Monday, June 4, 2001		Bits & Bytes

ebXML: Short for electronic business Extensible Markup Language, a modular suite of specifications for standardizing XML globally in order to facilitate trade between organizations regardless of size. The specification gives businesses a standard method to exchange XML-based business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes.

ETOM: Short for electron-trapping optical memory, it was developed by Optex. ETOM is a method of erasable optical storage. Information is written, or stored, by a low-power laser tuned to a specific frequency. The laser elevates the energy level of electrons to a trapped state. The data is read by a second laser that returns the elevated electrons to their ground state.

BECN: Short for backward explicit congestion notification. It is a frame relay message that notifies the sending device that there is congestion in the network. A BECN bit is sent in the opposite direction in which the frame is travelling, toward its transmission source.