Technical Dictionary
This section contains common terms used in the world of telecommunications and on the World Wide Web.
F
Facility: In the telephone industry, a facility is a phone or a data line.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC): A federal organization in Washington, D.C., that was established by the Communications Act of 1934. It has the authority to regulate all interstate (but not intrastate) communications originating in the United States.
Feeder Cable: A group of wires, usually 25-pair or multiples of 25-pair, that support multiple phones in a single sheath.
Fiber Optics: A technology in which light is used to transport information from one point to another. More specifically, fiber optics are thin filaments of glass through which light beams are transmitted over long distances carrying large amounts of data. Fiber is made of very pure glass. Digital signals in the form of modulated light travel on strands of fiber for long distances. The advantage that fiber has over copper is that it can carry more information over much longer distances.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): A service that supports file transfer between local and remote computers (often through the Internet). FTP allows for the two-way transfer of binary and ASCII files between computers.
Firewall: A combination of hardware and software that limits the exposure of a computer or a group of computers to an attack from outside. The most common use of a firewall is on a local area network connected to the Internet. Without a firewall, anyone using the Internet can gain access to a corporate local area network and steal information or "dump" false data onto a network.
Frame: A frame is a packet. It's a generic term specific to a number of data communications protocols. A frame of data is a logical unit of data, which is commonly a fragment of a much larger set of data, such as a file of text or image information.
Frame Relay: Frame relay is an access standard defined by the ITU-T in the 1.122 recommendation as, " Framework for Providing Additional Packet Mode Bearer Services." Frame relay services delivered by telecommunications carriers employ a form of packet switching analogous to a streamlined version of X.25 networks. The packets are in the form of "frames," which vary in length, with the payload ranging from 0 to 4,096 octets.
Full-Duplex: Transmission in two directions; bi-directional.
G
Gigabyte: A combination of giga, meaning one billion or one thousand million byte, meaning set of bits. A unit of measurement for physical data storage on some form of storage device-hard disk, optical disk, RAM memory, etc. A gigabyte is equal to two raised to the 30th power.
H
Half-Duplex: A circuit designed for data transmission in two directions but not at the same time.
Head End: The originating point of a signal in cable TV systems. At the head end, you'll often find a large receiving satellite antennae.
Hertz: Abbreviated Hz. A measurement of frequency in cycles per second. A hertz is one cycle per second, and it is the basic measurement for bandwidth in analog terms.
High Definition TV (HDTV): A standard for transmitting a TV signal with greater resolution than specified by the current NTSC standard.
Hop: Each short, individual trip that packets make many times over, from router to router, on their way to their destinations.
HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol. Invisible to the user, HTTP is the protocol used by the Web Server and the Client Browser to communicate over the "wire."
Hyperlink: A link from one part of a page on the Internet to another page, either on the same site or a distant site.
I
Icon: An icon is a picture or symbol representing an object, task, command, or choice that can be selected from a piece of software.
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. Founded in 1884, IEEE consists of over 320,000 members in 147 countries. The IEEE's technical objectives "focus on advancing the theory and practice of electrical, electronics and computer engineering and computer science."
IEEE 802: The main IEEE standard for local area networking and metropolitan area networking, including an overview of networking architecture. It was approved in 1990.
Information Superhighway: A very vague term that is often used to describe the Internet.
Intranet: A private network that uses Internet software and Internet standards. In essence, an Intranet is a private Internet reserved for use by the people who have been given the authority and the passwords necessary to use the network.
Interstate: Literally, between states. Services, traffic or facilities that originate in one state, crossing over and terminating in another state.
Intrastate: Services, traffic or facilities that originate and terminate within the same state.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN has two forms-BRI, which is 144,000 bits per second and designed for the desktop, and PRI, which is 1,544,000 bits per second in North America and 2,048,000 bits per second in Europe. PRI is designed for telephone switches, computer telephony and voice processing. ISDN BRI offers videoconferencing and ultrafast data communication.
J
Java: Java is a programming language used on the Internet to create motion on static Web pages-to make animated figures dance and stock tickers flash.
