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(suggestions for additions of acronyms or terms)
| Acronym | Description |
|---|---|
| I2L | Integrated Injected Logic |
| I-D | Internet-Drafts are working documents of the IETF, its Areas, and its Working Groups. As the name implies, Internet-Drafts are draft documents. They are valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. Very often, I-Ds are precursors to RFCs. |
| IAB | Internet Architecture Board. Formally called the Internet Activities Board. The technical body that oversees the development of the Internet suite of protocols (commonly referred to as "TCP/IP"). It has two task forces (the IRTF and the IETF) each charged with investigating a particular area. |
| IAD | Integrated Access Device |
| IAHC | Internet International Ad Hoc Committee. The IAHC is a coalition of participants from the broad Internet community, working to satisfy the requirement for enhancements to the Internet's global Domain Name System (DNS). |
| IANA | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The entity responsible for assigning numbers in the Internet Suite of Protocols. |
| ICMP | Internet Control Message Protocol. The protocol used to handle errors and control messages at the IP layer. ICMP is actually part of the IP protocol. |
| ICS | Industrial Control System |
| ID | Identification |
| IEC | Inter-Exchange Carrier |
| IED | Intelligent Electronic Device |
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. A professional organization, which, as a part of its services to the community, performs some pre-standardization work for OSI. |
| IEEE 802.1d | An algorithm used to prevent bridging loops by creating a spanning tree. |
| IEEE 802.2 | An IEEE LAN protocol that specifies an implementation of the LLC sub-layer of the data link layer. It handles errors, framing, flow control, network layer (Layer 3) service interface, and is used in LANs. |
| IEEE 802.3 | A physical layer standard specifying a linear bus network LAN with a CSMA I CD access method on a bus topology. Ethernet follows the 802.3 standard, transmitting at 10 megabits per second. This is the most common local area network specification. Physical variations of IEEE 802.3 include 10-Base-2 and 10-Base-T. |
| IEEE 1613 | IEEE standard environmental and resting requirements for communications networking devices installed in electric power substations |
| IEPG | Internet Engineering Planning Group A group, primarily composed of Internet service operators, whose goal is to promote a globally coordinated Internet operating environment. Membership is open to all. |
| IESG | Internet Engineering Steering Group. The executive committee of the IETF. |
| IETF | Internet Engineering Task Force. One of the task forces of the IAB. The IETF is responsible for solving short-term engineering needs of the Internet. It has over 60 Working Groups. |
| IFIP | International Federation for Information Procession. A research organization that performs substantive pre-standardization work for OSI. IFIP is noted for having formalized the original Message Handling System(MHS) model, as embodied in X.400. |
| I/O | Input / Output |
| IGP | Interior Gateway Protocol. The protocol used to exchange routing information between collaborating routers on the internet. |
| IGRP | Internet Gateway Routing Protocol. A proprietary IGP used by Cisco System's routers. |
| IINREN | Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network. An evolving operating network system. Near term research and development activities will provide for the smooth evolution of this networking infrastructure into the future gigabit NREN. |
| IIOP | Internet Inter-ORB Protocol. The protocol used in the CORBA framework for accessing objects across the Internet |
| ILEC | Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier is the telephone company that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted. A new company entering a given market since that date is known as a CLEC. |
| IMA | Inverse Multiplexing over ATM allows an ATM cell stream to be broken up and transmitted over multiple T1 or E1 links and reassembled on the other end of the link. This is used in situations where the bandwidth required to support the application is greater than a T1 or E1 but the customer does not want the expense of a T3 or E3. |
| IMAP | Internet Message Access Protocol. A method of accessing electronic mail or bulletin board messages that are kept on a (possibly shared) mail server. IMAP permits a "client" e-mail program to access remote message stores as if they were local. For example, e-mail stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a notebook computer while traveling, without the need to transfer messages or files back and forth between these computers. IMAP can be regarded as the next generation POP. |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion. One of many, many short-form phrases seen in e-mail messages, newsgroups and so on. Whole dictionaries could be put together just listing such acronym phrases. |
| IMP | Interface Message Processor. This historic term refers to the nodes in the original ARPANET. |
| IMUX | (Inverse Multiplexer) An inverse multiplexer combines multiple network channels to one aggregate higher speed pipe for transmitting video or data. It does this dynamically, to provide bandwidth on demand, in multiples of 56 or 64 Kbps. This functionality is used for applications such as video conferencing, LAN to LAN connections, or disaster recovery that require a large amount of bandwidth for a time, but do not warrant permanently dedicating bandwidth to that application. |
| in-band signaling | Signaling made up of tones which pass within the voice frequency band and are carried along the same circuit as the talk path being established by the signals. Virtually all signaling (request for service, dialing, disconnect, etc.) in the U.S. is in-band signaling. Most of that signaling is MF (Multi-Frequency) dialing. The more modern form of signaling is out-of-band. |
| information element | The name for the data fields within an ISDN Layer 3 message. |
| interworking | Communication between two types of networks or end equipment. This may or may not involve a difference in signaling or protocol elements supported. |
| IP | Internet Protocol specifies the format of the packets and the addressing method. |
| IPLC | International Private Leased Circuit |
| INTAP | interoperability Technology Association for Information Processing. The technical organization which has the official charter to develop Japanese OSI profiles and conformance tests. |
| interexchange carrier | Since divestiture, any carrier registered with the FCC authorized to carry customer transmissions between LATAs interstate, or if approved by a state public utility commission, intrastate. Includes carriers such as AT&T Communications, Satellite Business Systems, GTE Telenet, GTE Sprint, and MCI. |
| Interface | The point at which devices connect. |
| intermediate system | An OSI system which is not an end system, but which serves instead to relay communications between end systems. See repeater, bridge, router. |
| internet | A collection of networks interconnected by a set of routers which allow them to function as a single, large virtual network. |
| Internet | (note the capital "I") The largest internet in the world consisting of large national backbone nets (such as MILNET, NSFNET, and CREN) and a myriad of regional and local campus networks all over the world. The Internet uses the Internet protocol suite. To be on the Internet you must have IP connectivity, i.e., be able to Telnet to-or ping-other systems. Networks with only email connectivity are not actually classified as being on the Internet. |
| lnternet address | An IP address that uniquely identifies a node on an internet. An Internet address (capital "I"), uniquely identifies a node on the Internet. See dotted decimal notation, IP address. |
| Internet Protocol | A TCP/IP protocol describing software that tracks the Internet address of nodes, routes outgoing message, and recognizes incoming messages. Used in gateways to connect networks at OSI network Level 3 and above. |
| Internet Telephony | Generic term used to describe various approaches to running voice telephony over IP. |
| InterNIC | A five year project, partially supported by the National Science Foundation, to provide network information services to the networking community. |
| IONL | Internal Organization of the Network Layer. The OSI standard for the detailed architecture of the Network Layer. Basically, it partitions the Network layer into subnetworks interconnected by convergence protocols (equivalent to internet working protocols), creating what the Internet community calls a catenet or internet. |
| IoT | Internet of Things |
| IP, Ipv4 | Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (version 4), defined in RFC 791, is the network layer for the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. It is a connection-less, best-effort packet switching protocol. |
| IP address | The 32-bit address defined by the Internet Protocol in RFC 791. It is usually represented in dotted decimal notation. See Internet address, dotted decimal notation. |
| IP Version 6 | New IP addressing standard currently being developed which will utilize a 128-bit number identifier. |
| IPng, Ipv6 | Internet Protocol Next Generataion. IPv6 (version 5 is a stream protocol used Version 6 for special applications) is a new version of the Internet Protocol which is designed to be an evolutionary step from its predecessor, version 4. There are many RFCs defining various portions of the protocol, its auxiliary protocols, and the transition plan from IPv4. The core RFCs are 1883 through 1886. |
| IP datagram | The Fundamental unit of information passed across the Internet. Contains source and destination addresses along with data and a number of fields which define such things as the length of the datagram, the header checksum, and flags to say whether the datagram can be (or has been) fragmented. |
| IPX | Internetwork Packet Exchange. The Novell NetWare protocol that provides datagram delivery of messages. |
| IR | Internet Registry The LANA has the discretionary authority to delegate portions of its responsibility and, with respect to network address and Autonomous System identifiers, has lodged this responsibility with an IR. |
| IRC | Internet Relay Chat A world-wide "party line" protocol that allows one to converse with others in real time. IRC is structured as a network of servers, each of which accepts connections from client programs, one per user. |
| IRTF | Internet Research Task Force. The group responsible for research and development of the Internet protocol suite. |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN combines voice and digital network services in a single medium making it possible to offer customers digital data services as well as voice connections through a single twisted pair wire. The standards that define ISDN are specified by CCITT. |
| IS-IS | Intermediate system to Intermediate system protocol. The OSI protocol by which intermediate systems exchange routing information. |
| ISM | Bands are radio frequencies designated by the FCC for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical applications. The use of these frequencies does not require a license but there are are specific limitations to the transmission output. The Adtran Tracer is an example of a product designed for such uses. |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| ISOC | Internet Society.A non-profit organization that fosters the voluntary interconnection of computer networks into a global communications and information infrastructure. The ISOC is the umbrella organization for the JAB, IETF and IRTF. ISOC organizes an annual conference called INET. |
| ISODE | ISO Development Environment. A popular implementation of the upper layers of OSI. Pronounced "eye-so-dee-eee." |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider. Any of a number of companies that sell Internet access. |
| IT | Information Technology - IT is typically used within the context of business operations |
| ITU | International Telecommunications Union. |
| IVR | Interactive Voice Response. Term used to describe systems that provide information in the form of recorded messages over telephone lines in response to user input in the form of spoken words or more commonly DTMF signaling. Examples include banks that allow you to check your balance from any telephone and automated stock quote systems. |
| IXC | Inter Exchange Carrier. Generic name for long-distance carriers in the United States. Examples include AT&T, MCI and Sprint. |