CORDIS Archive : ISTweb | Research Networking

Glossary

General glossary of terms

Action Line: Activities within the IST Programme are organised into Action Lines, which is a theme along which 'actions' or projects are allocated and carried out.
Ambient intelligent landscape: Ambient intelligent landscape is an environment in which our surroundings act as a natural interface to access a universe of integrated intelligent services. This is at the heart of the IST Programme vision developed by the programme's advisory group (ISTAG).
Cluster: Project clusters are a defined group of RTD projects benefiting from synergies - to maximise added value within a given field and establish a critical mass of resources at the European level.
(the) Community / European Community: Applied specifically to mean the 15 European nations or Member States in the European Union (EU).
Cross-Programme: Applies to research activities and projects affecting more than one action line or programme within the European Commission.
Continuous Submission (Scheme): Proposals can be submitted under the Continuous Submission Scheme for Support Measures and Grant Applications (Partial support for Conferences, Workshops, Seminars and Exhibitions). This differs from a Fixed Deadline Call for Proposals, which requires project applications to be submitted according to a fixed schedule.
DG: Directorate-General of the European Commission.
Euro: Currency of the European Union.
eEurope: An initiative within the EU to ensure Europe benefits from the emerging Information Society: operating along 3 key Action Lines (or objectives): 1. Cheaper, faster, secure internet, 2. Investing in people and skills, 3. Stimulate the use of the internet.
Fifth Framework Programme (FP5): Commission programme for the period1998-2002 encompassing four thematic programmes (Key Actions): Quality of life & management of living resources; User friendly information society; Competitive and sustainable growth; Energy, environment and sustainable development, AND three horizontal programmes: Confirming the international role of community research; Promotion of innovation and encouragement of participation of SMEs; Improving human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base.
(the) Institutions / European Institutions: Five institutions of the European Union; the Parliament, the (European) Commission, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors. The Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions are also widely regarded as Institutions, though technically not - capitalise all.
Information Society: A society influenced and impacted by the changes taking place in the information, communications and technology (ICT) sectors.
IST: Information Society Technologies (Programme) provides a single and integrated approach to the convergence of information processing, communications and media technologies. For more information, definitions and IST specific terminology visit IST Glossary
Key Action: Key Action is one of the major innovations of the Fifth Framework Programme. The Key Action is defined as a cluster of projects - small and large - directed toward a common goal and linked to the major economic and social objectives of the EU.
Multimedia (see "multimedia corner" for more terms and references): The use of computers and/or digital functions to present various forms of visual and audio media in a meaningful context. Incorporating: animation, audio elements, CD-ROM, computer entertainment, convergence media, data compression, DVD, graphics and graphics interfaces, hypermedia, text, video, videoconferencing, virtual reality, ... and an ever expanding list of technologies targeting this growth area.
(Framework) Programme: A broad programme outlining the actions to be taken by the Commission over a stated period of time (e.g. Fourth Framework Programme, or FP4, 1994-1998; and Fifth Framework Programme, or FP5, 1998-2002, FP6 2002-2006).
Proposer: A person or organisation responding to a call for proposal from the Commission. The resulting noun comes from the root verb 'to propose' by submitting a proposal
RTD vs. R&D: RTD = Research and Technological Development (relates to activities outlined in the Commission's Framework Programmes) & R&D = Research & Development (generic terms).
telematics: A compound noun combining the words 'Tele' (meaning far) and 'matics' most probably from informatics. The application of information and communications technologies and services, usually in direct combination. A Telematics Application is a system or service meeting user needs (i.e. Telematics Applications within the 4th Framework Programme).

Glossary of Research Networking terms

#

3G: Third Generation wireless
4G: Fourth Generation
3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Program

A

ACL: Agent Communication Language
ADSL: Assymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
AP: Access Point
API: Application Programming Interface
AS: Autonomous System
ASP: Application Service Provider
ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATR: Advanced Terabit Router

B

BGP: Border Gateway Protocol
BTS: Base Transceiver Station

C

CAE: Computer Aided Engineering
CATV: Comunity Antenna Television or cable TV
CFD: Computanional Fluid Dynamics
CPA: Cross Programme Action
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CSCW: Computer Supported Co-operative Work

D

DG: Directorate General
DL: Digital Library
DNS: Domain Name System
DOCSIS: Data over Cable Service Interface Specification
DSCP: Differentiated Service Code Point
DSLAM: Digital Subscriber Line Access Module
DWDM: Dense Wavelength Sivision Multiplexing

E

EC: European Commission
EDA: European Distributed Access
ERA: European Research Area
EU: European Union

F

FP6: Framework Programme 6
FTP: File Transfer Protocol

G

GAT: GRID Application Toolkit
GbE: Gigabit Ethernet
Gbps: Gigabits per second
GGF: Global GRID Forum
GGSN: GPRS Gateway Support Node
(G)MPLS: (Generalised) Multiprotocol Layer Switching
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service
GTRN: Global Terabit Research Network

H

HA: High Availability
HLR: Home Location Register
HPC: High Performance Computing
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTPS: HTTP over Secure Socket Layer

I

ICT: Information and Communication Technologies
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
IP: Internet Protocol
IPsec: IP Security
IPv4: Internet Protocol version 4
IPv6: Internet Protocol version 6
IRC: Internet Relay Chat
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network
ISP: Internet Service Provider
IST: Information Society Technologies
IX: Internet Exchange

J

K

L

LAN: Local Area Network
LAP: Local Access Point
LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LHC: Large Hadron Collider
LMDS: Local Multipoint Distribution Systems
LSP: Labelled Switched Paths

M

Mbps: Megabits per second
MNP: Microcom Networkin Protocol
MoU: Memorandum of Understanding
MPI: Message passing Interface
MPLS: Multiprotocol Label Switching

N

NNI: Network to Network Interface
NoE: Network of Excellence
NREN: National Research and Education Network

O

P

PDA: Personal Digital Assistant
POS: Point-of-sale Terminal

Q

QoS: Quality of Service

R

R&D: Research and Development
RAN: Radio Access Network
RN: Research Network
RSVP: Resource Reservation Protocol
RTD: Research and Technology Development

S

SGSN: Serving Gateway Support Node
SLA: Service Level Agreement
SSL: Secure Socket Layer

T

Tbps: Terabits per person
TCP: Transmission Control Protocol
TEN: Trans-European Network
TF-NGN: Task Force for next Generation Networks

U

V

VPN: Virtual Private Network

W

WAN: Wide Area Network
WDM: Wavelenght Division Multiplexing
WLAN: Wireless LAN
WLL: Wireless Local Loop
WWG: WOrld Wide GRID

X

xDSL: Denotes various Digital Subscriber Lines

Y

Z

More glossaries and references

More glossary information and references can be found at:

Projects List
Glossary on the Information Society DG's Services page
Index of terms on FP5
Glossary on CORDIS
European Commission ABC on Europa
Glossary on Grid terminology - Alice
Glossary of Multimedia terms