Technical Dictionary
This section contains common terms used in the world of telecommunications and on the World Wide Web.
P
Packet: Generic term for a bundle of data, usually in binary form, organized in a specific way for transmission.
Point of Presence (POP): A physical location where a carrier has a presence of network access. A POP generally is in the form of a switch or router.
Private Branch Exchange (PBX): PBX is a private telephone switching system, usually located on a customer's premises with an attendant console. It is connected to a common group of lines from one or more central offices to provide service to a number of individual phones, such as a hotel, business, or government office.
Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules governing the format of messages that are exchanged between computers and people. A protocol is also a set of rules, procedures or conventions relating to format timing of data between two devices.
Proxy Server: A proxy is used on a gateway that relays packets between a trusted client and an untrusted host. A proxy server is software that runs on a PC and is basically a corporate telephone system for the Internet.
Public Service Commission (PSC): The state regulatory authority responsible for communications regulations.
Q
Queue: A stream of tasks waiting to be executed or a series of calls, messages, or packets awaiting the availability of a network resource.
R
Rate Center: As defined by the telephone industry, rate center is that point within an Exchange Area defined by rate map coordinates used as the primary basis for the determination of toll rates. A rate center may also be used for the determination of selected local rates.
Repeater: An opto-electronic device inserted at intervals along a circuit to boost and amplify analog signals. A repeater is needed because the quality and strength of a signal decays over distance.
RJ-11: RJ-11 is a six-conductor modular jack that is typically wired for four conductors. The RJ-11 jack is the most common telephone jack in the world.
Router: Routers are the central switching offices of the Internet, corporate Intranets, and WANs. Many different groups-from backbone service providers and local Internet Service Providers to corporations and universities-use routers. Cisco provides more routers than any other company in the world.
S
Server: A server is a shared computer on the local area network that can be as simple as a PC set aside to handle print requests to a single printer. It may also be the gatekeeper controlling access to voice mail, electronic mail, or facsimile services.
Service Order: The official form for recording and processing customer services.
Shielded Pair: Two insulated wires in a cable wrapped with metallic braid or foil to prevent the wires from acting as antennas and picking up external interference.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): The TCP/IP Protocol for governing electronic mail transmissions and receptions. An application protocol that runs over TCP/IP and supports text-oriented e-mail between devices supporting Message Handling Service (MHS).
Snow: Random noise or interference appearing in a video picture as white specs. In short, video noise.
Spam: "Junk" e-mail messages posted to numerous Internet users and newsgroups.
Splitter: A network that supplies signals to a number of outputs that are individually matched and isolated from each other. A splitter is a device that can connect two TV's using one cable.
Star: A topology in which all phones or workstations are wired directly to a central service unit or workstation that establishes, maintains, and breaks connections between the workstations.
Subnet: A portion of a network that shares a network address with other portions of the network and is distinguished by a subnet number. A subnet is to a network what a network is to the Internet.
Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS): A high-speed data transmission service for application in a Metropolitan Area Network environment. SMDS is a public network service designed primarily for LAN-to-LAN interconnection.
Synchronous Optical Network (SONET): A family of fiber optic transmission rates from 51.84 million bits per second to 13.27 gigabits per second; created to provide the flexibility needed to transport many digital signals with different capacities and to provide design standards for manufacturers.
T
T-1: Stands for trunk level 1. A digital transmission link with a total signaling speed of 1.544 Mbps. T-1 is a standard for digital transmission in North America. T-1 is part of a progression of digital transmission pipes-a hierarchy known generically as the DS hierarchy.
Tandem: One type of central office; it establishes trunk-to-trunk connections, functions which may be combined into a single switching system.
Tariff: Documents filed by a regulated telephone company with a state public utility commission. As a public document, the tariff details services, equipment and pricing offered by a telephone company to all potential customers.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a networking protocol that provides communications across interconnected networks, between computers with diverse hardware architectures and various operating systems.
Telecommunications Act of 1996. US: A federal bill signed into law on February 8, 1996, "to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality service for American telecommunications consumers and encourage rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.
Telephony: The science of transmitting voice, data, video or image signals over a distance greater than what can be transmitted by shouting.
Third Party Call: Any call charged to a number other than that of the origination or destination party.
Token Ring: A local are network (shaped like a ring) in which a supervisory frame, or token, must be received by an attached terminal or workstation before that terminal or workstation can start transmitting.
Topology: The configuration of a communication network. The physical topology is the way the network looks. Physical topologies for LANs include a bus, a ring, and a star.
Trunk: A communication line between two switching systems, which typically include equipment in a central office and PBXs. A tie trunk connects PBXs. Central office trunks connect a PBX to the switching system at the central office.
Twisted Pair: Two insulated copper wires twisted around each other to reduce induction from one wire to the other wire.
