Continental Wireless - Resources - Wireless Networking Glossary


Wireless Networking Glossary

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A
AAA	Authentication, Authorization and Accounting entity. See Radius and Diameter
AAL	AAL Adaptation Layer
AAL2	ATM Adoption Rate Layer 2. Typically used to transport compressed voice and video traffic
AAL5	ATM Adoption Rate Layer 5. Typically used to transport signal control and network mgmt data traffic
A-bis	Interface between BTS and BSC
ABR	Available Bit Rate. Hybrid between CBR and VBR. Guarantees bandwidth availability, but only within limits specified by ABR protocol
AC	Authentication Centre. Stores information for authenticating mobiles, and encrypting their voice and data transmissions
ACC	Analog Control Channel. See FSK
Access gateway	Provides User-to-Network Interface (UNI) such as ISDN
ACK	Acknowledgement signal
ACP	Adjacent Channel Power
ACRE	Authorization & Call Routing Equipment. Used for routing calls to cellular phones with a 'cordless' mode
AD	Abbreviated Dialing
ADA	Advertising Agent. Provides information to a MS on the services provided by a 3G network
Adjacent Channel Interference	Interference from signals at slightly different frequencies
ADSL	Asymmetric DSL. Bit rates are higher from the network than from the client. Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. Technology for transmitting digital information at high bandwidth on existing phone lines; continuously available, "always on" connection. "Asymmetric" in that it uses most of channel to transmit downstream to user and small part to receive from user
AES	Advanced Encryption Standard. Supports key sizes of 128 bits, 192 bits and 256 bits. Replaces DES
AFSK	Audio FSK. Communication by changing frequencies in the audio band rather than RF. Used by MF, DTMF
AGW	Access Gateway
AI	Air Interface. Synonym for Radio Interface
Alert	A command to a mobile to notify the user of an incoming call or message
ALI	Automatic Location Information. A database that contains information about the location of emergency callers
Always On	Indicates a constant connection to an ISP or data service. Compare this with dial-up services, which require user to "make a call" to ISP wherein connection is only active during duration of call
AM	Amplitude Modulation. See FM
AMI	Alternate Mark Inversion
AMPS	Advanced Mobile Phone Service. TIA analog cellular, and all standards that retain compatibility with it (NAMPS, D-AMPS, CDMA)
AMR	Adaptive MultiRate Voice Coder. Proposed for use in GSM and UMTS. Bit rates vary between 12.2 and 4.75 kbps
AMTA	American Mobile Telecommunications Association
AN	Access Network
Analog	Transmission of information through a continuously variable signal. Compare with digital
ANSI	American National Standards Institute. National standards organization that participates in and contributes to ISO standards making. ANSI/EIA standard specifies categories (CAT1-7) of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions and connectors) in terms of data rates that they can sustain. Maintains ASCII, SCSI interface standards
APCO	Association of Public Safety Communications Officials
API	Application Programming Interface
ARP Table	Table Address Resolution Protocol Table. Internet Protocol uses this to resolve MAC addresses. See MAC and IP Address
ARP	IETF Address Resolution Protocol. Binds the physical (MAC) address of a device to an IP address on a local network (e.g. ethernet subnet)
ARQ	Automatic Repeat Request. A method of error correction where the receiver detects errors, and requests retransmission from the sender
ASCII	American Standard Code for Information Interchange, generally pronounced 'aski', is a character set and a character encoding based on the Roman alphabet as used in modern English and other Western European languages
ASE	Application Service Element
ASIC	Application Specific Integrated Circuit. A computer chip that is customized for a special purpose application
ASN.1	Abstract Syntax Notation 1. A formal, textual, representation of a protocol message set
Asynchronous	Data is transmitted only when needed. At least one bit is needed to indicate the start of transmission (known as a start bit). Compare with Synchronous
ATM	Asynchronous Transfer Mode, or ATM for short, is a cell relay network protocol which encodes data traffic into small fixed sized (53 byte) cells instead of variable sized packets as in packet-switched networks (such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet)
Attenuation	Dissipation of power of a transmitted signal as it travels over copper wire line
Authentication	Proving the identity of an individual or application (e.g. MS)
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