progressive scan. See also Interlacing.
Protocol - A special set of rules governing how two entities will communicate. Protocols are found at many levels of communication, and there are hardware protocols and software protocols.
Proxy server - In an organisation that uses the Internet, a proxy server acts as an intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet. This provides security, administrative control, and a caching service. Any proxy server associated with a gateway server, or part of a gateway server, effectively separates the organisation’s network from the outside network and the local firewall. It is the firewall server that protects the network against outside intrusion.
A proxy server receives requests for Internet services (such as web page requests) from many users. If the proxy server is also a cache server, it looks in its local cache of previously downloaded web pages. If it finds the page, it is returned to the user without forwarding the request to the Internet. If the page is not in the cache, the proxy server, acting as a client on behalf of the user, uses one of its own IP addresses to request the page from another server over the Internet. When the requested page is returned, the proxy server forwards it to the user that originally requested it.
P-VOP - See VOP.
Resolution - Image resolution is a measure of how much detail a digital image can hold: the greater the resolution, the greater the level of detail. Resolution can be specified as the number of pixel-columns (width) by the number of pixel-rows (height), e.g. 320x240.
Alternatively, the total number of pixels (usually in megapixels) in the image can be used. In analog systems it is also common to use other format designations, such as CIF, QCIF, 4CIF, etc.
RTCP (Real-Time Control Protocol) - RTCP provides support for real-time conferencing of groups of any size within an intranet. This support includes source identification and support for gateways like audio and video bridges as well as multicast-to-unicast translators.
RTCP offers quality-of-service feedback from receivers to the multicast group as well as support for the synchronization of different media streams.
RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) - RTP is an Internet protocol for the transport of real-time data, e.g. audio and video. It can be used for media-on-demand as well as interactive services such as Internet telephony.
RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) - RTSP is a control protocol, and a starting point for negotiating transports such as RTP, multicast and Unicast, and for negotiating codecs.
RTSP can be considered a "remote control" for controlling the media stream delivered by a media server. RTSP servers typically use RTP as the protocol for the actual transport of audio/video data.
Router - A device that determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded on its way to its final destination. A router creates and/or maintains a special routing table that stores information on how best to reach certain destinations. A router is sometimes included as part of a network switch. See also switch.
Server - In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same or other computers. A computer running a server program is also frequently referred to as a server. In practice, the server may contain any number of server and client programs. A web server is the computer program that supplies the requested HTML pages or files to the client (browser).
Sharpness - This is the control of fine detail within a picture. This feature was originally introduced into color TV sets that used notch filter decoders. This filter took away all high frequency detail in the black and white region of the picture. The sharpness control attempted to put some of that detail back in the picture. Sharpness controls are mostly superfluous in today's high-end TVs. The only logical requirement for it nowadays is on a VHS machine.
Simplex - In simplex operation, a network cable or communications channel can only send information in one direction.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - SMTP is used for sending and receiving e-mail. However, as it is "simple," it is limited in its ability to queue messages at the receiving end, and is usually used with one of two other protocols, POP3 or IMAP. These other protocols allow the user to save messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the server.
SMTP authentication is an extension of SMTP, whereby the client is required to log into the mail server before or during the sending of email. It can be used to allow legitimate users to send email while denying the service to unauthorized users, such as spammers.
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) - SNMP forms part of the Internet Protocol suite, as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force. The protocol can support monitoring of network-attached devices for any conditions that warrant administrative attention.
Sockets - Sockets are a method for communication between a client program and a server program over a network. A socket is defined as "the endpoint in a connection." Sockets are created and used with a set of programming requests or "function calls" sometimes called the sockets application programming interface (API).
SSL/TSL (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security)
These two protocols (SSL is succeeded by TSL) are cryptographic protocols that provide secure communication on a network. SSL is commonly used over HTTP to form HTTPS, as used e.g. on the Internet for electronic financial transactions. SSL uses public key certificates to verify the
