Digital Environments Key Terms

Electromagnetic interference: This is the disruption of electronic operations and electronic operations and electronic devices from electronic emissions. EMI travels in waves and can cause devices to malfunction (which can result in dangerous outcomes)

Radio frequency interference: This unwanted signals in the radio frequency spectrum used by  Wi-Fi networks (most commonly 2.4GHz and 5Ghz). Some other electronic devices use the same radio waves as Wi-Fi networks. This causes the prevention of the transmission of data and can create delays and performance degradation.

External bus: Sometimes referred to as the expansion bus. This is a connection between a computer and external devices.

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC): A microchip designed for a specific application such as a handheld digital device or as a transmission protocol.

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA): An integrated circuit consisting of internal hardware blocks. The hardware blocks have user-programmable interconnects to enable customization of operations for a specific application

Data redundancy: This is a condition that is created within data storage technology where the same piece of data is held in two separate places. Whenever data is repeated it is data redundancy. Although it can occur by accident, it can also be done deliberately for the backing up and recovery of data.

Point-to-point networks: Sometimes referred to as P2P, this is a data link providing a path from one fixed point to another. This streamlines communication links between points.

Point-to-multiple networks: This is where a single data link is shared by more than two devices.

Last mile connectivity: This refers to the final stage of the telecommunications network, delivery to the end user.

Eavesdropping: Also referred to as sniffing or snooping. Eavesdropping is when someone takes advantage of an unsafe or insecure network in order to steal information transmitted through digital devices

Media Access Control (MAC): This is a unique code in the devices network interface Card, identifying the physical device.

Encapsulation: Information is taken from a higher level and a header is added to it, treating the higher layer information as data. The internet protocol packet is then encapsulated into a layer 2 Ethernet frame. The frame is then converted into bits at layer 1 and sent across the local network.

Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification: An international telecommunications standard permitting broadband data transfer using the same cable systems that were used for transmitting cable television signals.

Root bridge: A bridge that is located at the starting point of a wireless infrastructure topology. It is usually connected tot the main wired backbone local area network.

Non-root bridge: Often referred to as a remote or repeater bridge. It establishes a connection to the root bridge or another repeater bridge to connect the wired local area network to part of the bridged LAN.

Kernel: A computer program that is the core of an operating system. An operating system has control over the computer system and therefore the kernel also has control over all aspects of the system. It is the most important component of an operating system. When a computer starts up, the kernel is the first program the kernel has to control the rest of the start-up process for the operating system. The kernel remain in memory until the operating system is shut down. It is responsible for low-level tasks such as memory and disk management, task management and device management. It is an interface between the user and the hardware components of the computer system.

Middle-ware: Software which is 'in the middle' of the operating system and its active applications. It allows communication and data management for distributed applications by operating as a hidden translation

Hyperlink: Can be displayed as an icon, a graphic or text, and links to another file or object. The World Wide Web is comprised of trillions of hyperlinks that link pages and files to one another. A hyperlink is usually underlined and displayed in blue

Uniform resource identifier: This is also called the internet address, web address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL)(Which is a form of URI). These terms  are standardized naming conventions used to address documents accessible over the internet and intranet.

Search Engine: This is software that is accessed via the internet which searches a database of information which searches a database of information according to the query that has been input by the user. The search engine will provide a list of results that best match what the user is trying to find based on the search criteria that was entered available, for example Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.