1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

802.11 Access Point (AP): Any entity that has IEEE 802.11 functionality and provides access to the distribution services, via the wireless medium for associated stations (STAs).

ASCII: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an 8-bit character-encoding scheme based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. ASCII refers to a single 8-bit ASCII character or an array of 8-bit ASCII characters with the high bit of each character set to zero.

basic service set identifier (BSSID): A 48-bit structure that is used to identify an entity such as the access point in a wireless network. This is typically a MAC address.

Beacon: A management frame that contains all of the information required to connect to a network. In a WLAN, Beacon frames are periodically transmitted to announce the presence of the network.

big-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the most significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

Domain Name System (DNS): A hierarchical, distributed database that contains mappings of domain names to various types of data, such as IP addresses. DNS enables the location of computers and services by user-friendly names, and it also enables the discovery of other information stored in the database.

friendly name: A name for a user or object that can be read and understood easily by a human.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

information element (IE): In a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) scenario, descriptive information consisting of informative type-length-values that specify the possible and currently deployed configuration methods for a device. The IE is transferred and added to the Beacon and Probe Response frames, and optionally to the Probe Request frame and associated request and response messages.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4): An Internet protocol that has 32-bit source and destination addresses. IPv4 is the predecessor of IPv6.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6): A revised version of the Internet Protocol (IP) designed to address growth on the Internet. Improvements include a 128-bit IP address size, expanded routing capabilities, and support for authentication and privacy.

organizationally unique identifier (OUI): A unique 24-bit string that uniquely identifies a vendor, manufacturer, or organization on a worldwide l basis, as specified in [IEEE-OUI]. The OUI is used to help distinguish both physical devices and software, such as a network protocol, that belong to one entity from those that belong to another.

peer to peer (P2P): An Internet-based networking option in which two or more computers connect directly to each other to communicate and share files without use of a central server.

Probe Request: A frame that contains the advertisement IE for a device that is seeking to establish a connection with a proximate device. The Probe Request frame is defined in the Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Specification v1.2 [WF-P2P1.2] section 4.2.2.

Probe Response: A frame that contains the advertisement IE for a device. The Probe Response is sent in response to a Probe Request. The Probe Response frame is defined in the Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Specification v1.2 [WF-P2P1.2] section 4.2.3.

Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP): A protocol used for transferring real-time multimedia data (for example, audio and video) between a server and a client, as specified in [RFC2326]. It is a streaming protocol; this means that RTSP attempts to facilitate scenarios in which the multimedia data is being simultaneously transferred and rendered (that is, video is displayed and audio is played).

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): A unique identifier for a distinct product or service that is used as a source of revenue. For example, a SKU can represent a retail product such as software that is sold through a channel, a subscription program, or an online service such as MSDN.

subnet: A logical division of a network. Subnets provide a multilevel hierarchical routing structure for the Internet. On TCP/IP networks, subnets are defined as all devices whose IP addresses have the same prefix. Subnets are useful for both security and performance reasons. In general, broadcast messages are scoped to within a single subnet. For more information about subnets, see [RFC1812].

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): A protocol used with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. TCP handles keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.

type-length-value (TLV): A property of a network interface, so named because each property is composed of a Type field, a Length field, and a value.

UTF-16: A standard for encoding Unicode characters, defined in the Unicode standard, in which the most commonly used characters are defined as double-byte characters. Unless specified otherwise, this term refers to the UTF-16 encoding form specified in [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] section 3.9.

virtual private network (VPN): A network that provides secure access to a private network over public infrastructure.

Wi-Fi Direct (WFD): A standard that allows Wi-Fi devices to connect to each other without requiring a wireless access point (WAP). This standard enables WFD devices to transfer data directly among each other resulting in significant reductions in setup.

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS): A computing standard that attempts to allow easy establishment of a secure wireless home network. This standard was formerly known as Wi-Fi Simple Config.

wireless access point (WAP): A wireless network access server (NAS) that implements 802.11.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.