APCSP Big Idea 4

computing device

a physical artifact that can run a program. some examples include computers, tablets, servers, routers, and smart sensors

computing system

a group of computing devices and programs working together for a common purpose

computing network

a group of interconnected computing devices capable of sending or receiving data. a computer network is a type of computing system

path

a sequence of directly connected computing devices that begins at the sender and ends at the receiver

routing

the process of finding a path from sender to receiver

bandwith

the maximum amount of data that can be sent in a fixed amount of time over a computer network. bandwidth is usually measured in bits per second. it measures how much data can be sent over a specific connection in a given amount of time.

the internet

a computer network consisting of interconnected networks that use standardized, open (non proprietary) communication protocols

protocol

an agreed-upon set of rules that specify the behavior of a system.

scalability

the capacity for a system to change in size and scale to meet new demands.

data stream

information passed through the Internet

packets

an encapsulated chunk of data passed through a network. may arrive at the destination in order, out of order, or not at all

ip address

a protocol for sending data across the Internet that assigns unique numbers (IP addresses) to each connected device.

transmission control protocol (tcp)

a protocol for sending packets that does error-checking to ensure all packets are received and properly ordered

user data-gram protocol (udp)

a protocol for sending packets quickly with minimal error-checking and no re sending of dropped packets

http

a protocol used by the World Wide Web, which uses the Internet

https

a protocol used for secure communication. the same as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), but with added security measures to ensure that data transmitted between a web browser and a website is encrypted and secure

dns (domain name system)

the system responsible for translating domain names like example.com into IP addresses

tld (top level domain)

highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS) of the internet. It appears at the end of a domain name. ".com", ".org", and ".edu".

second level domain

what distinguishes one website or entity from another within the same top-level domain. It is commonly used to establish a brand identity, company name, unique to the company or organization that registers it. in a domain name like "example.com":

redundancy

the inclusion of extra components/network devices and lines of communication to help ensure network availability that can be used to mitigate failure of a system if other components fail.

fault tolerance

when a system can support failures and still continue to function. this is important because elements of complex systems fail at unexpected times, often in groups, and fault tolerance allows users to continue to use the network

sequential computing

a computational model in which operations are performed in order one at a time. a sequential solution takes as long as the sum of all of its steps

parallel computing

a computational model where the program is broken into multiple smaller sequential computing operations, some of which are performed simultaneously.

speedup

measured in the time is took to complete the task sequentially divided by the time it took to complete the task when done in parallel

distributed computing

a computational model in which multiple devices are used to run a program. this allows problems to be solved that could not be solved on a single computer and allows much larger problems to be solved quicker than they could using a single computer

world wide web (www)

network of web pages, programs, and files that are accessible via URLs. one of the web applications built on top of Internet protocols.