O

OASIS

OASIS was formed to encourage interoperability between vertical and horizontal industries that use XML. It provides a repository via the XML.org Registry for a growing range of XML specifications, schemas and vocabularies.

ODETTE

Organisation for Data Exchange by Tele-Transmission in Europe

Offline

When your computer performs an operation when it is not connected to any other computers, it is working offline.

OFTP

(ODETTE File Transfer Protocol)

Online

Your computer is working online when it performs an operation and is connected to other computers.

OSD (Open Software Description)

An XML DTD that describes software packages to set up remote installation of software and components on an intranet or the Internet.

OSI

(Open System Interconnection). International computer network standards developed by ISO and CCITT (Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy) to create common standards of communication between computers from different manufacturers.

Also see Network OSI Reference Model

OSI Reference Model

(Open Systems Interconnection reference model). The OSI reference model is a worldwide industry standard used in computer networking to define how protocols communicate over a network. The OSI reference model was designed to help developers create applications that are compatible across multivendor products.Learning the OSI layers and functions helps to understand communications networks.Briefly, when one device in a network want to communicate with another by sending a message (for example, an e-mail), the message passes "down" through the layers of the model. Each of the seven layers attaches instructions to the message, until the complete package is in a suitable form to be passed across the network. The message is deciphered by the model as the message passes back up through the layers reaching its destination at the end.

Also see Ethernet Fast Ethernet Hub Internet Network Router Switch

OSPF

Open Shortest Path First. A network routing protocol used on IP networks such as the Internet, which locates the shortest path to each node on the network.

Also see Internet IP Network

out-of-line link

Links between documents that don't have to be stored in either of the documents that make up the link.