Edexcel GCSE Computer Science
5.3.1: understand what is meant by the internet and how the internet is structured (IP addressing, routers)
5.3.1: understand what is meant by the internet and how the internet is structured (IP addressing, routers)
| Keyword | Definition |
|---|---|
| Internet Service Provider | a company which provides network access to the Internet to a company or individual (for a fee) |
| IP address | a series of bytes which can be used to identify a computer or group of computers on a network |
| IPv4 | a commonly used type of IP address which only uses 4 bytes (32 bits) to store the address, meaning only 4 billion address are available |
| IPv6 | a type of IP address which uses 16 bytes (128 bits) to store addresses so that there are plenty available for all the people and devices connected to the Internet |
| Local Area Network | a network made up of multiple devices connected together over a limited geographical area |
| Packet switching | the process of splitting data into small chunks which are then transmitted between two computers over the Internet by finding the most efficient route for data through all the possible connections between them. |
| Router | device with multiple network connections which forwards network traffic to the correct destination |
| The Internet | the largest WAN in the world: an interconnected network of networks |
| Wide Area Network | a network made up of multiple LANs over a large geographical area |
| World Wide Web | a service that provides access to a huge quantity of information, made possible by protocols like HTTP and HTTPS over the Internet |
