Word of the Day
6 June 2026
keepalive
A short message sent by one device to another to check that the link between the two is operating, or to prevent this link from being broken due to inactivity.
Why this one
Silence on a data link is ambiguous: it can mean nothing to report, or a dead radio. The keepalive removes the ambiguity, and on metered or timeout-prone links it also stops an idle session being torn down.
In use
The RTU went quiet at four but we never lost a keepalive, so it's the sensor that's dead, not the link.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.Sources
- Definition sourceWiktionary