF

Audio Interchange File Format

AIMD

additive-increase, multiplicative-decrease

ALF

application-level framing

AM

amplitude modulation

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

AP

access point

API

application programming interface

APNIC

Asia Pacific Network Information Center

ARIN

American Registry for Internet Numbers

ARP

Address Resolution Protocol

ARPA

Advanced Research Projects Agency

ARQ

automatic repeat request

AS

autonomous system

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASN

abstract syntax notation

ATM

asynchronous transfer mode

AWT

abstract window toolkit

B

BBN

Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc.

BER

Basic Encoding Rule

BEUI

basic input/output system extended user interface

BGP

Border Gateway Protocol

BIND

Berkeley Internet Name Domain

BSS

basic service set

BUS

broadcast and unknown service

C

CA

certification authority

CA

collision avoidance

CAM

content-addressible memory

CARP

Cache Array Routing Protocol

CBC

cipher block chaining

CBR

constant bit rate

CBT

core-based trees

CD

collision detection

CDMA

code division multiple access

CDPD

cellular digital packet data

CDT

cell-transfer delay

CDV

cell-delay variation

CERN

European Organization for Nuclear Research

CGI

Common Gateway Interface

CGM

Computer Graphics Metafile

CI

congestion indication

CIDR

classless interdomain routing

CIF

Common Intermediate Format

CIR

committed information rate

CLNP

Connectionless Network Protocol

CLP

cell-loss priority

CLR

cell-loss rate

CM

continuous media

CMIP

Common Management Information Protocol

CMISE

Common Management Information Service Element

CNAME

canonical name

CORBA

Common Object Request Broker Architecture

CPCS

common part convergence sublayer

CRC

cyclic redundancy check

CSMA

carrier sense multiple access

CSS

cascading style sheets

CTI

computer-telephone integration

CTS

clear to send

CU

currently unused

D

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DCA

Document Content Architecture

DCE

Distributed Computing Environment

DDCMP

Digital Data Communication Message Protocol

DES

Data Encryption Standard

DH

Diffie-Hellman

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DIFS

distributed inter-frame space

DMA

direct memory access

DNS

Domain Name System

DS

distribution system

DSCP

differentiated service code point

DSP

digital signal processing

DTD

document type definition

DV

distance vector

DVD

digital video disk

DVI

device-independent

DVMRP

Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol

E

EBGP

External Border Gateway Protocol

EF

expedited forwarding

EFCI

explicit forward congestion indication

EFF

Electronic Frontier Foundation

EGP

Exterior Gateway Protocol

EIGRP

Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

ER

explicit rate

ESP

Encapsulation Security Payload

EWMA

estimated weighted moving average

F

FCFS

first come, first served

FDDI

fiber distributed data interface

FDM

frequency-division multiplexing

FEC

forward error correction

FIFO

first in, first out

FIN

finished

FITS

Flexible Image Transport System

FM

frequency modulation

FSM

finite-state machine

FSP

File Service Protocol

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

G

GBN

go back n

GIF

Graphical Interchange Format

GMS

Global Mobile System

GSM

Global System for Mobile

GUI

graphical user interface

H

HDLC

high-level data link control

HEC

header error checksum

HFC

hybrid fiber coaxial cable

HMAC

keyed-hash message authentication code

HOL

head of the line

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

I

IAB

Internet Architecture Board

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IBGP

Internal Border Gateway Protocol

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol

ICP

Internet Caching Protocol

IDEA

International Data Encryption Algorithm

IDL

interface definition language

IDRP

Inter-Domain Routing Protocol

IDSU

Intelligent Data Service Unit

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

IESG

Internet Engineering Steering Group

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force

IGES

Initial Graphics Exchange Specification

IGMP

Internet Group Management Protocol

IKE

Internet Key Exchange

IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol

IMP

interface message processor

IP

Internet Protocol

IPCP

Internet Protocol Control Protocol

IPX

Internetwork Packet Exchange

IRTF

Internet Research Task Force

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

ISKMP

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol

ISO

International Standards Organization

ISP

Internet service provider

ITU

International Telecommunication Union

ITU-T

International Telecommunication Standardization Sector

J

JAF

JavaBeans Activation Framework

JAR

Java archive

JCE

Java Cryptography Extension

JDBC

Java database connectivity

JDK

Java Development Kit

JIT

just in time

JNDI

Java Naming and Directory Interface

JPEG

Joint Photographic Exchange Group

JRE

Java Runtime Environment

JSSE

Java Secure Sockets Extension

K

KDC

key distribution center

L

LAN

local-area network

LANE

local-area network emulation

LCP

Link Control Protocol

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LES

local-area network emulation server

LLP

least-loaded path

LS

link state

M

MAC

media access control

MACA

multiple access with collision avoidance

MACAW

multiple access with collision avoidance for wireless

MAE

metropolitan area exchange

MAN

metropolitan area network

MBONE

Multicast Backbone

MCR

minimum cell transmission rate

MD

message digest

MFC

maximum free circuit

MH

Mail Handler

MIB

management information base

MIC

message integrity code

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

MOSPF

multicast open shortest path first

MOTO

mail order and telephone order

MPEG

Moving Picture Experts Group

MPLS

Multiprotocol Label Switching

MSAU

multistation access unit

MSS

maximum segment size

MTU

maximum transmission unit

MX

mail exchanger

N

NAK

negative acknowledgement

NAP

network access point

NAT

network address translation

NAV

network allocation vector

NCP

Network Control Protocol

NCSA

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

NDR

Network Data Representation

NFS

Network File System

NI

no increase

NIC

network interface card

NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology

NLANR

National Laboratory for Applied Network Research

NNTP

Network News Transfer Protocol

NOC

network operations center

NPL

National Physical Laboratory

NRZ

non-return to zero

NRZI

non-return to zero inverted

NS

name server

NSF

National Science Foundation

NSP

national service provider

NTP

Network Time Protocol

NV

Network Video

NVT

network virtual terminal

O

OC

optical carrier

OI

order information

ONC

Open Network Computing

OSF

Open Software Foundation

OSI

open systems interconnection

OSPF

open shortest path first

P

PAWS

protection against wrapped sequence numbers

PBX

private branch exchange

PC

personal computer

PCM

pulse code modulation

PCMCIA

Personal Computer Memory Card International Association

PCR

peak cell rate

PCS

Personal Communication Services

PDF

Portable Document Format

PDU

protocol data unit

PEM

privacy-enhanced mail

PGP

Pretty Good Privacy

PHB

per-hop behavior

PI

purchase instructions

PICS

Platform for Internet Content Selection

PIM

Protocol-Independent Multicast

PIN

personal identification number

PIO

programmed input/output

PMD

physical-medium-dependent

PNG

Portable Network Graphics

POP

Post Office Protocol

POTS

plain old telephone system

PPP

point-to-point protocol

PSH

push (pass to upper layer)

PT

payload type

PVC

permanent virtual circuit

Q

QCIF

Quarter Common Intermediate Format

QOS

quality of service

R

RAM

random-access memory

RAS

registration admission status

RBOC

regional Bell operating company

RED

random early detection

RFC

request for comments

RFT

richly formatted text

RIO

random early detection with in and out

RIP

Routing Information Protocol

RM

resource management

RMF

Rich Music Format

RMI

remote method invocation

RPC

remote procedure call

RPF

reverse path forwarding

RR

resource records

RSA

Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman

RSVP

Resource Reservation Setup Protocol

RTCP

Real-Time Control Protocol

RTF

rich text format

RTP

Real-Time Protocol

RTS

request to send

RTSP

Real-Time Streaming Protocol

RTT

round-trip time

S

SA

security agreement

SAN

system area network

SAR

segmentation and reassembly

SDH

synchronous digital hierarchy

SDK

software development kit

SEAL

Simple and Efficient Adaptation Layer

SET

secure electronic transactions

SGML

Standard Generalized Markup Language

SGMP

Simple Gateway Monitoring Protocol

SHA

Secure Hash Algorithm

SIFS

short inter-frame spacing

SIGCOMM

ACM Special Interest Group in Data Communications

SJIS

Shift Japanese Industrial Standard

SLA

service-level agreement

SMDS

Switched Multimegabit Data Service

SMI

Structure of Management Information

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SNA

Systems Network Architecture

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol

SONET

synchronous optical network

SPF

shortest path first

SQL

structured query language

SR

selective repeat

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer

SSRC

synchronization source identifier

STD

standard

STS

Synchronous Transport Signal

SVC

switched virtual circuit

SYN

synchronize

T

TC

transmission convergence

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol

TDM

time-division multiplexing

TFTP

Trivial File Transfer Protocol

TIFF

Tagged Image File Format

TINA

Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture

TLS

transport layer security

TLV

type, length, value

TMN

Telecommunications Management Network

TOS

type of service

TTL

time to live

U

UBR

unspecified bit rate

UCS

Universal Character Set

UDP

User Datagram Protocol

URG

urgent

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

URN

Uniform Resource Name

UTF

University Character Set Transformation Format

UTP

unshielded twisted pair

V

VBR

variable bit rate

VC

virtual circuit

VCI

virtual channel identifier

VM

virtual machine

VPI

virtual path identifier

VPN

virtual private network

VRML

Virtual Reality Modeling Language

W

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium

WAN

wide-area network

WAV

waveform

WFQ

weighted fair queuing

WSA

Windows Socket Architecture

WWW

World Wide Web

X

XBM

X Windows bitmap

XDR

External Data Representation

XML

Extensible Markup Language

XNS

Xerox Network Systems

XTP

Xpress Transport Protocol

Y

Z

This document is available on the World Wide Web as

http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/networks/acronyms.xhtml

created January 15, 2002
last revised January 21, 2002

John David Stone (stone@cs.grinnell.edu)