This section contains a collection of acronyms and commonly used terms. It also includes explanations of certain internet jargon.
ADU - Application Data Unit. "For any application there is a data element of some typical size which characterises it." (Clark (1997:218))
CD-ROM - Compact Disk Read Only Memory. One of the special types of Compact Disk designed for storing computer data. Once data is written to this type of disk it becomes 'read only' and no alterations or additions can be made to the disk.
Capacity -In this essay capacity is used to refer to the amount of internet data/traffic the IAP's physical infrastructure is capable of transmitting in a given time period. Capacity in this essay has been measured in terms megabytes per hour though a more commonly used measure is the amount of data per second.
Congestion Externality - This measures the value of the costs imposed on internet users by delay caused by other users. In this essay the size of the congestion externality is argued to be influenced by the application mix in use at the time of congestion and the characteristics of those applications (e.g. their ADU)
FIFO - First In First Out.
FTP - File Transfer Protocol. A client/server system which allows users to copy files from one computer on the internet to another. For more information see (Hahn & Stout (1994:298))
IAP - Internet Access Provider. In this paper IAP is used to describe a provider of internet access without distinguishing whether the provider is a commercial enterprise or a non-commercial enterprise such as a university or school.
IRC - Internet Relay Chat. A chat forum where users are able to send text messages in real time to each other and engage in conversations with other users.
ISP - Internet Service Provider. In this paper ISP is used to describe a commercial provider of internet access.
IP - Internet Protocol. The protocol which carries the raw data on the internet
IPv6 - The next generation of the Internet Protocol, which among other features, allows for 128 bit addressing and priority routing of traffic.
LAN - Local Area Network
Network Size - In the context of this essay network size does not measure the physical size or capacity of the network, but rather the number of users, web sites, IRC clients etc, which are connected to the internet.
Packet - Internet traffic is broken down and transmitted as a series of packets. For an explanation on TCP/IP and 'packets' see (Hahn & Stout (1994:29-31))
Spam - "2.To cause a newsgroup to be flooded with irrelevant or inappropriate messages. You can spam a newsgroup with as little as one well- (or ill-) planned message (e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women). This is often done with cross-posting (e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups). 3. To send many identical or nearly-identical messages separately to a large number of Usenet newsgroups. This is one sure way to infuriate nearly everyone on the Net." (Raymond (1996))
In recent times 'spam' has come to be used more generally to describe the internet equivalent of junk mail (unsolicited email sent to millions of users) and other forms of inappropriate mass advertising, such as repetitious advertising on inappropriate IRC channels.
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol. The protocol used to manage the flow of data on the internet.
WAN - Wide Area Network.
WWW - World Wide Web
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