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facilities
The term "facilities" refers to the physical media that are necessary to provide a telecommunication service. For example, twisted pairs of copper wire, or fiber optic cables, are facilities. Private facilities are owned and used by a private organization. Public facilities are leased from a telecommunication carrier, such as a local telephone company or long-distance service provider.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
FTP is an Application Layer protocol used in TCP/IP networks. FTP is commonly used to transfer files between hosts on the Internet.
firewall
A firewall is a controlled access point between sections of the same network, designed to confine problems to one section. It is also a controlled access between a private network and public network, such as the Internet, usually implemented with a router and special firewall software.
FireWire
FireWire is a new external bus that can connect up to 63 devices and transfer up to 400 Mbps. FireWire is good for real-time applications, such as video, because it transfers data at a guaranteed and predictable rate. FireWire is a trademark of Apple Computer, who developed the technology. Other companies market the same technology under different names.
flow control
Flow control is the process of controlling the volume of data sent between two computer systems. Practically every data communication protocol contains some form of flow control to keep the sending computer from sending too much data to the receiving node.
fractional T1 (FT1)
FT1 is a telephone company service that provides data rates from 64 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps, by allowing a user to purchase one or more channels of a T1 link. If the customer needs less bandwidth than 1.544 Mbps, FT1 is a low-cost alternative to purchasing a full T1.
frame
A frame is a unit of information processed by the Data Link Layer. Each frame contains the hardware address (NIC address) of its destination node. Control frames are used to set up and manage a communications link. Information frames contain packets from the Network Layer above. The format of each frame depends on the Data Link Layer protocol in use (for example, Ethernet or Token Ring).
frame relay
Frame relay is a packet-forwarding WAN protocol that normally operates at speeds of 56 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps.
frequency
Frequency is the number of times per second that a wave swings back and forth in a cycle from its beginning point to its ending point. It is the number of wave crests or cycles that passes a fixed point during a particular period of time.
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