F

federation

Allowing heterogeneous and separately administered systems to be aggregated and giving them the appearance of homogeneity, often by deploying a middleware layer.

fidelity

See reliability.

firewall

Equipment placed in a network at boundaries of a protected enclave and aiding security by enforcing a set of policies, such as which users can access resources or which applications can communicate outside the enclave.

framework

Configurable and extensible architecture designed for multiple uses within a category of applications. Components and frameworks are complementary units of multiple use.