# Glossary
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This glossary defines acronyms and abbreviations used throughout the Distributed Load Testing on AWS Implementation Guide.

## Technical Protocols and Formats
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AGPL  
Affero General Public License. An open-source software license used by K6.

API  
Application Programming Interface. A set of protocols and tools for building software applications and enabling communication between different systems.

CLI  
Command Line Interface. A text-based interface for interacting with software and operating systems.

CORS  
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. A security feature that allows or restricts web applications running at one origin to access resources from a different origin.

CSV  
Comma-Separated Values. A file format used to store tabular data in plain text, commonly used for data export.

gRPC  
gRPC Remote Procedure Call. A high-performance, open-source framework for remote procedure calls.

HTTP  
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The foundation protocol used for transmitting data on the World Wide Web.

HTTPS  
HTTP Secure. An extension of HTTP that uses encryption for secure communication over a network.

JSON  
JavaScript Object Notation. A lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate.

JWT  
JSON Web Token. A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties for authentication and authorization.

OAuth  
Open Authorization. An open standard for access delegation commonly used for token-based authentication and authorization.

REST  
Representational State Transfer. An architectural style for designing networked applications using stateless communication and standard HTTP methods.

SSE  
Server-Sent Events. A server push technology enabling a client to receive automatic updates from a server via an HTTP connection.

UI  
User Interface. The visual elements and controls through which users interact with software applications.

URL  
Uniform Resource Locator. The address used to access resources on the internet.

XML  
Extensible Markup Language. A markup language that defines rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

## Testing and Database Terms
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FTP  
File Transfer Protocol. A standard network protocol used for transferring files between a client and server.

GSI  
Global Secondary Index. A DynamoDB feature that allows you to query data using an alternate key.

JDBC  
Java Database Connectivity. A Java API for connecting and executing queries with databases.

JMS  
Java Message Service. A Java API for sending messages between two or more clients.

TPS  
Transactions Per Second. A measure of the number of transactions a system can process in one second.

## AWS and System Terms
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ARN  
Amazon Resource Name. A unique identifier for AWS resources used to specify resources across AWS services.

ISO  
International Organization for Standardization. An independent, non-governmental organization that develops international standards. Referenced in this guide for ISO 8601 timestamp format.

SLA  
Service Level Agreement. A commitment between a service provider and a customer that defines the level of service expected.

UUID  
Universally Unique Identifier. A 128-bit number used to uniquely identify information in computer systems.

vCPU  
Virtual Central Processing Unit. A virtual processor assigned to a virtual machine or container, representing a portion of the physical CPU’s processing power.

## Load Testing Terms
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concurrency  
The number of concurrent virtual users per task. This parameter controls how many simulated users each Fargate task generates during a load test.

regional stack  
A CloudFormation stack deployed in an AWS Region to provide testing infrastructure for multi-region load tests.

task count  
The number of Fargate containers (tasks) launched to run a test scenario. The total load generated equals task count multiplied by concurrency.

test scenario  
A configured load test including test type, target endpoints, task count, concurrency, duration, and other parameters.