3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. It is usually

Glossary of Terms A wiki is a Web site that allows the visitors to easily add, remove and otherwise edit some available content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. However, wikis, and Wikipedia in general, are publicly created and, therefore, are not necessarily authored by telecom experts. Further, they are subject to change by the most current author. Please use discretion when performing further research using this glossary. 2.5G 2.5G is a stepping stone between 2G and 3G cellular wireless technologies. The term "second and a half generation" is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet switched domain in addition to the circuit switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit switched data services as well.While the terms "2G" and "3G" are officially defined, "2.5G" is not. It was invented for marketing purposes only. 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. It is usually used in the context of cell phones. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 3GPP specifications are based on evolved Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifications. 3GPP specifies standards for a 3G technology known as UMTS. In practice, 3GPP2 is the standardization group for CDMA2000, the set of 3G standards based on earlier 2G CDMA technology. 4G (or 4-G) is short for fourth-generation, the successor of 3G, and is a wireless access technology. Prime spectrum to be freed up when the broadcasters transition from analog to digital broadcasting by February 2009. Commonly referred to as "beach-front," this spectrum has many wireless applications. 3G 3GPP 3GPP2 4G 700 MHz 1 of 47 802.11 IEEE 802.11, the Wi-Fi standard, denotes a set of Wireless LAN/WLAN standards developed by working group 11 of the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802). The term 802.11x is also used to denote this set of standards and is not to be mistaken for any one of its elements. There is no single 802.11x standard. IEEE 802.16's 802.16e Task Group developed an amendment to IEEE Standard 802.16 ("Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems"). Access in telecommunications is the process by which an effort to communicate through an electronic communications system is carried out. Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible without modification. The Authentication Centre (AC) or AUC is a function to authenticate each SIM card that attempts to connect to the GSM core network (typically when the phone is powered on). 802.16e access accessible AC (authentication center) ad hoc network A network connection method which is most often associated with wireless devices. The connection is established for the duration of one session and requires no base station. Instead, devices discover others within range to form a network for those computers. Devices may search for target nodes that are out of range by flooding the network with broadcasts that are forwarded by each node. Connections are possible over multiple nodes (multihop ad hoc network). Routing protocols then provide stable connections even if nodes are moving around. Sony's PlayStation Portable uses ad hoc connections for wireless multiplayer gaming, as does the Nintendo DS (although Nintendo themselves do not officially use the term). 2 of 47 ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are normally not used by a voice telephone call, in particular, frequencies higher than normal human hearing. This signal will not travel very far over normal telephone cables, so ADSL can only be used over short distances, typically less than 5 km. Once the signal reaches the telephone company's local office, the ADSL signal is stripped off and immediately routed onto a conventional internet network, while any voice-frequency signal is switched into the conventional phone network. This allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time. ADSL2+ ADSL2+ extends the capability of basic ADSL by doubling the number of downstream bits. The data rates can be as high as 24 Mbit/s downstream and 1 Mbit/s upstream depending on the distance from the DSLAM to the customer's home. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael, is a block cipher adopted as an encryption standard by the U.S. government. It has been analyzed extensively and is now used AES (Advanced worldwide, as was the case with its predecessor,[3] the Data Encryption Standard) Encryption Standard (DES). As of 2006, AES is one of the most popular algorithms used in symmetric key cryptography. It is available by choice in many different encryption packages. In cellular telephone communications, the air interface is the radiofrequency portion of the circuit between the cellular phone set (or wireless modem) and the base station. Air interface also defines the frequency use, bandwidth of the individual radio channels, encoding methods used (i.e., W-CDMA, cdma2000) and other quantities used by the radio technology. An analog cellular telephone standard developed by AT&T and introduced in 1983. AMPS is based on the initial spectrum allocation for cellular service (the 800 MHz band) by the FCC in 1970. Because analog cellular phones are suited for voice rather than data communications, AMPS networks are rapidly being supplanted by digital networks. air interface AMPS (advanced mobile phone service) 3 of 47 Aperto Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Aperto Networks develops and delivers advanced WiMAX broadband wireless products for service providers. A loosely defined subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. This should be contrasted with system software which is involved in integrating a computer's various capabilities, but typically does not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user. The term application refers to both the application software and its implementation. In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The average revenue generated per wireless customer unit (i.e., pager or cell phone) per month. ARPU is an indicator of the financial performance of a wireless company. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, wireless service (Cingular), and DSL internet access in the United States. The current company, which is based in San Antonio, Texas, United States, was formed in 2005 by SBC Communications' purchase of its former parent company, AT&T Corp. As a part of the merger, SBC shed its name and took on the iconic AT&T moniker and the T stock-trading symbol (for "telephone"). Despite that the corporation is considered SBC renamed, most of its major subsidiaries were part of AT&T prior to 1984, including the Bell Operating Companies and the long distance division.[1] However, AT&T lacks the vertical integration it once had, which had been the reason for the anti-trust suits that led to the 1984 breakup. application architecture ARPU (average revenue per user) AT&T 4 of 47 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a cell relay, network and data link layer protocol which encodes data traffic into small (53 bytes; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) fixedsized cells. This is instead of variable sized packets (sometimes known as frames) as in packet-switched networks (such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet). ATM is a connection-oriented ATM (asynchronous technology, in which a connection is established between the two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins. ATM has proved transfer mode) very successful in the WAN scenario and numerous Telcos have implemented ATM in their wide-area network cores. Also many ADSL implementations use ATM. However, ATM has failed to gain wide use as a LAN technology, and its complexity has held back its full deployment as the single integrating network technology in the way that its inventors originally intended. H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC, for Advanced Video Coding, is a AVC (advanced video digital video codec standard which is noted for achieving very high coding) data compression. Advanced Wireless Services, also known as AWS-1, is a wireless telecommunications technology, used for mobile data services, video, and messaging. AWS-1 is used in the United States and replaces the spectrum formerly allocated to Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service, sometimes referred to as Wireless Cable. The service is administered in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission. The AWS band uses microwave frequencies in two segments: from 1710 to 1755 MHz, and from 2110 to 2155 MHz. The service is intended to be used by mobile devices such as wireless phones for mobile data, video, and messaging services. Bidding for this new spectrum by the FCC started on August 9, 2006. This move effectively kills the former MMDS and Wireless Cable service in the United States. AWS (advanced wireless services) 5 of 47 backhaul In telecommunications, backhauling is concerned with transporting traffic between distributed sites (typically access points) and more centralized points of presence. Examples include: connecting wireless base stations to the corresponding base station controllers; connecting DSLAMs to the nearest ATM or Ethernet aggregation node; connecting a large company's site to a metro Ethernet network. In the context of broadcast television, backhaul refers to program content that is transmitted to a television station or receiving entity where it will be integrated into a finished show. The term is independent of the medium being used to send the backhaul, but satellite transmission is very common. Bandwidth is a measure of frequency range, measured in hertz, of a function of a frequency variable. Bandwidth is a central concept in many fields, including information theory, radio communications, signal processing and spectroscopy. Beceem Communications Inc. was founded in October 2003 with the goal of building a wireless technology company offering semiconductor solutions for the wireless broadband market. Bell Canada Enterprises TSX: BCE, legally BCE Inc., is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Through its subsidiaries including Bell Canada, Aliant, NorthwesTel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern Territories, and a leading competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the western provinces. Bell Canada currently services over 13 million phone lines, and functions under the umbrella brand name "Bell". bandwidth Beceem Bell Canada 6 of 47 best effort delivery Best effort delivery describes a network service in which the network does not provide any guarantees that data is delivered or that a user is given a guaranteed quality of service level or a certain priority. In a best effort network all users obtain best effort service, meaning that they obtain unspecified variable bit rate and delivery time, depending on the current traffic load. By removing features such as recovery of lost or corrupted data and preallocation of resources, the network operates more efficiently, and the network nodes are inexpensive. The postal service delivers letters using a best effort delivery approach. The delivery of a certain letter is not scheduled in advance - no resources are preallocated in the post office. The mailman will make his "best effort" to try to deliver a message, but the delivery may be delayed if too many letters arrive to a postal office all of a sudden. The sender is not informed if a letter has been delivered successfully. The border gateway protocol (BGP) is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It works by maintaining a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reach ability between BGP (border gateway autonomous systems (AS). It is described as a path vector protocol. BGP does not use technical metrics, but makes routing protocol) decisions based on network policies or rules. As of January 2006, the current version of BGP, version 4, is codified in (request for comment) RFC 4271 (which obsoletes RFC 1771). A handheld device made by Research In Motion (RIM). It competes with another popular handheld, the Palm, and is marketed primarily for its wireless e-mail handling capability. It has a miniature QUWERTY keyboard for users to type their messages. A global initiative by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba to set a standard for cable-free connectivity between mobile phones, mobile PCs, handheld computers and other peripherals. It uses short-range radio links in the 2.4 GHz Instrumentation Scientific and Medical band. BPEL (pronounced 'bipple', or 'bee-pell'), is a business process language that grew out of WSFL and XLANG, is serialized in XML, and aims to enable programming in the large. Broadband in general electronics and telecommunications is a term which refers to a signal or circuit which includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies. Broadband is always a relative term, understood according to its context. The wider the bandwidth, the more information can be carried. BlackBerry Bluetooth BPEL (business process execution language) broadband 7 of 47 BRS (broadband radio service) See MDS BSC (base station controller) The Base Station Controller (BSC) provides, classically, the intelligence behind the BTSs. Typically a BSC has 10s or even 100s of BTSs under its control. The BSC handles allocation of radio channels, receives measurements from the mobile phones, controls handovers from BTS to BTS (except in the case of an inter-BSC handover in which case control is in part the responsibility of the Anchor MSC). A key function of the BSC is to act as a concentrator where many different low capacity connections to BTSs (with relatively low utilization) become reduced to a smaller number of connections towards the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) (with a high level of utilization). Overall, this means that networks are often structured to have many BSCs distributed into regions near their BTSs which are then connected to large centralized MSC sites. BSS (base station subsystem) The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) is the section of a GSM network which is responsible for handling traffic and signaling between a mobile phone and the Network Switching Subsystem. The BSS carries out transcoding of speech channels, allocation of radio channels to mobile phones, paging, quality management of transmission and reception over the Air interface and many other tasks related to the radio network A geographic region defined by a group of counties that surround a city, which is the area’s basic trading center. The boundaries of each BTA were formulated by Rand McNally & Co., and are used by the FCC to determine service areas for PCS wireless licenses. The entire United States and some of its territories are divided into 493 non-overlapping BTAs. BTA (basic trading area) The Base Transceiver Station, or BTS, contains the equipment for transmitting and receiving of radio signals (transceivers), antennas, and equipment for encrypting and decrypting BTS (base communications with the Base Station Controller (BSC). Typically a transceiver station) BTS for anything other than a picocell will have several transceivers (TRXs) which allow it to serve several different frequencies and different sectors of the cell (in the case of sectorised base stations). A BTS is controlled by a parent BSC. 8 of 47 BWA (broadband wireless access) Any of the technologies aimed at providing wireless access to data networks, with high data rates. BWA is the wireless equivalent of broadband wired access, such as DSL or cable modems. Examples include LMDS, MMDS and IEEE 802.16. Circumventing security features in hacking, or taking a different approach to an issue in troubleshooting Channel capacity, is the amount of discrete information that can be reliably transmitted over a channel. By the noisy-channel coding theorem, the channel capacity of a given channel is the limiting information transport rate (in units of information per unit time) that can be achieved with vanishingly small error probability. Capital expenditures ("CAPEX") are expenditures used by a company to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as equipment, property, industrial buildings. In accounting, a capital expenditure is added to an asset account (i.e. capitalized), thus increasing the asset's basis. Bypass capacity CAPEX A digital cellular technology that uses spread-spectrum techniques. Unlike competing systems, such as GSM, that use time-division multiplexing (TDM), CDMA does not assign a specific frequency to CDMA (code division each user. Instead, every voice channel uses the full available spectrum. Individual conversations are encoded with a pseudomultiple access) random digital sequence. The CDMA idea was originally developed for military use more than 30 years ago. It was first commercialized by Qualcomm in the early 1990s. cdma2000 A 3G standard based on Qualcomm’s CDMA technology. Cdma2000 can support mobile data communications at speeds ranging from 144 Kbps to 2 Mbps. A 2.5G standard based on Qualcomm technology. The evolution continues with the 3G standard, cdma2000. cdmaOne An add-on technology that enables first-generation analog cellular telephone systems to provide packet data service. It uses unused CDPD (cellular digital bandwidth normally used by AMPS mobile phones to transfer data packet data) with speeds up to 19.2 kbps. Introduced in 1994–1995, CDPD is being usurped by 2.5G and 3G technologies. Also called base station, cell site is the central radio transmitter/receiver that maintains communications with a mobile telephone with a given range. A cellular network is made up of many cell sites, all connected back to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office via landline or microwave. cell site 9 of 47 cellular A cellular network is a radio network made up of a number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by a fixed transmitter, known as a cell site or base station. These cells are used to cover different areas in order to provide radio coverage over a wider area than the area of one cell. Cellular networks are inherently asymmetric with a set of fixed main transceivers each serving a cell and a set of distributed (generally, but not always, mobile) transceivers which provide services to the network's users. Clearwire uses a state-of-the-art wireless modem that can be plugged into a desktop computer, laptop, or local network. It works by transmitting signals to and from nearby cellular towers instead of using a traditional phone line. A telephone company that competes with incumbent local exchange carriers, such as a regional bell operating company, GTE and ALLTEL. CLECs sprang up after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, but the industry has been contracted lately. Clearwire CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) An FCC designation for any carrier or licensee whose wireless CMRS (commercial network is connected to the public switched telephone network mobile radio service) and/or is operated for profit. codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'compressor-decompressor', 'coder-decoder', or 'compression/decompression algorithm'. Linear predictive coding (LPC) is a tool used mostly in audio signal processing and speech processing for representing the spectral envelope of a digital signal of speech in compressed form, using the information of a linear predictive model. Cognitive radio is a paradigm for wireless communication in which either a network or a wireless node changes its transmission or reception parameters to communicate efficiently without interfering with licensed users. This alteration of parameters is based on the active monitoring of several factors in the external and internal radio environment, such as radio frequency spectrum, user behavior and network state Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common protocol. It is the act of impelling a particle from a source point across a distance to a receipt point with intention, attention, and duplication at the receipt point of that which emanated from the source point. codec coding cognitive radio communications 10 of 47 components Software componentry is a field of study within software engineering. It builds on prior theories of software objects, software architectures, software frameworks and software design patterns, and the extensive theory of object-oriented programming and object-oriented design of all these. It claims that software components, like the idea of a hardware component used e.g., in telecommunication, can be ultimately made interchangeable and reliable. CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States, dominating the field during the 1980s and remaining a major player through the mid-1990s when it was sidelined by the rise of GUI-based services such as America Online (AOL). Today the company operates as an Internet service provider (ISP), owned by AOL. A control system is a device or set of devices that manage the behavior of other devices. Some devices or systems are not controllable. A control system is an interconnection of components connected or related in such a manner as to command, direct, or regulate itself or another system. Technological convergence is the modern presence of a vast array of different types of technology to perform very similar tasks. For example, in today's society one can communicate with a friend via mail, online chatting, mobile phones, e-mail, and many other forms of modern technology. Though the forms of technology are all very different, they all essentially provide the same basic service: person-to-person communication. Core network is the heart of the network that acts as the transport mechanism for the backbone for all services. It is typically very high speed and serves other network providers. A core network is the top level of a hierarchical computer network. It connects to nodes at lower levels in the hierarchy. CompuServe control convergence core network CVSD (continuously Continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSD or CVSDM) is a variable slope delta voice coding method. It is a delta modulation with variable step size, first proposed by Greefkes and Riemens in 1970. modulation) decoding see encoding 11 of 47 denial of service A denial-of-service attack (also, DoS attack) is an attack on a computer system or network that causes a loss of service to users, typically the loss of network connectivity and services by consuming the bandwidth of the victim network or overloading the computational resources of the victim system. The deployment of a mechanical device, electrical system, computer program, etc. is its assembly from a packaged form to an operational state. A digital system is one that uses discrete numbers, especially binary numbers, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system) or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons. deploys digital The Domain Name System or Domain Name Server (DNS) is a system that stores information associated with domain names in a distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. The domain name system (Domain Name Server) associates many DNS (domain name types of information with domain names, but most importantly, it system) provides the IP address associated with the domain name. It also lists mail exchange servers accepting e-mail for each domain. In providing a worldwide keyword-based redirection service, DNS is an essential component of contemporary Internet use. Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. The term is often confused with copy protection and technical protection measures; these two terms refer to technologies that control or restrict the use and access of digital content on electronic devices with such technologies installed, acting as components of a DRM design. Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. A Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) allows telephone lines to make faster connections to the Internet. It is a network device, usually located at a telephone company central office (CO), that connects multiple customer Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)s to a high-speed Internet backbone line using multiplexing techniques. The DSLAM creates a network similar to a LAN but not subject to Ethernet distance limits, thus providing an Internet connection for the subscribers. DRM (digital rights management) DSL (digital subscriber line) DSLAM 12 of 47 dual mode (also tri-mode or multi-mode)—Handsets that work with more than one standard and/or at more than one frequency. DVB-H stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld. DVB-H is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to handheld DVB-H (digital video receivers and was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 broadcastingin November 2004. The DVB-H specification (EN 302 304) can be handheld) downloaded from the DVB-H Online website ([1]). The major competitor of this technology is DMB. E-911 (enhanced 911) A location technology advanced by the FCC that will enable mobile or cellular, phones to process 911 emergency calls and enable emergency services to locate the geographic position of the caller. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national system in the U.S. put into place in 1994, superseding the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) and the CONELRAD System and is jointly coordinated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Emergency Managemant Agency (FEMA), and the National Weather Service (NWS). The EAS covers both AM/FM/ACSSB(R)(LM(R)) radio and VHF Low/VHF Medium/VHF High/UHF/television (including low-power stations), HRC/IRC/ICC/STD/EIA, cable television and wireless cable television companies. Digital television, digital cable, XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Grendade, Worldspace, IBOC, DAB and digital radio broadcasters have been required to participate in the EAS since December 31, 2006. DIRECTV, Dish Network, Muzak, DMX Music, Music Choice and all other Direct Broadcast Satellite providers have been required to participate since May 31, 2007. Video Dial Tone (OVS) has been required to participate since July 1, 2007. EarthLink NASDAQ: ELNK, is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It claims 5.4 million members (2004 estimate). eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) manages an online auction and shopping website, where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide. EAS (Emergency Alert System) Earthlink eBay EBS (educational See ITFS. broadband service) 13 of 47 eBusiness Electronic business, or "e-business", may be defined broadly as any business process that relies on an automated information system. Today, this is mostly done with Web-based technologies. The term "e-business" was coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM. An enhanced modulation technique designed to increase network capacity and data rates in GSM networks. EDGE should provide data rates up to 384 Kbps. In Europe, EDGE is promoted as a technology that lets operators without a 3G license to compete with 3G networks offering similar data services. eHealth's mission is to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology. 1. To encase in or as if in a capsule. 2. To express in a brief summary; epitomize: headlines that encapsulate the news. Encoding is the process of transforming information from one format into another. The opposite operation is called decoding. Ethernet is a frame-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). The name comes from the physical concept of ether. It defines wiring and signaling for the physical layer, and frame formats and protocols for the Media Access Control (MAC)/data link layer of the OSI model. Ethernet is mostly standardized as IEEEs 802.3. 1x Evolution-Data Optimized, abbreviated as EV-DO or 1xEV-DO and often EVDO, is a wireless radio broadband data standard adopted by many CDMA mobile phone service providers in United States and other countries. It is standardized by 3GPP2, as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards. It is commonly referred in the industry as DO. The division of the frequency band allocated for wireless communication into individual channels, each of which can carry a voice conversation or, with digital service, carry digital data. FDMA is a basic technology for analog AMPS, which divides the cellular spectrum into 832 channels each with 30 kHz bandwidth. With FDMA, each channel can be assigned to only one user at a time. DAMPS (digital AMPS) also uses FDMA but adds TDMA to get three channels for each FDMA channel, tripling the number of calls that can be handled on a channel. EDGE (enhanced data rates for GSM evolution) eHealth encapsulated encoding Ethernet EVDO FDMA (frequency division multiple access) 14 of 47 Femtocell (aka Access Point Base Station) - A scalable, multi-channel, twoway communication device extending a typical base station by incorporating all of the major components of the telecommunications infrastructure. It contains not only a picocell, but also many of the functions of the base station controller (BSC) and some of the mobile switching center (MSC). The unit can therefore connect directly to the Internet, without the need for separate BSC/MSC infrastructure. Application of VoIP allows such a unit to provide voice and data services in the same way as a normal base station, but with the deployment simplicity of a WiFi access point. The main benefits are its simplicity of deployment, low-cost and scalable design. An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fiber designed to guide light along its length by total internal reflection. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communication, which permits digital data transmission over longer distances and at higher data rates than electronic communication. FiOS is a fiber to the premises (FTTP) telecommunications service offered in the United States by Verizon. FiOS is an abbreviation of Fiber Optic Service. Verizon has also launched a television service with its fiber optic lines and is expected to become a competitor to local cable television companies over the next 10 years. It will compete with current Triple Play offers, where the local cable company offers broadband Internet access, digital cable, and VoIP telephone service. FiOS started as a pilot program in Keller, Texas, but availability of the Internet service has expanded to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Florida, California, Oregon and Washington. The FiOS TV service has launched in some of these states and is expected to continue expanding. Access Point Base Stations are stand-alone units that are typically deployed in hot-spots, in-building and even in-home. Variations include attaching a Wi-Fi router to allow a Wi-Fi hot-spot to work as back-haul for a cellular hot-spot, or vice-versa. The operation of wireless devices or systems in fixed locations such as homes and offices. Fixed wireless devices usually derive their electrical power from the utility mains, unlike mobile wireless or portable wireless, which tend to be battery-powered. Fixed wireless technologies are increasingly being used as a fast and economic way to roll out modern telephone services, since it avoids the need for wires. fiber FiOS firewall fixed wireless 15 of 47 FMC FTTC (fiber to the curb or fiber to the cabinet) fixed / mobile convergence FTTC refers to a telecommunications system based on fiber-optic cables run to a platform that serves several customers. Each of these customers has a connection to this platform via coaxial cable or twisted pair. Fiber to the Premises (FTTP), Fiber to the Home (FTTH), or fiber to the building (FTTB) is a broadband telecommunications system based on fiber-optic cables and associated optical electronics for FTTH, FTTP or FTTB delivery of multiple advanced services such as of telephone, broadband Internet and television across one link (triple play) all the way to the home or business. In the United States, the largest FTTP deployment to date is Verizon's FiOS full-duplex A duplex communication system is one where signal can flow in both directions between connected parties. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a bitmap image format for pictures with up to 256 distinct colors from the over 16 million representable in 24 bit rib. Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second, as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2005 standard. Halfduplex gigabit links connected through hubs are allowed by the specification but in the marketplace full-duplex with switches is the norm. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG and LSE: GGEA) is an American public corporation, specializing in Internet search and online advertising. GPON (Gigabit PON) is an evolution of the BPON standard. It supports higher rates, enhanced security, and choice of Layer 2 protocol (ATM, GEM, Ethernet). Verizon is in the process of implementing this. GIFs GigE Google GPON (Gigabit passive optical networking) 16 of 47 A satellite-based navigation system, which allows people using small handheld receivers to pinpoint their geographic location within 10 to 100 meters. GPS consists of a "constellation" of 24 satellites that orbit the Earth at a height of 10,900 miles. The GPS (global satellites use simple mathematical calculations to broadcast positioning service) information that is translated as longitude, latitude and altitude by handheld receivers. The GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, but is available for general use around the world. A European system, Galileo, is also under development. GPRS (GMS packet radio service or general packet radio service) A 2.5G mobile standard typically adopted by GSM operators as a migration step toward 3G (W-CDMA). GPRS adds packet-switching capability to the voice network and uses the same time slots as voice calls. European-developed digital cellular telephone standard. It is the most widespread 2G standard, used in more than 170 countries. GSM (global system GSM uses a variation of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), which employs eight time slots in a 200 kHz channel. GSM for mobile operates in the 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz bands in Europe, and 800 communications) MHz and 1.9 GHz bands in the United States. T-mobile, Cingular and AT&T are GSM operators in the United States. H.323 is an umbrella Recommendation from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network.It is widely implemented by voice and videoconferencing equipment manufacturers, is used within various Internet real-time applications such as GnuGK, NetMeeting and XMeeting, and is widely deployed worldwide by service providers and enterprises for both voice and video services over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is a part of the ITU-T H.32x series of protocols, which also address multimedia communications over Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Signaling System 7 (SS7), and 3G mobile networks. In cellular telecommunications, the term handoff refers to the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one cell site to an adjacent one channel connected to the core network to another. There are two reasons why a handoff (handover) might be conducted: if the phone has moved out of range from one cell site (base station) and can get a better radio link from a stronger transmitter, or if one base station is full the connection can be transferred to another nearby base station. H.323 handoff 17 of 47 hardware headend Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology. A master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution to subscribers. The Home Location Register or HLR is a central database that contains details of each mobile phone subscriber that is authorized to use the GSM core network. The HLR stores details of every SIM card issued by the mobile phone operator. Each SIM has a unique identifier called an IMSI which is one of the primary keys to each HLR record. The HLR data is stored for as long as a subscriber HLR (home location remains with the mobile phone operator. At first glance, the HLR seems to be just a database which is merely accessed by other register) network elements which do the actual processing for mobile phone services. In fact the HLR is a system which directly receives and processes MAP transactions and messages. If the HLR fails, then the mobile network is effectively disabled as it is the HLR which manages the Location Updates as mobile phones roam around. HPNA The HomePNA (Home Phoneline Networking Alliance) seeks to establish standards for home networking over regular coax and phone lines within the home - for compatibility between telecom, computer and network products. Hotspots are locations with public wireless access points where you can connect your mobile computers (such as a laptop or a PDA) to internet, using standard wan (wife) technology. Most new laptops come with adaptors built in, and on some hotspot locations it is even possible to borrow a PCMCIA adaptor. High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a collection of mobile telephony protocols that extend and improve the performance of existing UMTS protocols. Two standards HSDPA and HSUPA have been established and a further standard HSOPA is being proposed. A Motorola proprietary version of TDMA with a unique “push-totalk” two-way radio capability. Nextel is the largest iDEN operator in the United States. An international technical professional association, composed of engineers, scientists and students. The IEEE fosters the development of standards that often become national and international standards. The institute is best known for developing standards for the computer and electronics industry. In particular, the IEEE 802 standards for local area networks are widely followed. hotspots HSPA (high-speed packet access) iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network) IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 18 of 47 IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards; in particular those of the TCP/IP protocol suite. It is an open, all-volunteer standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. It is organized into a large number of working groups and BoFs, each dealing with a specific topic, and intended to complete work on that topic and then shut down. Each working group has an appointed chair (or sometimes several co-chairs), along with a charter that describes its focus, and what and when it is expected to produce. A U.S. telephone company that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted, most notably the former Bell operating companies. ILECs are in contradistinction to CLEC (competitive local exchange carriers). A proprietary packet-based information service for mobile phones. Imode delivers information (such as mobile banking and train timetable) to mobile phones and enables the exchange of e-mail from handsets on a 2G network. Launched in 1999 by NTT DoCoMo, i-mode is very popular in Japan (especially for e-mail and transfer of icons), and currently is being used in other countries as well. ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) i-mode The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardised Next Generation Networking (NGN) architecture for telecom operators that want to provide mobile and fixed multimedia services. It uses a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation based on a 3GPP standardised implementation of SIP, and runs over the standard Internet Protocol (IP). Existing phone systems (both packetswitched and circuit-switched) are supported. The aim of IMS is not only to provide new services but all the services, current and future, that the internet provides. In this way, IMS will give IMS (IP multimedia network operators and service providers the ability to control and subsystem) charge for individual services. In addition, users will be able to execute all their services when roaming as well as from their home networks. To achieve these goals, IMS uses open standard IP protocols, defined by the IETF. So, a multimedia session between two IMS users, between an IMS user and a user on the Internet, and between two users on the Internet is established using exactly the same protocol. Moreover, the interfaces for service developers are also based on IP protocols. Hence the claim that IMS truly merge IMT-2000 The term used by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for 3G. The ITU officially endorsed five air interface standards for IMT-2000, the most widely accepted of which are W-CDMA and cdma2000. 19 of 47 infrastructure Infrastructure, most generally, is the set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework for supporting the entire structure. It usually applies only to structures that are artificial. The term is used differently in a variety of fields; perhaps the single most well-known usage is in economics, where it refers to physical infrastructure such as buildings and roads. The notion that a structure has an internal framework is popular especially in business organizations where a dependency on interconnected information technology systems has become as prevalent as a city's dependency on interconnected conveyance systems for power, people and things. For over 15 years, Innovacom has invested in the entrepreneurs building the telecom and information technologies of tomorrow. Digital integration is the idea that data or information on any given electronic device can be read or manipulated by another device using a standard format. Innovacom integrated Intel Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC)(SEHK: 4335) is the world's largest semiconductor company and the leading manufacturer of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processor in IBM PCcompatible personal computers. Founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation and based in Santa Clara, California, USA, Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network cards and ICs, flash memory, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Interaction is a kind of action which occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction instead of a one-way causal effect. Combinations of many simple interactions can lead to surprising emergent phenomena. It has different tailored meanings in various sciences. In telecommunications and computer networking, a network interface is one of:1. The point of interconnection between a user terminal and a private or public network. :2. The network card on a computer (in casual usage). :3. The point of interconnection between a public switched telephone network and a privately owned terminal. In the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, part 68, stipulates the interface parameters. :4. The point of interconnection between one network and another network. interaction interface 20 of 47 Internet The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP). It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic, and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web. The internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet and most commercial networks run. It is sometimes called the TCP/IP IP (Internet protocol) protocol suite, after the two most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were also the first two defined. Migrating host-remote architectures to IP has immediate attraction for rural carriers. In an IP configuration, the central switch is replaced by what is essentially a softswitch that controls intelligent media gateways over routed IP links. The savings, in cost and complexity, can be significant. iPod is a brand of portable media player designed and marketed by Apple Computer. Devices in the iPod family provide a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel (with the exception of the iPod shuffle). The standard iPod model stores media on a built-in hard drive, while the smaller iPod shuffle and iPod nano use flash memory. Like most digital audio players, an iPod can serve as an external data storage device when connected to a computer. IPTV (Internet protocol television) describes a system where a digital television service is delivered to subscribing consumers using the Internet Protocol over a broadband connection. This service is often provided in conjunction with video on demand (VoD) and may also include Internet services such as Web access and VOID where it may be called triple play and is typically supplied by a broadband operator using the same infrastructure. Perhaps a simpler definition would be television content that, instead of being delivered through the traditional format, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for the World Wide Web. IP Host-Remote iPOD IPTV (Internet protocol television) 21 of 47 IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth iteration of the Internet Protocol (IP) and it is the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed. IPv4 is the dominant network layer protocol on the Internet and apart from IPv6 it is the only standard internetwork-layer protocol used on the Internet. IPv4 is a dataoriented protocol to be used on a packet switched internetwork (e.g., Ethernet). It is a best effort protocol in that it does not guarantee delivery. It does not make any guarantees on the correctness of the data; It may result in duplicated packets and/or packets out-of-order. These aspects are addressed by an upper layer protocol (e.g., TCP, and partly by UDP). IPv4 uses 32-bit (4byte) addresses, which limits the address space to 4,294,967,296 (232) possible unique addresses. However, some are reserved for special purposes such as private networks (~18 million addresses) or multicast addresses (~16 million addresses). This reduces the number of addresses that can be allocated as public Internet addresses. As the number of addresses available are consumed, an I Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer for packetswitched internetworks. It is designated as the successor of IPv4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, for general use on the Internet. The main change brought by IPv6 is a much larger address space that allows greater flexibility in assigning addresses. See cdmaOne. The ISM bands were originally reserved internationally for noncommercial use of radio frequencies for industrial, scientific and medical purposes. Individual countries’ use of the bands may differ due to variations in national radio regulations. In recent years, ISM bands also have been used for unlicensed (or license-free) communications applications, such as wireless LANs and Bluetooth. IPv6 IS-95 ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) An Internet service provider (abbr. ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a business or organization that sells to consumers access to the Internet and related services. In the past, most ISPs were run by the phone companies. Now, ISPs can be ISP (Internet service started by just about any individual or group with sufficient money provider) and expertise. In addition to Internet access via various technologies such as dial-up and DSL, they may provide a combination of services including Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, web hosting, and colocation 22 of 47 JPEGs In computing, JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg) is a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images.The file format which employs this compression is commonly also called JPEG; the most common file extensions for this format are .jpeg, .jfif, .jpg, .JPG, or .JPE although .jpg is the most common on all platforms. An abstraction layer (or abstraction level) is a way of hiding the implementation details of a particular set of functionality. Perhaps the most well known software models which use layers of abstraction are the OSI 7 Layer model for computer network protocols, OpenGL graphics drawing library, and the byte stream I/O model originated by Unix and adopted by MSDOS, Linux, and most other modern operating systems. A legacy system is an existing computer system or application program which continues to be used because the user (typically an organization) does not want to replace or redesign it. Many people use this term to refer to "antiquated" systems. Linear predictive coding (LPC) is a tool used mostly in audio signal processing and speech processing for representing the spectral envelope of a digital signal of speech in compressed form, using the information of a linear predictive model. 2. It is one of the most powerful speech analysis techniques, and one of the most useful methods for encoding good quality speech at a low bit rate and provides extremely accurate estimates of speech parameters. A line card is a modular electronic circuit on a printed circuit board, the electronic circuits on the card interfacing the telecommunication lines coming from the subscribers (such as copper wire or optical fibers) to the rest of the telecommunications access network. In telecommunication a data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving data. It can also be an assembly, consisting of parts of two data terminal equipments (DTEs) and the interconnecting data circuit, that is controlled by a link protocol enabling data to be transferred from a data source to a data sink. layer legacy Linear (LPC) line-card linking 23 of 47 long tail evolution In 2004 Chris Anderson wrote an influential book called The Long Tail. In it, he argued that the future of business is to sell less of more. The main premise is that collectively, things that are in rather low demand can amount to quite large volumes. This is because there is a large number of people who belong to the long tail and they encompass a wide rage of tastes. The Internet is allowing businesses to combine infinite shelf space with real-time information about buying trends and public opinion. Long term evolution is the name given to a project within the Third Generation Partnership Project to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. Goals include improving long term evolution efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open (LTE) standards. The LTE project is not a standard, but it will result in the new evolved release 8 of the UMTS standard, including mostly or wholly extensions and modifications of the UMTS system. RF engineers use the term LOS to describe an unobstructed path between the location of the signal transmitter and the location of the receiver. Obstacles that can cause an obstruction in the line of sight include trees, buildings, mountains, hills and other natural or manmade structures or objects. LOS (line of sight) A fixed wireless technology that operates in the 28 GHz band and offers line-of-sight coverage over distances up to three miles. LMDS (local LMDS is one of the proposed solutions for bringing high-bandwidth mulitpoint services to homes and offices within the "last mile" of connectivity, distribution service) an area where cable or optical fiber may not be convenient or economical. 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the name given to a project within the Third Generation Partnership Programme to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. Goals include improving efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open standards. The LTE project is not a standard, but it will result in the new evolved release 8 of the UMTS standard, including mostly or wholly extensions and modifications of the UMTS system. While the project is ongoing and general in scope, it has set itself some specific goals, much of which is oriented around upgrading UMTS to a so-called fourth generation mobile communications technology, essentially a wireless broadband Internet system with voice and other services built on top LTE 24 of 47 In a local area network (LAN), the MAC address is a computer's unique hardware number. When users are connected to the MAC (media access Internet from their computer (or host), a correspondence table control) address relates the IP address to their computer's physical MAC address on the LAN. MAN (metropolitan network area) A regional computer or communication network spanning the area covered by an average to large-sized city. WiMAX is designed to provide MAN service. A mashup is a Web site or Web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Much the way blogs revolutionized online publishing, mashups are revolutionizing web development by allowing anyone to combine existing data from sources like eBay, Amazon, Google, Windows Live and Yahoo in innovative ways. The greater availability of simple and lightweight API's have made mashups relatively easy to design. They require minimal technical knowledge and thus custom mashups are sometimes created by unlikely innovators, combining available public data in new and creative ways. The two terms are collectively referred to as MDS. It is a commercial service that generally provides multichannel video entertainment programming. Often referred to as "wireless cable,” MDS consists of 13 channels located in the 2.1GHz–2.2 GHz and 2.5 GHz–2.7 GHz bands. In June 2004, the FCC renamed MDS to broadband radio service as part of an effort to restructure the band. Wireless mesh networking is mesh networking implemented over a Wireless LAN. This type of Internet infrastructure is decentralized, relatively inexpensive, and very reliable and resilient, as each node need only transmit as far as the next node. Nodes act as repeaters to transmit data from nearby nodes to peers that are too far away to reach, resulting in a network that can span large distances, especially over rough or difficult terrain. Mesh networks are also extremely reliable, as each node is connected to several other nodes. If one node drops out of the network, due to hardware failure or any other reason, its neighbours simply find another route. Extra capacity can be installed by simply adding more nodes. Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile devices. The solutions are as diverse as communications in difficult environments such as emergency situations, tunnels and oil rigs to battlefield surveillance and high speed mobile video applications on board public transport or real time racing car telemetry. Mashing MDS (multipoint distribution service)/MMDS (multichannel multipoint distribution service) Mesh 25 of 47 metro Ethernet A Metro Ethernet is a computer network based on the Ethernet standard and which covers a metropolitan area. It is commonly used as a metropolitan access network to connect subscribers and businesses to a Wide Area Network, such as the Internet. Large businesses can also use Metro Ethernet to connect branch offices to their Intranets Founded in 1975, Microsoft has been a leader in the wave of innovation that has created so much new opportunity, convenience, and value over the past three decades. During that time, the company has created many new products, added new lines of business, and expanded our operations worldwide. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths longer than those of terahertz (THz) wavelengths, but relatively short for radio waves. Microwaves are used in broadcasting transmissions because microwaves pass easily through the earth's atmosphere with less interference than longer wavelengths. Microsoft microwave Multiple-input multiple-output, or MIMO, is an abstract mathematical model for multi-antenna communication systems where the transmitter has multiple antennas capable of transmitting independent signals and the receiver is equipped with multiple receive antennas. During the last few years, MIMO technology has attracted a lot of attention in the area of wireless MIMO (multiple-input communications, since significant increases in throughput and multiple-output) range are possible without any increase in bandwidth or overall transmit power expenditure. In general, MIMO technology increases the spectral efficiency (the number of information bits you can transmit per second of time and per Hertz of bandwidth) of a wireless communication system by exploiting the space domain (since multiple antennas are physically separated in space). Similar to short message service, but in addition to plain text, MMS MMS (multimedia messages may include multimedia elements such as pictures, video messaging service) and audio. These multimedia elements are included in the message, not as attachments as with e-mail. MoCA The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) develops specifications for home networking over in-home coaxial cable. The goal of MoCA is to facilitate home networking on existing coaxial cable in the 1 GHz microwave band using OFDM modulation. 26 of 47 MPEG-2 MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information." It is widely used around the world to specify the format of the digital television signals that are broadcast by terrestrial (over-the-air), cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems. It also specifies the format of movies and other programs that are distributed on DVD and similar disks. MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a standard used primarily to compress audio and video (AV) digital data. Introduced in late 1998, it is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The uses for the MPEG-4 standard are web (streaming media) and CD distribution, conversational (videophone), and broadcast television, all of which benefit from compressing the AV stream. MPLS is a data-carrying mechanism which emulates some properties of a circuit-switched network over a packet-switched network. MPLS operates at an OSI Model layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of Layer 2 (data MPLS (multiprotocol link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), and thus is often referred to as a "Layer 2.5" protocol. It was designed to provide a unified label switching) data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packetswitching clients which provide a datagram service model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames. MSC is the central computer that connects a cellular phone call to the public telephone network. The MSC controls the entire system's operations, including monitoring calls, billing and handoffs. MSC (mobile switching center) An area consisting of two or more basic trading areas as defined by MTA (major trading Rand McNally & Co. These large areas are used by the FCC to determine service areas for some PCS wireless licenses. The United area) States is divided into 51 MTAs . municipal W-Fi Municipal wireless is wireless internet provided freely to the entire public of that municipal community. 27 of 47 A mobile service operator that does not have its own licensed spectrum and does not have the infrastructure to provide mobile service to its customers. Instead, MVNOs lease wireless capacity from other mobile service providers and establish their own brand MVNO (mobile virtual names different from the providers. To date, MVNOs are mostly a network operator) European, GSM phenomenon. However, it is gaining popularity in the United States. Virgin MobileUSA (the first American MVNO) uses Sprint as its underlying carrier. Page Plus uses Verizon. EZ Link Plus uses Cingular, and Air Voice Wireless uses AT&T. Narrowband (narrow bandwidth) refers to a signal which occupies only a small amount of space on the radio spectrum — the opposite of broadband or wideband. NAPT (Network Address Port Translation) is a variation of NAT (Network Address Translation). It is also referred to as PAT (Port Address Translation) by Cisco, and RAPT (Reverse Address and Port Translation) or RAT in some implementations. narrowband NAPT (Network Address Port Translation) Network address translation (NAT, also known as network masquerading , native address translation or IP masquerading ) is a technique of transceiving network traffic through a router that involves re-writing the source and/or destination IP addresses and usually also the TCP/UDP port numbers of IP packets as they pass NAT (network through. Checksums (both IP and TCP/UDP) must also be rewritten address translation) to take account of the changes. Most systems using NAT do so in order to enable multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single public IP address. Nonetheless, NAT can introduce complications in communication between hosts and may have a performance impact. Network neutrality (equivalently "net neutrality", "internet neutrality" or "NN") refers to a principle applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all broadband networks. Precise definitions vary, but a broadband network free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment attached and the modes of communication allowed would be considered neutral by most advocates, provided it met additional tests relating to the degradation of various communication streams by others. Arguably, no network is completely neutral, hence neutrality represents for some an ideal condition toward which networks and their operators may strive. net neutrality 28 of 47 A network card, network adapter or NIC (network interface controller) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It is both an OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer) device, as NIC (network interface controller) it provides physical access to a networking medium and provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly. RF engineers use the term NLOS to describe a partially obstructed NLOS (non- or nearpath between the location of the signal transmitter and the location line of sight) of the signal receiver. number portability The ability of a customer to transfer an account from one service provider to another without requiring a change in number. Optical Carrier levels describe a range of digital signals that can be carried on SONET fiber optic network.[1] The number in the Optical Carrier level is directly proportional to the data rate of the bitstream carried by the digital signal. The general rule for calculating the speed of Optical Carrier lines is when a specification is given as OC-n, that the speed will equal n × 51.8 Mbit/s. A digital modulation technique in which signals (data) are distributed over a large number of carriers that are spaced apart at precise frequencies. This spacing provides the "orthogonality" in this technique, which prevents the demodulators from seeing frequencies other than their own. The benefits of OFDM are high spectral efficiency, resiliency to RF interference, and lower multipath distortion. Some consider OFDM as a key technology in the development of 4G. Examples of technologies using OFDM include WiMAX, 802.11a and DVB (European digital television system). 1. Information that is accessible through the Internet. 2. In a system for the performance of a particular task, an element of the system is said to be online if it is operational. 3. In telecommunication, the term has another very specific meaning. A device associated with a larger system is online if it is under the direct control of the system. It is available for immediate use by the system, on demand, without human intervention, but may not be operated independently of the system. Optics (appearance or look in ancient Greek) is a branch of physics that describes the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter. Optics explains and is illuminated by optical phenomena. OC (optical carrier) OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) online optical 29 of 47 OSI model The Open Systems Interconnection Basic Reference Model (OSI Reference Model or OSI Model for short) is a layered, abstract description for communications and computer network protocol design. It was developed as part of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) initiative and is sometimes known as the OSI seven layer model. From top to bottom, the OSI Model consists of the Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical layers. Originally used in the telecommunications world to describe the processes and teams that monitor the underlying networks. Predominantly looking at functional and non-functional requirements of solutions/systems. Monitoring, end-to-end design and error handling tend to be the main areas of work. OSS is now broadly applied in the IT industry. Over-the-air programming (OTA), also known as over-the-air service provisioning (OTASP) or over-the-air parameter administration (OTAPA), is a method of distributing new software updates to cellphones or provisioning handsets with the necessary settings with which to access services such as WAP or MMS. Some phones with this capability are labeled as being "OTA capable." Outsourcing (or contracting out) is often defined as the delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within a business to an external entity (such as a subcontractor) that specializes in that operation. Outsourcing is a business decision that is often made to lower costs or focus on competencies. In computer networking and telecommunications, packet switching is the now-dominant communications paradigm, in which packets (units of information carriage) are individually routed between nodes over data links which might be shared by many other nodes. This contrasts with the principal other paradigm, circuit switching, which sets up a dedicated connection between the two nodes for their exclusive use for the duration of the communication. Packet switching is used to optimize the use of the bandwidth available in a network, to minimize the transmission latency (i.e. the time it takes for data to pass across the network), and to increase robustness of communication. OSS (operational support system) OTA (over-the-air programming) outsourcing packet-switched 30 of 47 A PAN covers the few meters surrounding a user's workspace and provides the ability to synchronize computers, transfer files and PAN (personal area gain access to local peripherals such as printers and a range of network) pocket hardware. Examples of wireless PAN technologies are Bluetooth, ultra wideband and Zigbee. Since the late 1960s, the word paradigm (IPA: /pæ ɹɘdaɪm/) has referred to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. Initially the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable. Also, in linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure used paradigm to refer to a class of elements with similarities. paradigm A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises, typically 32. A PON consists of an Optical Line Termination (OLT) at the service provider's central office and a number of Optical Network Units (ONUs) near end users. A PON PON (passive optical configuration reduces the amount of fiber and central office network) equipment required compared with point to point architectures. Downstream signals are broadcast to each premises sharing a fiber. Encryption is used to prevent eavesdropping. Upstream signals are combined using a multiple access protocol, invariably time division multiple access (TDMA). The OLTs "range" the ONUs in order to provide time slot assignments for upstream communication. A Private Branch exchange (also called PBX or Private Business exchange) is a telephone exchange that is owned by a private business, as opposed to one owned by a common carrier or by a telephone company. The FCC term used to describe a set of digital cellular technologies introduced in the mid-1990s. PCS emerged after the U.S. government auctioned commercial licenses in 1994–1995. Unlike cellular systems that employ both analog and digital technologies and operate in the 800 MHz frequency range, PCS systems are completely digital and operate in the 1900 MHz frequency range. Per-Hop Behaviour (PHB) is a term used in differentiated services (DiffServ) or multiprotocol label switching. It defines the policy and priority applied to a packet when traversing a hop (such as a router) in a DiffServ network. PBXs PCS (personal communications services) per-hop behaviour 31 of 47 phased array A technique for boosting wireless bandwidth through the use of multiple antennae. A phased array antenna system employs numerous individual antennae (or antenna elements), each with a slightly different directional pattern. Algorithms steer the radio beam to the appropriate antenna elements for a given receiving device. The result is a significant increase in range and capacity. The approach contrasts with that of traditional wireless transmitters, which simply radiate signals in all directions. See also smart antenna. A wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in buildings (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), or more recently in aircrafts. A picocell is analogous to a Wi-Fi Access Point. In cellular networks, picocells are typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to add network capacity in areas with very dense phone usage, such as train stations. In cellular wireless networks, such as GSM, the picocell base station is typically a low cost, small (typically A4 paper size, and about 2-3cm thick), reasonably simple unit that connects to a Base Station Controller (BSC). In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. Typical platforms include a computer's architecture, operating system, or programming languages and their runtime libraries. A PLMN is a network that is established and operated by an administration or by a recognized operating agency for the specific purpose of providing land mobile telecommunications services to the public. Access to PLMN services is achieved by means of an air interface involving radio communications between mobile phones or other wireless-enabled user equipment and land-based radio transmitters or radio base stations. Point-to-Point telecommunications is most recently (2003) referenced regarding wireless data communications for Internet or Voice over IP via radio frequencies in the multi-gigahertz range. It also includes technologies such as laser for telecommunications but in all cases expects that the transmission medium is line of sight and capable of being fairly tightly beamed from transmitter to receiver. In wireless parlance, the number of wireless POPs refer to the total population covered by a wireless service operator’s license. In computing, a process is a running instance of a program, including all variables and other state. A multitasking operating system may just switch between processes to give the appearance of many processes executing concurrently or simultaneously, though in fact only one process can be executing at any one time per CPU thread. 32 of 47 picocell platform (service architecture) PLMN (public land mobile network) point-to-point PoPs processes proprietary Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties. Where a party, holds or claims proprietary interests in relation to certain types of property (eg. a creative literary work, or software), that property may also be the subject of intellectual property law (eg. copyright or patents). In the field of telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation, signalling, authentication, and error detection required to send information over a communications channel. An example of a simple communications protocol adapted to voice communication is the case of a radio dispatcher talking to mobile stations. The communication protocols for digital computer network communication have many features intended to ensure reliable interchange of data over an imperfect communication channel. The PSDN is a publicly-available network supporting packetswitched data, separate from the PSTN. Originally this term referred only to PSS (Packet Switch Stream), an X.25-based packetswitched network, mostly used to provide leased-line connections between local area networks and to the Internet using permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) . Today the term may refer not only to Frame relay and ATM (both also providing permanent virtual circuits), but also IP, GPRS and other packet switching techniques. protocol PSDN (public switched data network) PTT (push to talk) A two-way communication service that works like a "walkie talkie." A normal cell phone call is full-duplex, meaning both parties can hear each other at the same time. PTT is half-duplex, meaning communication can only travel in one direction at any given moment. To control who can speak and be heard, PTT requires the person speaking to press a button while talking and then release it when they are done. The listener then presses their button to respond. This way the system knows which direction the signal should be traveling in. In telecommunication, a public land mobile network (PLMN) is a network that is established and operated by an administration or by a recognized operating agency (ROA) for the specific purpose of providing land mobile telecommunications services to the public. Access to PLMN services is achieved by means of an air interface involving radio communications between mobile phones or other wireless-enabled user equipment and land-based radio transmitters or radio base stations. PLMNs interconnect with other PLMNs and PSTNs for telephone communications or with Internet service providers for data and Internet access. public land mobile network (PLMN) 33 of 47 QoS (quality of service) In the fields of packet-switched networks and computer networking, the traffic engineering term Quality of Service (QoS, pronounced "que-oh-ess") refers to the probability of the telecommunication network meeting a given traffic contract, or in many cases is used informally to refer to the probability of a packet succeeding in passing between two points in the network. In the field of telephony, telephony quality of service refers to lack of noise and tones on the circuit, appropriate loudness levels etc., and includes grade of service. A quadruple play service combines the triple play service of broadband Internet access, television and telephone with wireless service provisions. The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in which electromagnetic waves can be generated by alternating current fed to an antenna An electronic process that identifies each individual’s wireless handset by examining its unique radio transmission characteristics. Fingerprinting is used to reduce fraud since the illegal phone cannot duplicate the legal phone’s radio-frequency fingerprint. The governing element in the UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) responsible for control of the Node-Bs, that is to say the base stations which are connected to the controller. The RNC carries out radio resource management, some of the mobility management functions and is the point where encryption is done before user data is sent to and from the mobile. The RNC connects to the Circuit Switched Core Network through Media Gateway (MGW) and to the SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) in the Packet Switched Core Network. An operation within a larger dynamic system is called a real-time operation if the combined reaction- and operation-time of a task operating on current events or input, is no longer than the maximum delay allowed, in view of circumstances outside the operation. The task must also occur before the system to be controlled becomes unstable. A real-time operation is not necessarily fast, as slow systems can allow slow real-time operations. This applies for all types of dynamically changing systems. The polar opposite of a real-time operation is a batch job with interactive timesharing falling somewhere in between the two extremes. Reliability engineering is the discipline of ensuring that a system will be reliable when operated in a specified manner. Reliability engineering is performed throughout the entire life cycle of a system, including development, test, production and operation. quad play radio frequency radio-frequency fingerprinting radio network controller (RNC) real-time reliability 34 of 47 RFC In internetworking and computer network engineering, Request for Comments (RFC) documents are a series of memoranda encompassing new research, innovations, and methodologies applicable to Internet technologies. Through the Internet Society, engineers and computer scientists may publish discourse in the form of an RFC memorandum, either for peer review or simply to convey new concepts, information, or (occasionally) engineering humor. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) adopts some of the applied information theory published in RFCs as Internet standards. A technology similar in theory to bar code identification. An RFID system consists of an antenna and a transceiver, which read the radio frequency and transfer the information to a processing device, and a transponder, or tag, which is an integrated circuit containing the RF circuitry and information to be transmitted. RFID systems can be used just about anywhere, from clothing tags to missiles to pet tags to food. A service allowing cellular subscribes to use their handsets on networks of other operators or in other countries. Service providers typically charge a higher per-minute fee for calls placed outside their home calling or coverage area. In finance, rate of return, or ROR, return on investment, ROI, or sometimes just return, is a comparison of the money earned (or lost) on an investment to the amount of money invested. A router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets across an internetwork toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 (the Network layer e.g. IP) of the OSI seven-layer protocol stack. In computer networking the term routing refers to selecting paths in a computer network along which to send data. Routing directs forwarding, the passing of logically addressed packets from their source toward their ultimate destination through intermediary nodes (called routers). The routing process usually directs forwarding on the basis of routing tables within the routers, which maintain a record of the best routes to various network destinations. Thus the construction of routing tables becomes very important for efficient routing. Routing differs from bridging in its assumption that address-structures imply the proximity of similar addresses within the network, thus allowing a single routing-table entry to represent the route to a group of addresses. Therefore, routing outperforms bridging in large networks, and it has become the dominant form of path-discovery on the Internet. RFID (radio frequency identification) roaming ROI (return on investment) routers routing 35 of 47 RSA (rural services areas) Areas not included in MSAs. Generally, these are the rural regions of the United States. The FCC used RSAs to license cellular carriers in areas not included in MSAs. There are 428 RSAs in the United States. Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic Engineering is an extension of the RSVP protocol for traffic engineering. It supports the reservation of resources across an IP network. Applications running on IP end systems can use RSVP to indicate to other nodes the RSVP-TE (resource nature (bandwidth, jitter, maximum burst, and so forth) of the reservation protocol packet streams they want to receive. RSVP runs on both IPv4 and traffic engineering) IPv6. RSVP-TE is detailed in IETF RFC 3209. RSVP-TE generally allows the establishment of MPLS label switched paths (LSPs), taking into consideration network constraint parameters such as available bandwidth and explicit hops. Rural areas or sparseRural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. Such areas are distinct from more intensively settled urban and suburban areas, and also from unsettled lands such as outback or wilderness. People in rural areas live in villages, on farms and in other isolated houses. In modern usage, rural areas can have an agricultural character, though many rural areas are characterized by an economy based on logging, mining, petroleum and natural gas exploration, or tourism. The Samsung Group is composed of numerous South Korean business sectors including Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life Insurance. At the core of it all, the Samsung Group is helmed by its chairman Kun-hee Lee. rural Samsung A SBC (Session Border Controller) is a device used in some VoIP SBC (Session Border networks to exert control over the signaling and usually also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing Controller) down calls. An SCP or Service Control Point is a standard component of an IN (Intelligent Networks) telephone system which is used to control the service. Standard SCP's in the telecom industry today are SCP (service control deployed using SS7, Sigtran or SIP technologies. The SCP queries the SDP (Service Data Point) which holds the actual database and point) directory. SCP, using the database from the SDP, identifies the geographical number to which the call is to be routed. This is the same mechanism that is used to route 1-800 numbers. 36 of 47 SDR (softwaredefined radio) Sometimes shortened to software radio (SR), it refers to wireless communication in which the transmitter modulation is generated or defined by a computer, and the receiver uses a computer to recover the signal intelligence. SDR could allow network operators to simultaneously support multiple communications standards on one network infrastructure without being bound by a particular standard. It is also critical for implementing secondary markets for spectrum. Standard-definition television or SDTV refers to television systems that have a resolution that meets standards but not considered SDTV (standard either enhanced definition or high definition. The term is usually definition television) used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same (or similar) resolution as analog systems. An FCC initiative to allow spectrum leasing by licensed users. Secondary market is intended to encourage (commercial) spectrum use in response to economic demand, thus improving its efficiency. Information security deals with several different "trust" aspects of information. Another common term is information assurance. Information security is not confined to computer systems, nor to information in an electronic or machine-readable form. It applies to all aspects of safeguarding or protecting information or data, in whatever form. The U.S. National Information Systems Security Glossary defines Information systems security (INFOSEC) as: the protection of information systems against unauthorized access to or modification of information, whether in storage, processing or transit, and against the denial of service to authorized users or the provision of service to unauthorized users, including those measures necessary to detect, document, and counter such threats. In computing, the term Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of services to support the requirements of software users. In an SOA environment, nodes on a network[1] make resources available to other participants in the network as independent services that the participants access in a standardized way. Most definitions of SOA identify the use of Web services (i.e., using SOAP or REST) in its implementation. However, one can implement SOA using any service-based technology. A measure of the power of a signal versus noise. A lower ratio means there is more noise relative to signal. secondary market security service-oriented architecture (SoA) signal-to-noise ratio 37 of 47 A SIM card is a small printed circuit board that must be inserted in any GSM-based mobile phone when signing on as a subscriber. It contains subscriber identification, security information and memory SIM (subscriber identity module) card for a personal directory of numbers. The card can be plugged into any GSM compatible phone, and the phone is instantly personalized to the user. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. It can be used to create two-party, multiparty, or multicast sessions that include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia conferences.SIP is designed to be independent of the underlying transport layer; it can run on TCP, UDP, or SCTP. In November 2000, SIP was accepted as a 3GPP signaling protocol and permanent element of the IMS architecture. It is widely used as a signaling protocol for Voice over IP, along with H.323 and others. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Skype Skype (IPA pronunciation: /skajp/ (rhymes with "type" and "pipe") is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet telephony (VoIP) network, founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the creators of KaZaA and competing against established open VoIP protocols like SIP, IAX, or H.323. The Skype Group is headquartered in Luxembourg with offices also in London and Tallinn. The system has a reputation for working across different types of network connections (including firewalls and NAT) because voice packets are routed by the combined users of the free desktop software application. Skype users can speak to other Skype users for free. Skype also has paid services allowing users to call traditional telephone numbers (SkypeOut), receive calls from traditional phones (SkypeIn), and receive voicemail messages. smart antenna An antenna system whose technology enables it to focus its beam on a desired signal to reduce interference. A cellular network would employ smart antennae at its base stations in an effort to reduce the number of dropped calls, improve call quality and improve channel capacity. A wireless LAN system can also use smart antennae to increase its range. See also phased array. 38 of 47 A two-way radio telephone service making use of macro cells covering an area of up to 50 miles in diameter. Typically, there is one repeater in a SMR system, and it links only the mobile/portable SMR (specialized mobile radio service) units for that system, not to other repeaters. SMR is also known as PAMR (public access mobile radio), PMR (private mobile radio), TMR (trunked mobile radio) and TRS (trunked radio system). Popularly known as “text messaging,” SMS is available on many 2G and all 3G wireless networks. With SMS, subscribers can send short SMS (short message text messages (usually about 160 characters) to and from wireless service) handsets. Enhancements are being made to support rich text and graphics. A Short Message Service Center (SMSC) is a network element in the mobile telephone network which delivers SMS messages. When a user sends a text message (SMS message) to another user, the phone actually sends the message to the SMSC. The SMSC stores the message and then delivers it to the destination user when they are available. This is a store and forward operation. The SMSC usually has a configurable time limit for how long it will store the message, and users can usually specify a shorter time limit if they want. A communication technique in which the frequency of the transmitted signal is deliberately varied. This results in greater bandwidth and lessens the chances of interruption or interception of the transmitted signal. There are two types of spread spectrum radio: direct sequence and frequency hop. In direct sequence spread spectrum, the stream of information to be transmitted is divided into small pieces, each of which is spread across the entire allocated spectrum. With frequency hopping spread spectrum, a carrier spreads out information (voice or data packets) over different frequencies. For example, a phone call is carried on several different frequencies so that when one frequency is lost, another picks up the call without breaking the connection. Signaling System #7 (SS7) is a set of telephony signaling protocols which are used to set up the vast majority of the world's PSTN telephone calls.It is usually abbreviated to SS7 though in North America and it is also often referred to as CCS7, an acronym for "Common Channel Signaling System 7." SMSC (short message service center) spread spectrum SS7 39 of 47 SSID A service set identifier (SSID) is a code attached to all packets on a wireless network to identify each packet as part of that network. The code is a case sensitive text string which consists of a maximum of 32 alphanumeric characters. All wireless devices attempting to communicate with each other must share the same SSID. Apart from identifying each packet, SSID also serves to uniquely identify a group of wireless network devices used in a given "Service Set". The term set-top box (STB) describes a device that connects to a television and some external source of signal, and turns the signal into content then displayed on the screen. The signal source might be an ethernet cable (see triple play), a satellite dish, a coaxial cable, a telephone line (including DSL connections), or even an ordinary VHF or UHF antenna. Content, in this context, could mean any or all of video, audio, Internet webpages, interactive games or other possibilities. In telecommunication, an optical switch is a switch that enables signals in optical fibers or integrated optical circuits (IOCs) to be selectively switched from one circuit to another. Note 1: An optical switch may operate by (a) mechanical means, such as physically shifting an optical fiber to drive one or more alternative fibers, or (b) electro-optic effects, magneto-optic effects, or other methods. Note 2: Slow optical switches, such as those using moving fibers, may be used for alternate routing of an optical transmission path, e.g., routing around a fault. Fast optical switches, such as those using electro-optic or magneto-optic effects, may be used to perform logic operations. STB (set-top box) switching TCP (transmission control protocol) The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite.TCP provides reliable, inorder delivery of a stream of bytes, making it suitable for applications like file transfer and e-mail. TCP is the transport protocol that manages the individual conversations between web servers and web clients. TCP divides the HTTP messages into smaller pieces, called segments, to be sent to the destination client. It is also responsible for controlling the size and rate at which messages are exchanged between the server and the client. 40 of 47 TDM (time-division multiplexing) Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a type of digital multiplexing in which two or more apparently simultaneous channels are derived from a given frequency spectrum, i.e., bit stream, by interleaving pulses representing bits from different channels. In some TDM systems, successive pulses represent bits from successive channels, e.g., voice channels in a T1 system. In other systems different channels take turns using the channels for a group of successive pulse-times (a so-called "time slot"). What distinguishes coarse time-division multiplexing from packet switching is that the time-slots are pre-allocated to the channels, rather than arbitrated on a per-time slot basis. A method of digital wireless communications transmission that allows multiple users to access (in sequence) a single radio TDMA (time divison frequency channel without interference. It does so by allocating unique time slots to each user within each channel. TDMA is used multiple access) in some 2G systems, such as GSM and D-AMPS, the latter is often called just TDMA. Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion from one (usually lossy) codec to another. It involves decoding/decompressing the original data to a raw intermediate format (i.e. PCM for audio or YUV for video), in a way that mimics standard playback of the lossy content, and then re-encoding this into the target format. It is commonly used in the area of mobile phone content adaptation. In the world of mobile content, transcoding is a must, due to the diversity of mobile devices. This diversity requires an intermediate state of content adaptation in order to make sure that the source content will adequately present on the target device it is sent to. In human-computer interaction, computer transparency is an aspect of user friendliness which relieves the user of the need to worry about technical details (like installation, updating, downloading or device drivers). For instance, a program that automatically detects the monitor resolution is more transparent compared to one that requests the user to enter it manually. In computing and networking, a software that supports different logical actions through the same user or application interface is transparent. For example, the Network File System allows users to access files stored on a remote machine as if they were stored locally, through the same file/folder hierarchy. In telecommunications, the Triple Play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of the three services: high-speed Internet, television (Video on Demand or regular broadcasts) and telephone service over a single broadband connection. transcoding transparent triple play 41 of 47 TRS (trunked radio systems) TRS are used whenever a large number of mobile radios need to share radio frequencies. Local government and industry that operate private radio systems use them. Public service providers that install system infrastructures and sell airtime on the system also operate them. In a trunked radio network, a large number of users can share a small number of channels because the trunking equipment dynamically allocates an available channel when users key their radio. See also SMR. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. Using UDP, programs on networked computers can send short messages sometimes known as datagrams (using Datagram Sockets) to one another. UDP does not guarantee reliability or ordering in the way that TCP does. Datagrams may arrive out of order, appear duplicated, or go missing without notice. Avoiding the overhead of checking whether UDP (user datagram every packet actually arrived makes UDP faster and more efficient, protocol) at least for applications that do not need guaranteed delivery. Unlike TCP, UDP is compatible with packet broadcast (sending to all on local network) and multicasting (send to all subscribers). Common network applications that use UDP include: the Domain Name System (DNS), streaming media applications such as IPTV, Voice over IP (VoIP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and online games. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology. Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA as the underlying air interface. It is UMTS (universal standardized by the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU mobile telecommunications IMT-2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems. To differentiate UMTS from competing network technologies, UMTS is system) sometimes marketed as 3GSM, emphasizing the combination of the 3G nature of the technology and the GSM standard which it was designed to succeed. A wireless technology for transmitting large amounts of digital data over a wide spectrum of frequency bands with very low power for a short distance. UWB also has the ability to carry signals through obstacles, thus allowing objects to be detected behind walls or underground. As a short-distance wireless technology, UWB can be compared with Bluetooth and ZigBee UWB (ultra wideband) 42 of 47 VDSL2 VDSL2 is the newest and most advanced standard of DSL broadband wireline communications. ADSL-like long reach performance is one of the key advantages of VDSL2. LR-VDSL2 enabled systems are capable of supporting speeds of around 1-4 Mbit/s (downstream) over distances of 4 to 5 km, gradually increasing the bit rate up to symmetric 100Mbit/s as loop-length shortens. This means that VDSL2-based systems, unlike VDSL1 systems, are not limited to short loops or MTU/MDUs only, but can also be used for medium range applications. Video is the technology of capturing, recording, processing, transmitting, and reconstructing moving pictures, typically using celluloid film, electronic signals, or digital media, primarily for viewing on television or computer monitors. A virtual LAN, commonly known as a vLAN or as a VLAN, is a method of creating independent logical networks within a physical network. Several VLANs can co-exist within such a network. This helps in reducing the broadcast domain and administratively separating logical segments of LAN (like company departments) which should not exchange data using LAN (they still can by routing). A VLAN consists of a network of computers that behave as if connected to the same wire - even though they may actually be physically connected to different segments of a LAN. Network administrators configure VLANs through software rather than hardware, which makes them extremely flexible. One of the biggest advantages of VLANs emerges when physically moving a computer to another location: it can stay on the same VLAN without the need for any hardware reconfiguration. video VLAN Visitor Location Register (VLR) is a database - part of the GSM mobile phone system - which stores information about all the mobiles that are currently under the jurisdiction of the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) which it serves. Of all the information it stores about each MS (Mobile Station), the most important is the current LAI (Location Area Identity). LAI identifies under which BSC (Base VLR (visitor location Station Controller) the mobile subscriber is currently present. This register) information is vital in the call setup process. Whenever an MSC detects a new mobile subscriber in its network, in addition to creating a new record in the VLR, it also updates the home location register (HLR) of the mobile subscriber, apprising it of the new location of that mobile subscriber. 43 of 47 VoD (video-ondemand) Video on demand (VoD) systems allow users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems either "stream" content, allowing viewing while the video is being downloaded, or "download" it in which the program is brought in its entirety to a set-top box before viewing starts. Voice over Internet Protocol (also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and Broadband Phone) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packetswitched network, instead of dedicated legacy circuit-switched telephony transmission lines. Protocols used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols. They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET. Voice over IP traffic can be deployed on any IP network, including ones lacking a connection to the rest of the Internet, for instance on a private building-wide LAN. A commercial voice over IP (VoIP) network and SIP company that provides telephone service via a broadband connection (the company's name is a play on their motto "Voice-Over-Net-AGE"). Vonage is known as the "Broadband Phone Company" and has recently marketed itself as "Leading the Internet Phone Revolution." Vonage currently holds the most subscribers, and is currently operating on 1.8 million lines having completed well over 5 billion calls VoIP Vonage A private communications network often used within a company, or by several companies or organizations, to communicate confidentially over a publicly accessible network. VPN message VPN (viritual private traffic can be carried over a public networking infrastructure (e.g. network) the Internet) on top of standard protocols, or over a service provider's private network with a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider A wide area network or WAN is a computer network covering a wide geographical area, involving a vast array of computers. This is different from personal area networks (PANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs) or local area networks (LANs) that are usually limited to a room, building or campus. The most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet. WANs are used to connect local area networks (LANs) together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. WAN 44 of 47 One of the five 3G air interface standards endorsed by the ITU. It W-CDMA (wideband makes use of a wider-band channel than CDMA, and therefore can transmit and receive greater amounts of information faster. Wcode division CDMA is being backed by most European and Japanese mobile multiple access) operators, and is competing with cdma2000 as the 3G standard. The World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global information space which people can read-from and write-to via a large number of different Internet-connected devices. For example, computers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, telephone kiosks, etc. The World Wide Web is also available (sometimes only partially) through digital television services, exposing content onto television screens. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is actually a service that operates over the Internet, just like e-mail. WWW is the complete set of documents residing on all Internet servers that use the HTTP protocol, accessible to users via a simple point-and-click system. Web Wi-Fi Wi-Fi (also WiFi, Wi-fi, Wifi, or wifi) is a brand originally licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to describe the underlying technology of wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. Wi-Fi is now so pervasive, and the term so generic, that the brand is no longer protected and it appears on Webster's dictionary. Wi-Fi was intended to be used for mobile computing devices, such as laptops, in LANs, but is now often used for increasingly more applications, including Internet access, gaming, and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as televisions and DVD players. There are even more standards in development that will allow Wi-Fi to be used by cars in highways in support of an Intelligent Transportation System to increase safety, gather statistics, and enable mobile commerce (IEEE 802.11p). Sometimes called radio in the loop or fixed-radio access, WLL is a system that connects subscribers to the public switched telephone network using radio signals as a substitute for copper for all or part of the connection between the subscriber and the switch. This includes cordless access systems, proprietary fixed radio access and fixed cellular systems. WLL (wireless local loop) A wireless network where a user can connect to a local area WLAN (wireless local network through a wireless (radio) connection, as an alternative to a wired LAN. The most popular standard for WLAN is the IEEE area network) 802.11 series. 45 of 47 WiMAX WiMAX is an acronym that stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, a certification mark for products that pass conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN standards. WiMAX is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. WiMAX can be used for a number of applications, including "last mile" broadband connections, hotspots and cellular backhaul, and high-speed enterprise connectivity for business. The public driven wireless internet wimax & wisp access roll out map is now available. Products that pass the conformity tests for WiMAX are capable of forming wireless connections between them to permit the carrying of internet packet data. An ISP that allows subscribers to connect to a server at designated hot spots (or access points) using a wireless connection such as WiFi. WISP (wireless Internet service provider) The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML format published for describing Web services. Version 1.1 has not been endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), however it has released several drafts for version 2.0, that will be a W3C WSDL (Web services recommendation, and thus endorsed by the W3C. It is commonly abbreviated as WSDL in technical literature and is usually description pronounced wiz-dell. WSDL describes the public interface to the language) web service. This is an XML-based service description on how to communicate using the web service; namely, the protocol bindings and message formats required to interact with the web services listed in its directory. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. In other words: XML is a way of describing data and an XML file can contain the data too, as in a database. It is a simplified subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different systems, particularly systems connected via the Internet. Languages based on XML (for example, Geography Markup Language (GML), RDF/XML, RSS, MathML, XHTML, SVG, and MusicXML) are defined in a formal way, allowing programs to modify and validate documents in these languages without prior knowledge of their form. XML 46 of 47 Yahoo Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (“Yahoo!”), is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. We seek to provide Internet services that are essential and relevant to users and businesses. To users, we provide our owned and operated online properties and services (the “Yahoo! Properties”). To businesses, we provide a range of tools and marketing solutions designed to enable businesses to reach our community of users. Yahoo! was developed and first made available in 1994 by our founders, David Filo and Jerry Yang, while they were graduate students at Stanford University. We were incorporated in 1995 and are a Delaware corporation. We are headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and have offices in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Popular name for the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for an extremely low power, and low bit rate wireless personal area network technology. Zigbee is designed for wireless automation and other lower data tasks, such as smart home automation and remote monitoring. ZigBee 47 of 47