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Glossary

30 March, 2015 - 16:18

access point— A device used on wireless LANs that transmits and receives wireless signals to and from multiple nodes and retransmits them to the rest of the network segment. Access can connect a group of nodes with a network or two networks with each other. They may use direction or omni-directional antennas.

AP — See Access Point

bit — Binary digit in the binary numbering system. Its value can be 0 or 1. In an 8-bit character scheme, it takes eight bits to make a byte of data.

broadband — Sometimes also referred to as wideband. It’s a term describing any network that allows multiple signals to be transmitted on a single cable at the same time. Different frequencies of electromagnetic waves are used to encode the signals, and transmissions do not interfere with each other. In LAN terminology, broadband refers to a system in which multiple channels access a medium, for example coaxial cable, that has a large bandwidth using Radio Frenquency (RF). This may allow the coaxial cable to carry multiple separate LANs whose transmission is being modulated at different frequencies. In cable television (CATV), broadband describes the ability to carry 30 or more TV channels and is synonymous with wideband.

CSMA/CD — Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detect, a common Ethernet protocol.

Ethernet — A network protocol invented by Xerox Corporation and developed jointly by Xerox, Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation. Ethernet networks use CSMA/CD and run over a variety of cable types at 10 Mbps.

frame — A term for the unit of data transferred on a network; its size depends on the type of network implemented, hundreds or thousands of bytes long (any particular type of network will have a limit on the frame size, e.g. Ethernet 1500-byte limit). The terms cell, datagram, message, packet, and segment are also used to describe logical information groupings at various layers of the OSI reference model.

Hotspot — A hotspot is a physical location that offers internet access over a wireless LAN through the use of a shared internet connection and a single router. Hotspots can typically be found in coffee shops and various other public establishments throughout a city.

Internet — A global network of networks used to exchange information using the TCP/IP protocol. It allows for electronic mail and the accessing and retrieval of information from remote sources.

LAN — See Local Area Network.

Local Area Network — A network connecting computers in a relatively small area such as a building.

Mbps — Megabit per second.

Megabit — One million bits.

node — End point of a network connection. Nodes include any device attached to a network such as file servers, printers, or workstations.

point-to-point — A direct link between two objects in a network.

protocol — A formal description of a set of rules and conventions that govern how devices on a network exchange information.

WLAN — A short form of wireless LAN.