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LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS
s Micro Seconds (1s = 10-6 Second)
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed Access
DPA Dynamic Packet Assignment
CTMC Continuous Time Markov chain
DCA Dynamic Channel Assignment
FBWA Fixed Broadband Wireless Networks
WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
MAC Medium Access Control
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
DCF Distributed Co-ordination Function
SRN Stochastic Reward Net
HOL Head of line
BSS Basic Service Set
Effective Goodput Ratio of successfully transmitted packets to the total
admitted packets into the system
AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone Service
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
GSM Global System for Mobile Communication
DECT Digital European Cordless Telephony
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
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EDGE Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution
ITU International Telecommunications Union
WCDMA Wide-band CDMA
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CSMA/CA CSMA/Collision Avoidance
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity (A certification that ensures
interoperability of wireless devices with the same
certification.)
AP Access Point
WPAN Wireless Personal Area Networks
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
UWB Ultra Wide-band
BS Base Station
DSL Digital Subscriber Link
MMDS Multi-channel Multi-point Distribution Systems
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
LOS Line of Sight
TDD Time Division Duplexing
FDD Frequency Division Duplexing
NLOS Non-Line of Sight
HWN Heterogeneous Mobile and Wireless Networks
MBWA Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
MS Mobile Station
MSU Mobile Switching Unit
BSC Base Station Controller
MSC Mobile Station Controller
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PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
HLR Home Location Register
VLR Visitor Location Register
AUC Authentication Center
EIR Equipment Identity Register
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
PN Pseudo Noise
SSMA Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
FHMA Frequency Hopped Multiple Access
SDMA Space Division Multiple Access
CSMA/CD CSMA/Collision Detect
DAMA Dynamic Assignment Multiple Access
PRMA Packet Reservation Multiple Access
DAB/DVB Digital Audio/Video Broadcasting
IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform
ISI Inter-symbol Interference
FH-OFDMA Frequency Hopped OFDMA
BER Bit Error Rate
FCA Fixed Channel Assignment
MPA Maximum Packing Algorithm
GSM PLMN GSM Public Land Mobile Network
ACIS Advanced Cellular Internet Service
PHY Physical Layer
GPSS Grant per Service Station
Ad-hoc Network An Infrastructure-less, top-free Wireless Network
PCF Point Coordination Function
DCF Distributed Coordination Function
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RTS Request to send
CTS Clear to send
NAV Network Allocation Vector
ACK Acknowledgement
BEB Binary Exponential Backoff
DIFS Distributed Inter-frame Space
SIFS Short Inter-frame Spacing
EIFS Extended Inter-frame Spacing
PIFS PCF Inter-frame Spacing
CFP Contention Free Period
CP Contention Period
PC Point Co-ordinator
SPN Stochastic Petri-net
CTS Clear To Send
CW Contention Window
Atomic Sequence A transmission of the following sequence
RTS (from Source)
CTS (from Destination)
Data (or MPDU from Source)
ACK (from the Destination)
FCFS First Come First Serve
EDCF Extended DCF
IBSS Independent BSS
LAN Local Area Network
maxMSDULifetime A constant set in every station which tells how long
to hold a MSDU in queue before dropping it in case
it doesn’t get a chance to get transmitted.
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MPDU MAC PDU
MSDU MAC Service Data Unit
GSPN Generalized Stochastic Petri nets
ERG Extended Reachability Graph
MRM Markov Reward Model
PDF Probability Density Function
PDU Protocol Data Unit
QoS Quality of Service
STA Station
Super frame Duration combining a CFP and a CP as scheduled by
the hybrid coordinator.
WLAN Wireless LAN