Internet Protocol stands for Internet Protocol. Its purpose is to give data a home address and a path to travel across networks. When data is sent, it’s split into packets, each carrying a header with the source and destination IP addresses. Routers read these addresses and forward the packets from one network to another until they reach the destination. This addressing and routing function is the core role of IP, enabling devices worldwide to communicate. IP operates as a best-effort delivery system, meaning it doesn’t guarantee delivery, order, or error-free transmission by itself—that reliability comes from higher-level protocols like TCP. It’s not about securing internal networks, nor about compiling code, and it isn’t limited to email routing.

Batch processing gathers data over a period and then processes it all at once in a single run at a scheduled time. End-of-day financial closing fits this pattern perfectly: the day’s transactions are collected, and only after the day ends are they processed together to produce summaries, reconciliations, and balances. This approach is efficient for handling large volumes because it minimizes the overhead of continuous processing and doesn’t require immediate results. In contrast, the other scenarios are typically real-time or near real-time. Fraud detection on transactions as they occur needs instant analysis to stop or flag suspicious activity right away. Real-time weather updates and live stock ticker updates also require continuous, immediate processing to reflect current conditions or prices.

Voice over IP, or VoIP, is the way to send voice as digital packets over IP networks such as the Internet. It uses signaling protocols like SIP to set up calls and transport protocols like RTP to carry the actual audio data. This distinguishes it from VPN, which creates secure connections; GSM, which is a mobile cellular standard; and LAN, which describes a local area network. So VoIP is the abbreviation that represents voice communications over IP networks.

Incremental backups capture only the data that has changed since the last backup of any type. This means after you’ve done a full backup, each subsequent backup records only the files that were modified since the previous backup (whether that previous one was full or incremental). That’s what makes a backup incremental: it builds on the most recent backup rather than copying everything again, saving time and storage space. For restoration, you’d start with the last full backup and then apply each incremental backup in order to reconstruct the current state. This chain is why incremental backups are efficient for daily use, but it also means you need all the intervening backups to restore. This differs from backing up all data (a full backup) and from backing up changes since the last full backup (a differential backup). It also isn’t limited to system files, which would omit most user data.