Glossary - G

Gateway

An entrance into and exit out of a communications network. In data communications, a gateway is a node on a network that connects two otherwise incompatible networks.

Gbps

(unit, communications)

Gigabits per second
Transmission speed or rate of one billion bits per second. See Kbps, Gbps.

GCAC

Generic Connection Admission Control (network, control)

GCRA

Generic Cell Rate Algorithm (ATM)
A reference model proposed by the ATM Forum for defining cell-rate conformance in terms of certain traffic parameters. It is usually referred as the Leaky Bucket algorithm (see also traffic shaping).

GDMO

Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects (object)
Describes CMIP management Information.

GEA

Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (standard, vendor consortium)
Vendor consortium organisation on networking standards. It focuses on Gigabit Ethernet management.
GEA site: http://www.gigabit-ethernet.org/.

GFC

Generic Flow Control (ATM)
Four priority bits in an ATM header. The default setting - four 0 - indicates that the cell is uncontrolled; thus it does not take precedence over another cell when contending for a virtual circuit. Setting any of the bits in the GFC field tells the target end-station that the switch can implement some form of congestion control; the end-station echoes this bit back to the switch to confirm that it can set priorities. The switch and end-station could use the GFC field to prioritize voice over video, for example, or indicate that both voice and video take precedence over other types of data.

GIF

Graphic Interchange Format (graphic, Internet)
Maybe the most commonly used image format in web pages. Images are coded on 8 bits (256 colors) and may be interlaced. This format also allows to create animated images. It is possible to create compressed GIF images, but with a proprietary algorithm; in this case, to create compressed GIF images, people are supposed to pay royalties.

GIP

Global Internet Project (network, Internet)
Lobby created the 11Th December 1996 by British Telecom, Deutch Telecom, IBM, Visa International, AT&T, MCI, Oracle, Netscape to defend their common interests on Internet, principally against regulation laws for networks promoted by governments.
Web site: http://www.gip.org/.

GIX

Global Internet eXchange (network, Internet)
Example of neutral interconnect.

GML

Generalized Markup Language

Gopher (network, protocol, Internet)

A popular distributed document retrieval system which started as a Campus Wide Information System at the University of Minnesota. Many hosts on the Internet now run Gopher servers which provide a menu of documents. A document may be a plain text file, sound, image, submenu or other Gopher object type. It may be stored on another host or may provide the ability to search through certain files for a given string (VERONICA).
Gopher is defined in RFC1436.
To access Gopher you need a Gopher client. Next you need to know the name of a gopher server. A good place to start is gopher.micro.umn.edu.
The latest releases of gopher software (including client software) are available via anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu in the /pub/gopher directory.
Gopher has been largely superceded by the World-Wide Web, a similar document retrieval system which includes access to Gopher documents as one of its access schemes.

Gorilla Arm

The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s. It seems the designers of all those spiffy touch-menu systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and oversized - the operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch screen and feels like one afterwards. This is now considered a classic cautionary tale to human-factors designers; "Remember the gorilla arm!" is shorthand for "How is this going to fly in *real* use?".

Gosip

Government OSI Procurement Specification (network)

Group

A group of sectors on a hard disk drive that is addressed as one logical unit by the operating system.

Groupware (tool)

Software tools and technology to support groups of people working together on a project, often at different sites. The software "Lotus Notes" is a groupware software. Other name: Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

GSM

Global System for Mobile communications (communications)
A standard for A two-way, pan-European digital cellular system (in the process of being) adopted by over 60 countries. The GSM standard is currently used in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. Its specification is in line with ISDN and ITU-TS System 7 (SS7) signaling. GSM services include current digital subscriber services and the unique Short Message Service - a superior form of paging offering up to 160 alphanumeric characters with guaranteed delivery.
In the USA trial systems akin to the related Digital Cellular System (DCS) 18000 have been set up in several metropolitan areas.

gTLD

Generic Top Level Domain (network, Internet)
The 2 or 3 letter extension used in domain names. For instance: .uk, .com, .net, .org... The ICANN (Internet for Addressing Names) is responsible for these gTLD. Due to the lack of available domain names for .com, .net and .org, the ICANN has recently released (november 2000) 7 new gTLD: .biz, .info, .pro, .museum, .aero, .name and .coop.

GTS

Generic Traffic Shaping
A technology based on RSVP that serves as a filter to stop specific hosts or applications from sending too much network traffic, too fast.

GUS

Guide to the Use of Standards (standard, network)

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