W: W-WZ1

W-Wet T-1

W

1. Abbreviation for WATT.

2. The Hayes AT Command Set describes a standard language for sending commands to asynchronous modems. One of the commands is "W." If you embed a W in your dialing string, i.e. 212-691-8215-W-10045, the modem will dial 212-691-8215 and wait until it hears dial tone. When it hears dial tone, it will dial out 10045. That is the standard Hayes command set interpretation of W. There is another. When using some of the communications software products from Crosstalk (now a subsidiary of DCA) you can place a [W] in your dialing string. If you do, your modem will dial the number until it encounters a [W]. It will then wait until you hit any button on your keyboard. The purpose of W commands is to allow you to dial through private networks (your own), through public networks (MCI, Sprint, etc.), through fax/modem/telephone switches and through any other device or network.

W-CDMA

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. A proposal for a 3G (Third Generation) wireless system based on CDMA technology. W-CDMA would offer bandwidth in excess of narrowband , which is commonly considered to be voice-grade bandwidth, i.e., 56/64 Kbps. W-CDMA proposes to support data rates of up to 384 Kbps initially, and up to 2 Mbps eventually. See also 3G, CDMA, and IMT-2000.

W-DCS

Wideband Digital Cross-connect System. W-DCS is an electronic digital cross-connect system capable of cross-connecting signals below the DS3 rate.

W3

An abbreviation for the Internet's World Wide Web. See World Wide Web.

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium. A consortium jointly hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), and Keio University (Japan) Initially, W3C was established in collaboration with CERN, where the WWW originated, with support from DARPA and the European Commission. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the WWW, acts as Director. The W3C works to produce "free, interoperable specifications and sample code. Focus is on the domains of user interface, technology and society, and architecture. In some ways, its ambitions are not that different from those of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), except that its members have commercial interests. The IETF's members are volunteers and tend to come from academia. W3C also focuses on the narrower Web, whereas the IETF focuses on the broader Internet. www.w3.org

Wabi

Sun Microsystems software for running Microsoft Windows applications on Solaris. Runs on Intel and SPARC.

WabiServer

Wabi is Sun Microsystems software for running Microsoft Windows applications on Solaris. Runs on Intel and SPARC. A WabiServer allows multiple and simultaneous users to run Wabi on Intel and SPARC.

WACK

1. Wack a T-1. Here's what it means. Imagine you're an ISP ” an Internet Service Provider. Your business is answering inbound calls from customers with PCs who want to send email, surf the Internet, have fun in chat rooms, etc. You are receiving your calls on digital circuits (e.g. T-1s) from a local phone company ” CLEC or ILEC. Your inbound T-1 line may have as many as 24 separate phone lines, which your customers could call on. Sometimes your phone company sends you a call over one or more of those 24 lines and it doesn't get through. Its switching equipment assumes your equipment on that particular phone line is broken. So its switching equipment automatically takes that phone line out of service. It sends no more calls over that line. Later in the day, it may run a diagnostic program ” called FISO in some instances ” and that software program may try sending calls over the lines that it had earlier taken out of service. But between taking the lines out of service and running that program as much as six or seven hours may elapse. With these lines out of service, an ISP's customers will now enjoy lousy service. So the ISP's people (after bombarded with customer complaint calls) calls the phone company and says "wack my T-1, please ." What happens then is that a real live technician at the phone company then goes into each line and manually tests it, often with a technician from the ISP on the other end of the phone. The advantage of wacking the T-1 is that the circuits out of service are put back into service much faster than if they were left to the machine to do it automatically later on.

2. Wait before transmitting positive ACKnowledgement. In Bisynch, this DLE sequence is sent by a receiving station to indicate it is temporarily not ready to receive.

3. Do not confuse "wack" with "whack," which has now become a colloquial expression for killing someone.

Wafer

A thin disk of a purified crystalline semiconductor, typically silicon, that is cut into chips after processing. Typically, a wafer is about one fiftieth of an inch thick and four or five inches in diameter. See Semiconductor.

Wafer Fabs

Wafer fabs are a slang term for ultraclean factories that fabricate chips on silicon wafers.

WAGS

Wireless Assisted Global Positioning System. See GPS.

WAIS

Wide-Area Information Servers. A very powerful system for looking up information in databases (or libraries) across the Internet. WAIS allows you to perform a keyword search. WAIS is like an index, whereas Gopher, which is sometimes used as a complement to WAIS, is like a table of contents.

Wait On Busy

An English term for the American term "Camp On" or "Call Waiting." A service allowing the subscriber to make a call to a busy phone line, wait until the call is over, then be connected automatically.

Wait State

A period of time when the processor does nothing; it simply waits. A wait state is used to synchronize circuitry or devices operating at different speeds. Wait states are introduced into computers to compensate for the fact that the central microprocessor might be faster than the memory chips next to it. For example, wait states used in memory access slow down the CPU so that all components seem to be running at the same speed. A wait state is a "missed beat" in the cycle of information to and from the CPU that is necessary for a memory transaction to be completed.

Wake

In England in the 1500s, lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock people out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial . They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up ” hence the custom of "holding a wake."

Wake On LAN

This standard allows a PC to be powered on by a network server, so the server can perform routine tasks . See WFM.

Wake-Up Mail

Imagine your PC receiving an important email, then waking you and reading you your email. It's bizarre. But someone is predicting it.

WAL

WATS Access Line. A direct dial WATS line, as compared to a WATS line connected via a T-1 line.

Walk Through

1. In Computer System Development, a peer review of a system design, code, etc. The goal is to identify errors as early as possible and learn from other people's experience. Managers and people who prepare performance reviews should NOT be in the room. The concept is to invite " egoless " constructive criticism and to nurture team- oriented validation and debug responsibility.

2. In telecommunications, a formal tour and accompanying verbal description of the work that is to be done by the customer and the vendors .

Walk Time

The time required to transfer permission to poll from one station to another.

Walkaways

People who walk away from coin phones though they owe extra money. You can tell a phone that has just been visited by a walkaway: It's typically ringing. And when you answer it, the operator will ask you to deposit some additional coins .

Walkie-Talkie

Walkie-Talkie Hand-held radio transmitter and receiver. Like the police carry. Probably the best named device in telecom. You walkie, you talkie. The walkie-talkie was invented in 1938 by Al Gross, who also pioneered CB Citizen's Band radio and patented the first telephone pager device. Nextel rediscovered walkie-talkie technology, which made it available within individual coverage areas, incorporating the feature into its multimode cellular handsets. Nextel later made walkie-talkie communications available nationwide using Motorola-invented cell phone technology. Later other cell phone carriers copied Nextel.

Wall Field

The layout of horizontal and vertical wiring on a designated wall in the MDF or IDF of a customer premises. Probably in the telco as well.

Wall Mount

A mounting system used for attaching an antenna mast to a building wall.

Wall Outlet

A phone outlet positioned at shoulder height to accept a wall telephone set. The typical installation includes a special modular jack containing two mounting bosses that insert into key-hole slots in the base of the telephone set. Electrical connection is made by a short cord or a lug element that is integral to the telephone set base.

Wall Phone

A phone that is mounted on the wall. Where else would a wall phone be mounted? Some new phones ” especially some key systems ” come so you can use them on the desk or mount them on a wall, without extra hardware. Some desk phones cannot be mounted on a wall. This is a disadvantage when you run out of space on your desk, as you will with all the computers and workstations you'll be putting there.

Wall Thickness

A term expressing the thickness of a layer of applied insulation or jacket.

Wall Wart

Term for the common ac to dc adaptor that plugs into a wall socket. Often called a wall wart charger.

Walla Walla

In movie-making, a "walla walla scene" is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background-they are not, they are just repeating "walla walla" over and over again. But when they say "walla walla" it looks like they are actually holding conversations. (Sounds like Monday morning meetings at work.)

Walled Garden

This definition varies. One definition is that Web technology and Web content are used in providing content, but users cannot access the Web directly. Another definition has a walled garden referring to a service or content that is exclusive to subscribers who can venture beyond the wall into other services and content on the Web.

Wallflower

A stock that has fallen out of favor with investors.

Wallpaper

The area of your Windows desktop on your PC behind and around your windows and icons. The color and pattern you put on it through the desktop manager is called wallpaper.

WAM

Wireless SpAM. Junk emails you receive on your wireless device ” cellphone or PDA ” personal digital assistant.

WAN

Wide Area Network. A public voice or data network that extends beyond the metropolitan area. A LAN (Local Area Network) generally is confined to a building or campus environment, and is owned by the end user organization. A MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) is a public network that covers a metropolitan area, which may extend beyond the official city limits. A WAN extends farther, perhaps even internationally. Some people use the term GAN (Global Area Network) to refer to international networks, but I think that's a silly word.

WAN Interface Card

WIC. A card (i.e., printed circuit board) that fits into a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) device or system in order to effect the physical interface to an access circuit connecting to the Wide Area Network. See also WAN.

WAN Router

A carrier-class router designed for Internet Service Providers to process up to several terabits of data per second. WAN routers support optical networking and electrical transport technologies.

WANabee

An Information Systems employee who wants to work in the Wide Area Networking (WAN) Department of a company.

Wander

Long-term random variations of the significant instants of a digital signal from their ideal position in time. Wander is a matter of synchronization errors in digital networks. If a clocking source fails or degrades, it is essential that the signals be re-clocked at the point of the next network element. Otherwise, wander will increase through cascading elements, perhaps affecting the data payload. It is especially important to control wander in very speed networks, such as SONET, where even slight synchronization failures can be catastrophic. Wander variations are usually considered to be those that occur over a period greater than 1 second. See also Diurnal Wander.

WANMC

West Area Network Management Center WANS: Western Area Network Service Center WARC: World Administrative Radio Conference. An international conference called by the ITU-R (formerly CCIR), focused on international agreements concerning Spectrum Allocation. The most recent meeting was February, 1992, in Spain.

WAP

Wireless Application Protocol is a carrier-independent, transaction-oriented protocol for wireless data networks, designed for all type networks, but initially to be implemented on GSM networks. WAP version 1.1 was released in June, 1999. WAP will be included in a new generation of cell phones from major manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola. Such phones will sport larger screens and a rolling mouse (like a normal computer mouse, except it only scrolls up and down, not side to side). The best way to think of WAP is a visual interactive computer telephony voice response system. Essentially you dial a distant WAP server (i.e. computer) through the mobile network. When you reach the server you log on and "do your business." That "do your business" might consist of figuring out how much money you have in the bank, checking the price of your stocks, booking an airline reservation, etc. You can get this information in several ways ” through the expanded screen on your WAP cell phone, through a voice response unit from the other end (punch 1 for this, hear the response, etc.) or a combination of the two. The WAP protocol contains security, transaction handling, byte coding and encryption. What this means is that your "conversation" with the WAP server is secure. WAP users typically must register with their WAP server and be authenticated when they log on. What it also means is that the session the server holds with the user is a dedicated point-to-point session, unlike the Internet where sessions are shared. WAP will also get you to the Internet through a "WAP gateway." But the session doesn't typically have the security that a WAP session does.

The original thinking on WAP was not only to let users access data electronically and voice mail, make stock trades, conduct banking transactions and view miniature Web pages on a wireless terminal's LCD screen, but also to make it easier for mobile users to view shrunken Web pages using Unwired Planet's Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML). According to Unwired Planet (now called Phone.com), HDML "lets Web sites tailor the information format to fit the screen of the phone. We don't try to display the graphical Web pages on such a small device," rather, Webmasters could create smaller versions of sites more suitable for viewing on such units. With WAP, those modifications and optimizations would only have to be made once in order to be viewed on an Ericsson, Motorola or Nokia terminal, Unwired Planet's technology, called UP.Link, is used by AT&T's PocketNet and GTE Wireless services. Bell Atlantic also offers cellular digital packet databased services combined with UP.Link. Al Haase, director of sales, GSM, at Ericsson's North American headquarters in Richardson, Texas, acknowledged that although the demand for receiving this kind of information in a wireless format is not great today, agreement on a standard may nudge wireless access deeper into the mainstream. "The systems were not designed to support data, and thus data transmission speeds are fairly low, " Hasse said. "With the new systems coming online, data access becomes more of a reality because we are more able to link the mobile user with the Net in a timely way."

The success of WAP will depend, on my opinion, on two things: First, the speed at which data can be made to pass across a GSM network. Second, the ability of companies such as Sweden's Nocom to evangelize the standard to WAP server providers. Note that DoCoMo has introduced a highly successful i-Mode (internet-Mode) service in Japan. i-Mode is a proprietary system that is not compatible with WAP. See also CDMA2000, i-Mode, WTLS and Wireless Application Protocol Forum Ltd.

WAP Forum

An industry association dedicated to ensuring product interoperability and growth of the wireless market. Emphasis, of course, is on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which the WAP Forum developed as a de facto standard. The WAP Forum comprises over 200 members, including the vast majority of manufacturers of wireless hand- sets, leading carriers and infrastructure providers, software developers, and wireless solutions providers. www.wapforum.com. See also WAP.

WAPvert

An advertisement displayed on a WAP wireless device. Such WAPvert could be a text tag or a live alert.

WAR

1. Wireless Application Environment - defines the programming interface for applications and consists of WML and WML-script - a new, Java-like local scripting language

2. The Sanskrit word for war means " desire for more cows."

War Dialer

Usually a computer program that can be configured to automatically dial a range of telephone numbers and make note of which ones are answered by a computer; the IT security staff can use such a tool to discover previously unknown entry points into their network or hackers can use it to identify attack points.

War Plugging

Using a service set identifier (SSID) ” a tag of up to 32 characters ” to advertise a wireless network to anyone who comes across it. Examples: "Mars network, open for all" and "please_bring_pizza." It's the latest twist on wardriving, or cruising a city in search of open wireless access points. See also 802.11b.

War Room

Also called a "solutions room." This is an enclosed area with a large table used for decision- or strategy-making.

Warble Tone

A tone changing in frequency at a slow enough rate to give the effect of warbling. A warble tone is the sound of an electronic ringer, according to many people.

WARC

World Administrative Radio Conference. Sets international frequencies. Just before Telecom '87, WARC allocated important new frequencies for satellite-based land mobile (satellite to truck, etc.) and radio determination navigation services (electronic maps for your car). WARC is part of the 154-member International Telecommunication Union. ITU-T is part of the ITU. See ITU-T.

Warez

Warez (pronounced "wares") is commercial software that has been pirated and made available to the public via a Bulletin Board or a Web site on the Internet. Typically, the pirate has figured out a way to remove the copy-protection or registration scheme used by the software. The use and distribution of warez software is illegal. People who create warez sites sometimes call them "warez sitez" and use "z" in other pluralizations.

Warhol Worm

Really mean software that doesn't exist for now but that could theoretically infect every server on the Internet within 15 minutes. The term, of course, derives from the fact that Andy Warhol claimed that everyone in the world would be famous for 15 minutes in their life.

Warm Standby

See Data Center.

Warm Start

Restarting or resetting a computer without turning it off (also called "soft boot"); press Ctrl + Alt + Del on an IBM or IBM compatible.

Warm Swap

When a system component (e.g., a computer disk drive) fails, it may be replaced without turning the system off. During this period, the system's activity is suspended , however. Also known as a Hot Plug, it is unlike a Hot Swap, during which the system remains active. See HOT SWAP and RAID.

Warranty

Span of time that equipment will be repaired or replaced due to failure. Usually does not include reimbursement of engineer's fees required for replacement. May not include equipment failure due to abuse or destruction by either intentional or unintentional means. Lightning, floods, and other Acts of God are not covered under warranty.

WAS

1. Wireless Access System. Another term for Wireless Local Loop (WLL). See WLL.

2. Whistling Axe Syndrome. Used to define the circumstance of a telecom employee unwillingly removed from the workforce. "That's where Bill WAS." In the two years following the telecom bust of 2000, over 500,000 employees of the telecom industry were unwillingly removed from employment.

Washington D.C.

Eight square miles surrounded by reality. A comment variously attributed to John F. Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover and sundry other luminaries.

WASI

Wide Area Service Identifier

WASO

Western Area Switch Operations.

WASP

Wireless Application Service Provider, or wireless ASP create, deploy, run and maintain applications that let employees, partners and customers use handheld devices and wireless links to connect with corporate databases, applications, or intranets . See Application Service Provider.

WAT Date

A term telephone companies use to indicate a date a day or two in advance of the promised delivery date, by which the circuit should be "up" and available for testing, so any problems can be worked out before the technician is dispatched to the customer's premises.

Watch Commands

Watch Commands are found in programming. They allow you to "watch" the value of selected application variables while the application is executing (e.g., see the last-entered touchtone digits from a caller).

Watchdog Packet

Used to ensure that a client is still connected to a NetWare server. If the server has not received a packet from a client for a certain period of time, it sends that client a series of watchdog packets. If the station fails to respond to a predefined number of watchdog packets, the server concludes that the station is no longer connected and clears the connection for that station.

Watchdog Timer

There is a watchdog circuit (also called special function register) in later versions of Intel Pentium chip. When things go awry with the computer the Pentium is running, it sends out a signal to an external device. That device can then take action ” for example reboot the PC. According to Intel's Web site, "The Watchdog Timer is a very useful peripheral that safeguards against software failures. The Watchdog Timer (WDT) is a 16 bit ripple counter that will reset the 8XC196KC/KD if the counter overflows. When the WDT is enabled, this peripheral monitors the execution of a program. This is useful when expensive hardware is being controlled. If we operate in an electrically noisy environment, a noise spike can be potentially fatal to the operation of the microcontroller. We can maintain control in critical applications by resetting the microcontroller when a runaway software process hangs the systems. There is only one Special Function Register to concern ourselves with in this discussion. That register is called WATCHDOG."

Watching Timer

A circuit used in ETHERNET transceivers to ensure that transmission frames are never longer than the specified maximum length.

Water Bore

A device which bores holes underground. Pipes are then placed in the holes and cables (fiber, coax, etc.) are then pulled through. A water bore uses high-speed, pressurized water to bore through the underground .

Water Peak

The presence of moisture in optical fibers results in significant levels of attenuation (i.e. power loss) at 1383 nm (nanometers). Depending on the magnitude of that "water peak" loss, wavelengths within +/- 50 nm also can be affected. This water peak is caused by residual moisture deposited during the manufacturing process. Specifically , hydrogen atoms in the water molecules cause the phenomenon . The hydrogen atoms readily diffuse through the glass matrix of an optical fiber and are trapped at points of defect in the glass structure. Low water peak fiber resolves this problem through special manufacturing processes. See also Low Water Peak Fiber and Rain Attenuation.

Water Pipe Ground

A water pipe to which connection is made for the ground.

Waterfall life cycle

The conventional software development process, consisting of a series of steps commonly defined as analysis design, construction, testing and implementation. The underlying assumption is that each phase does not begin until the preceding phase is complete.

Watermark

Traditionally, a watermark is an identifying mark on a piece of paper, created during the production process by varying the thickness of the paper by pressure from a mold, or by lightly applying various inks. Watermarks, which can be seen plainly only when the paper is held up to the light, are used variously to identify the manufacturer, establish authenticity, build brand loyalty, and prevent counterfeiting. Digital water- marks are small sets of programmed code hidden within computer files or software programs, and can be either visible or invisible, or either audible or inaudible. Visible water- marks are designed to display copyright notices in order to discourage copyright infringement. Invisible watermarks also may be used to discourage copyright infringement, but by catching those who infringe. Watermarks also can be used to verify the authenticity of an image or other file or program, and to establish ownership. See also Steganography.

WATS

Wide Area Telecommunications Service. Basically, a discounted toll service provided by all long distance and local phone companies. AT&T started WATS but forgot to trademark the name, so now every supplier uses it as a generic name . There are two types of WATS services ” in and out WATS, i.e. those WATS lines that allow you to dial out and those on which you receive incoming calls (the typical 800 line service). You subscribe to in- and out-WATS services separately. In the old days you needed separate in and out lines to handle the in and out WATS services. But these days you can choose to have inand out-WATS on the same line. This is not particularly brilliant traffic engineering, since you can't receive an incoming 800 call if you're making an outgoing call. But I do know someone who has an 800 line on his cellular phone!

Many users inside companies think their company's WATS lines (and thus their WATS calls) are free, so they speak longer. This can kill the idea of buying WATS lines to save money. In the old days, interstate WATS was charged at effectively a flat rate and thus, there was some reason to believe that marginal WATS calls were 'free.' These days EVERY WATS call costs money. EVERY one! Without exception. See 800 Service and Plant Test Number.

WATS Aggregator

A brokering billing agent having an arrangement to obtain volume discounts from common carriers for the totality of WATS services used by multiple firms; need not be the operator of a switching system.

Watson, Thomas

Chairman of IBM in the 1940s. He is immortalized by his 1943 quote, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." It's a good thing for IBM (and the rest of us) that he was dead wrong.

Watt

The unit of electricity consumption and representing the product (i.e. the two multiplied together) of amperage and voltage. The power requirement of a device is listed in watts, you can convert to amps by dividing the wattage by the voltage (e.g., 1,200 watts divided by 120 volts , equal 10 amps). See OHM's LAW. Don't confuse WATTS (the measure of electricity) with WATS, which stands for Wide Area Telecommunications Service. See WATS.

Wave

See Wave File.

Wave Audio

Also called "waveform audio," is a digital representation of actual sound waves. Wave audio "samples" the sound waveforms at regular intervals. The three standard sampling frequencies are 11.025 Kbps, 22.05 Kbps, and 44.1 kbps. Higher sampling frequencies yield higher fidelity sound.

Wave File

A Wave File is a Microsoft Windows proprietary format for encoding sound. You'll see the file typically as "mysounds.wav." Click on the file, Windows will launch a sound player and you'll be able to hear what's in the file. Wave files aren't use much in telecommunications because they encode voice at higher rates than are necessary for straight voice conversation. The wave format is often used to encode music. See Wave Audio.

Wave Length

The distance between peaks of an electromagnetic (or other) wave. The distance traveled by a wave during one complete cycle. See also Wavelength.

Wave Wrapper

Microsoft's standard DLL for modems using a separate audio port for voice communication (as opposed to just the serial port for modem and voice). This is used with Unimodem to synchronize audio data with standard modem functions. The Voice application in this case calls multimedia system functions, which in turn calls the Wave Wrapper DLL (wavewrap.drv). The Wrapper tells Unimodem to send AT + V commands to the modem to place it into voice transfer mode. The Wrapper makes subsequent calls to the multimedia system DLL to play the audio from the device. In this case, the device vendor supplies a modem (hardware) wave device interface and does not communicate directly with the serial port.

Waveform

The characteristic shape of a signal usually shown as a plot of amplitude over a period of time.

Waveform Coding

Electrical techniques used to convey binary signals.

Waveform Editor

A word processor for sound. You record something. Then you "play" it back on your PC's screen. Your PC screen now looks like an oscilloscope. Then you use this wave form editor to edit (i.e. change, replace. amplify, echo, fade in or out, cut out noise, cut/paste from other files, or generally muck with) the sound. A wave form editor is used in voice processing.

Waveform monitor

A device used to examine the video signal and synchronizing pulses . An oscilloscope designed especially for viewing the waveform of a video signal.

Wavefront Coding

An imaging technique to improve the quality of digital imaging products such as surgical endoscopes, borescopes ( cameras which look inside jet engines) and the machine-vision circuitry that lets robots see. Wavefront Coding brings objects of different sizes and at different distances into sharp focus in dim lighting. The focusing is done by a conventional lens coupled with a light detector. Compared with systems using traditional optics, Wavefront Coding extends the depth of field by a factor of tenfold or more, increasing throughput while minimizing the complexity of the system and sample preparation. Wavefront Coding was the result of applying mathematical techniques used in radar to optical applications. The imaging burden is shared between jointly optimized optical components and signal processing algorithms. The imaging burden is shared between jointly optimized optical components and signal processing algorithms.

Waveguide

A conducting or dielectric structure able to support and propagate one or more modes. More specifically, a waveguide is a hollow, finely-engineered metallic tube used to transmit microwave radio signals from the microwave antenna to the radio and vice versa. Waveguides comes in various shapes ” rectangular, elliptical or circular. They are very sensitive and should be handled very gently. Waveguides may contain a solid or gaseous dielectric material. In optical, a waveguide used as a long transmission line consists of a solid dielectric filament (optical fiber), usually circular. In integrated optical circuits an optical waveguide may consist of a thin dielectric film.

Waveguide Adapter

A device for adapting signals on a coaxial cable to waveguide or vice versa.

Waveguide Bridge

A roof like structure mounted over a transmission line between a transmitter enclosure and a tower. It keeps snow and ice from forming on the transmission line and protects the line from falling ice.

Waveguide Dispersion

Waveguide dispersion is a source of noise in fiber optic transmission systems. Each pulse of light comprises some number of wavelength components, as even the more capable tunable lasers cannot create a signal comprising only one individual wavelength. Now, as the optical signals propagate through the fiber waveguide, the higher frequency (i.e., shorter wavelength) components of the signals tend to disperse (i.e., spread out) more than the lower frequency components. As they disperse from the center of the fiber core , some of them enter the cladding, where they increase in speed due to the purer nature of the glass that comprises the cladding. See also Chromatic Dispersion.

Waveguide Flange

A mechanical "connector" for joining waveguide sections.

Waveguide Scattering

Scattering (other than material scattering) that is attributable to variations of geometry and refractive index profile of an optical fiber.

Waveguide Switch

A switch which uses a shutter to open or block an aperture in order to block an aperture in order to block or pass radio frequency energy.

Wavelength

The length of a wave measured from any point on one wave, to the corresponding point on the next wave, such as from crest-to-crest, or trough-to-trough. In other words, a wavelength is the distance an electromagnetic wave travels in the time it takes to oscillate through a complete cycle. There is a direct proportion between the wavelength of a radio signal and its frequency. For example and very close to the bottom of the radio spectrum, a Low Frequency (LF) radio signal is defined as having a frequency range of 30 kHz-300 kHz, with a corresponding wavelength of 10 Km-1Km. LF radio is used in navigation and maritime communications. At the high end of the radio spectrum is Extremely High Frequency (EHF) radio, which is defined at having a frequency range of 30 GHz-300 GHz, and a corresponding wavelength of 1 cm-.1 cm. The higher the frequency of the signal, the more Hz (Hertz, or sine waves) are sent per second, and the shorter the corresponding wavelength.

Wavelength Assignment

See Wavelength Scheduling.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing

WDM. A way of increasing the capacity of an optical fiber by simultaneously sending more than one ray of light down the fiber. See WDW for a more complete explanation.

Wavelength Interchanging Cross-Connect

WIXC. A type of OXC (Optical Cross-Connect). See OXC.

Wavelength Managed Networks

As optical fiber gets more and more wavelengths of light pumped down it, so the idea emerges of splitting and switching wavelengths to go in different directions down different fibers. The blue might go to Detroit. The red might go to Chicago. The concept is to do switching without actually having to drop down to electricity. The whole concept is called wavelength managed networks. See also Wavelength Division Multiplexing.

Wavelength Scheduling

Wavelength scheduling is the art, or science, of letting distinct transmitters and receivers use wavelengths (frequency slots) to communicate over an optical network. The optical network can either be broadcast-and-select type (much like Ethernet or Token ring but in the frequency domain) or wavelength routing type. For wavelength routing networks this is often called wavelength assignment and DWDM or CWDM (Coarse WDM) channels are assumed. Wavelength scheluding can also be used for reducing transmission impairments, e.g. fiber non-linearities, as proposed by a patent held by Telia, the Swedish incumbent phone company. Under Telia's patent, wavelength channels are given permission to transmit information in scheduled time slots. The time slots are allocated so that each channel is only given access to the fiber when no more than one of its nearest neighbors is transmitting. As for most wavelength sheduling algorithms, and there are many, little pratical use have been found to date for wavelength scheduling.

Wavelength Selective Cross Connect

WSXC. A type of Optical Cross- Connect (OXC). See OXC.

Wavelet

Wavelets are an economical way of compressing images, both still and moving, yielding compression ratios of 100:1 or better. For example, wavelet compression can allow a full-length movie to be stored on a conventional five-inch CD disc. Wavelets are mathematical functions that cut up data into different frequency components, and then study each component with a resolution matched to its scale. They have advantages over traditional Fourier methods in analyzing physical situations where the signal contains discontinuities and sharp spikes. Wavelets were developed independently in the fields of mathematics, quantum physics, electrical engineering, and seismic geology. Interchanges between these fields during the last ten years have led to many new wavelet applications such as image compression, turbulence, human vision, radar, and earthquake prediction. See Wavelet Packet.

Wavelet Packet

According to the IEEE, class of time-frequency waveforms with a location (position), a scale (duration), and an oscillation (frequency). Wavelet packets are used for analyzing data with natural oscillations, such as audio signals and fingerprint images. See Wavelet.

Wavelet Transform

A compression technique which involves the representation of a discrete signal or image through wavelet functions. Wavelet transform is computed by the fast pyramid algorithm, which involves a series of linear filtering operations in combination with down-sampling by a factor of two. See Down-Sampling, Fast Pyramid Algorithm and Wavelet.

WAW

Waiter-Actor-Webmaster. Used to describe fly-by-night graphic designers and Web consultants trying to cash in on the Web boom. "Can you believe they hired that clueless WAW for $60K a year?!" This definition courtesy Wired Magazine.

Way Operated Circuit

A circuit shared by three or more phones on a party line basis. One of the phones usually operates as the control point.

Way Station

One of the phones, other than the central controller, on a way operated circuit. See Way Operated Circuit.

WBA

Wireless Broadcast Access.

WBC

Wide Band Channel. An FDDI-II term. See FDDI II.

WBEM

Web-Based Enterprise Management. A wide- ranging blueprint for unified administration of network, systems and software resources (established my Microsoft, Intel, Compaq, Cisco, BMC Software, and others)....a schema that incorporates three new protocols and four current Internet standards to allow users to manage distributed systems and to access network resources using any Web browser.

WBFH

Wide Band Frequency Hopping. WBFH, approved by the FCC in August 2000, is a spread spectrum technique that widens the channel bandwidth to 3 MHz and 5 MHz, as compared to the original 1 MHz. At a rate of roughly 2 Mbps per 1 MHz, WBFH considerably increases bandwidth in HomeRF systems and other wireless systems using Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS). See also FHSS, HomeRF, and Spread Spectrum.

WCAPS

Wireless Competitive Access Providers. See Fixed Wireless Local Loop.

WCBC

West Coast Billing Center.

WCCP

Web Cache Control Protocol. A cache control protocol which runs between a router serving and a transparent proxy cache server. The protocol allows multiple caching proxies to register with a single router to receive intercepted and redirected Web traffic. This process allows the distribution of Web-based information on proxy serves in proximity to the client agent requesting the data, and it does so transparently . When you access a web site, you may be in touch with a proxy server, rather than the origin server. Some Internet purists are really concerned about this, as it violates the basic principles of the Internet, as well as the connection-oriented TCP protocol. See also Cache, Cache Engine, and Proxy.

WCCP V.2

Cisco's communication protocol for cache servers.

WCDMA

Wideband CDMA. A high-speed 3G mobile wireless technology officially known as UMTS, (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), which is also referred to as 3GPP. The technology works by digitizing and transmitting the input signals in a coded, spread spectrum mode over a range of frequencies. WCDMA has the ability to spread its transmissions over a 5MHz carrier. It supports (i.e. it will carry) images, mobile/portable voice, data and video communications at up to 2 Mbps for local area access or 384 Kbps for wide area access. See UMTS.

WCS

Wireless Communications Service. Cellular, PCS and the like.

WCV

See Weighted Call Value.

WDF

Wireless Data Forum. www.wirelessdata.org.

WDM

Wavelength Division Multiplexing. A means of increasing the data-carrying capacity of an optical fiber by simultaneously operating at more than one wavelength. WDM is similar to Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) in the analog worlds of electrical and radio transmission systems. In optical fiber communications, WDM is any technique by which two or more optical signals having different wavelengths may be simultaneously transmitted in the same direction over one strand of fiber, and then be separated by wavelength at the distant end. Each wavelength is a "virtual channel," which effectively is a separate "light pipe", that can support a given signaling rate, such as OC-48 at 2.4 Gbps or OC-192 at 10 Gbps. Although WDM technology been known since the 1980s, it was restricted to two widely separated "wideband" frequencies. (Note: frequency=speed/wavelength, where the speed of light in glass fiber is essentially constant, so wavelength and frequency are used interchangeably in describing the multiple channels of WDM). The number of distinct wavelengths supported has increased rapidly since WDM became "narrowband" capable in the early 1990s. Initial systems operated at two or four wavelengths, and the term "WDM" is usually used to refer to these low channel-count systems. Beyond WDM is WWDM (Wide WDM), operating at four channels in applications such as 10GbE (10 Gbps Ethernet). Beyond that is DWDM (Dense WDM), which generally is described as beginning at 10 channels. (Note: The terms do not have absolute differentiating definitions and are used somewhat interchangeably.) DWDM systems in commercial applications use at least eight-channel or sixteen-channel multiplexers, and standards-based systems as dense as 32-channels have been released and implemented in live carrier networks. The capacity is steadily increasing, both by ever-expanding channel counts and faster supported TDM rates within the individual wavelengths. Generally speaking, existing systems trade-off channel count against maximum supported rate: the current maximum channel count of 32 is limited to OC-48 (almost 80 Gbps net throughput), with systems supporting higher signal rates (e.g., OC-192) supporting fewer than half as many channels. At OC-192, a 32-channel system would yield an incredible 320 Gbps, rounded up. Within the next few years it is reasonable to expect to see systems supporting on the order of 100 wavelengths of OC-192 each, yielding bandwidth of almost 1 Tbps per fiber! The advantage of WDM is that of increasing network capacity without deploying additional fiber. To install enough new actual physical fiber to provides the same bandwidth as the equivalent virtual fiber would be enormously more expensive and often a physical impossibility . WDM also compares very favorably to exclusively upgrading SONET equipment to operate at the higher OC-n layers without WDM, especially since the rate multiplier limit of TDM is hit sooner than the channel multiplier limit of WDM. The ITU-T currently has defined 32 standard wavelengths from which WDM equipment manufacturers can choose ( expressed as frequencies, the table is centered at 194.10 THz, with 100 GHz spacing, providing as many as 41 center frequencies from 192.10 to 196.10 THz). ITU-T recommendation G.692 implements an additional table which reduces the spacing to 50 GHz, making 40 additional frequencies available. Further, G.692 makes it plain that the table's end-points are not absolute, and future systems are fully anticipated to include further wavelengths. It is not unreasonable to expect that as the technology continues to advance, the channel spacings may also be reduced, although not as soon as the end-points are expanded. Overall, the contemporary wavelength range typically is between 1530nm and 1560nm, with the minimum and maximum wavelengths being restricted by the wavelength-dependent gain profiles of the optical amplifiers. As is common, the standards organizations often are outpaced by technology advances. While most initial fiber optic traffic involved SONET-formatted signals, WDM and SONET are not necessarily linked. Increasingly, carriers are deploying WDM networks in support of packet traffic (e.g., IP and Ethernet) without employing the SONET digital wrapper. SONET is derided for its overhead intensity, complexity, and cost. Note that WDM and DWDM are physical data transport terms, and not specific to SONET, or any other format standard. Long-haul amplification of WDM signals is achieved with optical EDFAs (Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers ), rather than optical repeaters. The EDFAs are spaced up to 100 kilometers apart, simultaneously boosting the intensity of all the multiple light channels through a "pump laser." The EDFAs operate more effectively than do conventional optical repeaters, and are much less costly to acquire and operate. See also DWDM, EDFA, SONET, and WWDM.

WDMA

Wavelength Division Multiple Access. A technique which is used to provide access to multiple channels carried on different wavelengths on the same fiber-optic cable. Each optical input operates on a different wavelength of light. The multiple inputs are multiplexed over a common long-haul SONET fiber optic link through WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) equipment. See WDM for much more detailed explanation.

WDME

Wavelength Division Multiple Emulator. A WDM emulator is used to enhance testing ability and reduce testing time by simultaneously presenting an array of calibrated wavelengths across the spectral range of interest.

WDU

Winchester Drive Unit.

WDT

See WatchDog Timer.

Weaponize

A verb meaning to place weapons of destruction in a new environment. I first saw the term in a New York Times article relating to the weaponizing of space.

Weather Trunk Group

A trunk group used to provide customers with weather information.

Weathermaster Method

A distribution method where the unused wall space inside heating and cooling units beneath windows is used for satellite location. Cables are fed from a riser or other serving closet to the location through baseboards, conduit, or underfloor system.

Web

An abbreviation for the Internet's World Wide Web. See Berners-Lee, World Wide Web and Internet.

Web Address

Here's a typical address of an Internet Worldwide Web site http://www.harrynewton.com/resume/bio.html Let's look at what it means: http is Hypertext Transfer Protocol." http lets your browser know to expect a web page (as opposed to an FTP or gopher site).

:// is what several writers have referred to as random punctuation abuse. Basically, it's text to separate the next part of the address, namely the "Sub-domain," which is www. World Wide Web servers typically use "www," but you may see other names like "web3" or "w3." The next part of the address is the "High-Level domain," which tells you either the type or location of an organization. Common high level domains: .com = commercial .edu = university .gov = government .uk = England .fi = Finland The last part of the address is "Unique domain." What an organization or person calls its net site, namely harrynewton. Next part is /resume/ which is simply the directory or folder on the computer where the web page is stored. Finally, bio.html is simply the document you're looking for. See also URL.

Web Advertising

Advertising on the Web is expanding rapidly. According to the experts, there are two types of advertising on the Web:

1. Brand advertising, which is intended to generate awareness of and create a specific image for a particular company, product or service; and

2. Direct response advertising, which is intended to generate a specific response or action from the consumer after exposure to an advertisement. Direct response advertising solutions are measured on the short-term benefit from the advertisement and are designed to maximize the number of responses per advertising dollar.

Web Application Server

Web application servers are special purpose, powerful PCs which sit between a Web server and a corporate database. They offload processing tasks form the repository and cache frequently requested information. They offer much greater growability, since multiple connections can be run to the database ” instead of just one, as in the case when the Web server is linked directly. In short, Web application servers speed up getting answers to requests for information out into Web site users' hands.

Web Art

A definition for the artwork that you are beginning to see proliferating the Internet, especially on home pages.

Web Browser

A Web browser is software which allows a computer user (like you and me) to "surf" the World Wide Web. It lets us select, retrieve and interact with resources on the the Web. It lets us move easily from one World Wide Web site to another. Every time we alight on a Web Page, our Web browser moves a copy of the information on the Web to our computer. See the Internet and HTTP.

Web Cache Control Protocol

WCCP. Web Cache Control Protocol. A cache control protocol which runs between a router serving and a transparent proxy cache server. The protocol allows multiple caching proxies to register with a single router to receive intercepted and redirected Web traffic. This process allows the distribution of Web-based information on proxy serves in proximity to the client agent requesting the data, and it does so transparently. When you access a web site, you may be in touch with a proxy server, rather than the origin server. Some Internet purists are really concerned about this, as it violates the basic principles of the Internet, as well as the connection-oriented TCP protocol. See also Cache, Cache Engine, and Proxy.

Web Caching

This concept is analogous to the caching currently used in computer systems. With Web caching, copies of recently accessed Web objects are stored temporarily in locations that are closer to the user, based on the high probability that some number of these objects will be accessed. As a result, the bandwidth and latency associated with fetching the original object again are eliminated. Web caching is a way to proactively store specific content closer to the users, intercepting and responding to requests for that specific content only. See Cache Engine.

Web Callback

Let's say you're on a web site. You have a question. You want to know more than what you can find out on the site. You see a button on the site "Have us call you."That's called a web call back button. When you hit it, it will produce a small form, asking you for your name and phone number. When you fill the form in, the information is transmitted to the company's telephone automatic call distributor which dials the number when it has an agent free and ready to take the phone call and speak to the cusatomer browing the company's web site.

Web Casting

More commonly spelled webcasting. Webcasting is defined as the real time delivery of audio, video or animation over the Internet. I first found the word in Business Week in February, 1997. Business Week described it thusly "Swamped by information on the Web? A new technology finds and delivers news for you. It also helps companies reach workers and conduct business online. Call it broadcasting, Internet-style. Call it webcasting." The basic is simple: You go to a webcasting site. You fill in a form detailing what sort of information you want to hear about. Next time you log on, information is " pushed " to you by your webcasting supplier. You might pay for this service. Or it may be advertiser-based. See also Multicasting and Satellite Webcasting.

Web Collaboration

Imagine you're on a Web site that sells tennis racquets. You're searching for a racquet you saw last weekend . But you can't find it on this site. On the page, you find a box that says, "Ask a question." You click there. A small box opens and words appear "How may I help you?" You type in "I'm looking for a Genesis 660 tennis racquet." The answers comes, "We have several. Here's a picture of the racquet ." Eventually you say you want one and you're directed to the site's order page where you can buy it. Web collaboration could be handled at the other end by a real human or software acting lie it is a human.

Web Crawler

One of the more popular search engines on the Web. It indexes World Wide Web pages by title and URL. You can search the Internet with Webcrawler. www.webcrawler.com/cgi-bin/WebQuery

Web Gateway

An interface between some external source of information and a Web server.

Web Host

The computer which has your active web site on it. To host a web site, a host computer must have proper server software, connection capacity for the traffic that comes to the web site and a unique and static internet protocol (IP) address. An IP address looks like 4 sets of numbers separated by periods, i.e. "201.11.123.1" A uniform resource locator, or URL, is a unique name that has been assigned to a static IP of a specific host computer making it easier to find a web site.

Web Hosting

A service performed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Internet Access Providers (IAPs) who encourage outside companies to put their Web sites on computers owned by the ISPs. These computers are attached to communications links to the Internet ” often high-speed links. For this Web hosting service, the ISPs typically charge their clients by equipment and transmission capacity used. See also Server Colocation and Web Host.

Web Master

See Webmaster.

Web Mistress

See Webmistress.

Web Page

An HTML document on the Web, usually one of many that together make up a Web site. See World Wide Web.

Web Portal

Same as portal site. See Portal Site.

Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol

See WPAD.

Web Search Engine

An Internet World Wide Web term. A search engine is a program that returns a list of Web Sites (URLs) that match some user-selected criteria such as "contains the words cotton and blouse." Basically, the procedure is simple. You surf to the search engine's site. You click a couple of times and type in what you're looking for. A few seconds later you get choices. You finally make your selection and you get instantly hotlinked over to that site. Here are the main Internet search engines and their addresses.

ALTA VISTA

www. altavista .com

EXCITE

www.excite.com

GOOGLE

www.google.com

HOT BOT

www.hotbot.com

LYCOS

www.lycos.com

INFOSEEK

www.go.com

OPENTEXT

http://pinstripe.opentext.com/

PROFUSION

www.profusion.com

WEBCRAWLER

www.webcrawler.com

YAHOO

www.yahoo.com

Web Server

A Web Server is a powerful computer which is connected to the Internet or an Intranet. It stores documents and files ” audio, video, graphics or text ” and can display them to people accessing the server via hypertext transfer protocol (http). A Web server derives its name because it is part of the World Wide Web. See World Wide Web.

Web Service Provider

A vendor who provides customers with Web Pages on the vendor's computer/s. Frequently, a Web Service Provider will provide additional services such as design help and usage statistics. Often they will just provide the computer space and leave the rest to you. A Web Service Provider may or may not also be an Internet Service Provider.

Web Services

In the networking world, the word service is often used to describe a function or set of functions provided by a computer or network device to other devices located on the same network. Services use a typical client/server relationship between network devices and can be as simple as a web server providing a web browser access to a web page, or as complicated as a virtual private network appliance providing a user with access to a private network through several layers of security protocols, encryption, and firewalls. A web service is exactly like a standard network service, except the functions are provided over the Internet. This presents different challenges from those on a private network. In a private network, the servers and clients can be tailored to use any protocol or network architecture to eliminate external problems such as network latency, low bandwidth, and network outages. In contrast, the web is a heterogeneous environment made up of a wide variety of network architectures, where almost every type of Internet device in existence is trying to try to send and try to receive data. For a web service to be useful, it must be able to talk to as many disparate systems as possible. It must be efficient enough to handle multiple requests at once without getting bogged down, and it must be able to provide nearly any service desired by a client. There are many different ways to implement a web service depending on what kind of information you want to send and receive and what structure you want to use to build the service. Some current applications include workflow automation, network management, instant messaging, client access to their accounts, updating settings on network devices (so a network manager only has to perform one action to update all systems in the network), remote learning, chat rooms, and electronic whiteboards . To support a diverse set of users across the Internet, it is important to use a technology that is independent of a computing platform. Such a technology should be compact using little bandwidth and very portable so it can be used on many devices. There are several very powerful languages and protocols that are used between disparate systems located on the Internet, such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Java. In short, web services is a mechanism for computers to talk to computers using standard Internet-based protocols, especially XML. Whereas the Internet is about how people talk to computers, XML-based web services makes programmatic interactions between computer systems much faster, cheaper and easier than previous distributed computing approaches. Web services means software on demand. Web services means information you want that's assembled specially for you. Examples of web services: An airline can link its online reservation system to that of a car-rental partner, so travelers can book a car at the same time they book a flight. An online auction company can notify bidders when they are outbid or have won an auction, or could partner with other firms to offer alternative shipping, fulfillment or payment options. As companies extend their business processes across the Internet to include customers, partners, suppliers and other constituents, the Internet must provide a new infrastructure that lets applications communicate and interoperate . Web services is being positioned as that infrastructure. See also .NET, Internet, SOAP, UDDI, XML and WSDL.

Web Site

Any machine on the Internet that is running a Web Server to respond to requests from remote Web Browsers is a Web Site. In more common usage it refers to individual sets of Web Pages that can be visited with Web Browsers. he front page of a Web site is called its home page. It is also spelled as one word, namely website. See also Internet.

Web Site Hosting

See Hosting.

Web Switches

Web switches are networking devices that provide high-speed switching of traffic, using information in the TCP and HTTP request header to make policy and routing decisions based on the actual content (e.g., URL) being requested. These are products that were built to provide a front end for Web server farms and cache clusters to dynamically direct specific content requests to the best site and best server at that moment. Web switches have the ability to look deep into a URL address to differentiate content requests and make additional decisions, such as determining if the request needs to go through a cache and determining the amount of bandwidth to be set aside for intense customer requests such as streaming video. Customers for these products include portals, content providers, online destinations, Web hosters , and Internet service providers.

Web TV

See WebTV.

Webbed Conductors

The manufacturing process that physically binds the conductor insulation of the wire pairs of an unshielded twisted-pair cable.

Webcam

A webcam is a digital video camera. Train the camera on a bridge, for example. Hook the camera up to a phone line and a Web site. Now people from all over the world can visit your web site via the Internet and check out the view from your webcam. Your webcam may transmit photos every second, every minute or every day. It's your choice of how much you want to spend and how exciting the action is. People are putting up Webcams to show the view on popular sites, like stadium construction sites. Many hope to earn money by selling ads on the sites. Some do.

Webcam Girl

A young woman who broadcasts live pictures of herself over the World Wide Web. Also called cam-girl, camgirl or cam girl.

Webcasting

Webcasting is the real time delivery of audio, video or animation over the Internet. In short, it's material moving from a distant web site over the Internet to your PC. If you have a high-speed line, the Internet is an ideal way to listen to distant radio stations that contain content which you can't get on your local radio stations. For example, my favorite radio station is Klassik Radio which is broadcast from Hamburg, Germany. To get to it (and a whole bunch of other radio stations ) go to http://windowsmedia.com/radiotuner/default.asp. The reason I love Klassik Radio is that it plays great music without commercials. Every so often it has a few moments of news in German. Then it's back to the music.

Webisode

A short entertainment program, usually fewer than 10 minutes, delivered on the Web. Webisodes are sitcoms for people with really short attention spans .

Weblock

The Internet data traffic version of gridlock.

Weblog

See Blog.

Webmaster

An Internet term. The Webmaster is the administrator responsible for the management and often design of a company's World Wide Web site. See also Webmistress.

Webmistress

An Internet term. The Webmistress is the female administrator responsible for the management and often design of a company's World Wide Web site. See also Webmaster.

Webphony

A term created by Nick Morley, an excellent salesperson who works for Computer Telephony Magazine. Webphony is a combination of the two words Web and Telephony. It means telephony-enabling your Web site. Here's a simple example: You're checking out a Web, say L. L. Bean, the direct mail catalog company. You'd like to buy a new kayak. You need to ask a question. Click on the "Reach an Operator" button in the corner of your screen. Bingo, you're speaking live to an L.L. Bean operator via your computer's sound system, or perhaps they called you on a second phone line ” one for data surfing and one for voice. Or your ISDN 2B channel just got split into one for voice and one for data. There are a thousand variations on this theme of adding voice to the Internet and the Internet's World Wide Web segment. We're just beginning to explore them all.

Website

Some magazines are now calling web site as one word, namely website. Some call it two words. The movement to one word is a natural transition in the English language ” from one word, to a hyphenated two words and then eventually two words combined into one. See Web Site.

Webtone

A theoretical idea pushed heavily by Nortel and others. Webtone is used to denote the idea of immediate and continuous access to the Internet. similar to a dialtone heard when picking up a phone receiver. To have Webtone in the same way that we have dialtone, most users of the term believe that not only access is required, but also sufficient bandwidth is necessary to meet user demands as well as the same quality of service we expect currently from the telephone system. Since the telephone system and the Internet are tending to converge, some believe that eventually Webtone will include dialtone. Webtone also implies Internet access from mobile devices. supercomputers, and kitchen appliances.

WebTV

Well, it's finally here! Sony and Philips (Fall, 1996) have struck an alliance and licensed WebTV technology consisting of a set-top box, a wireless keyboard and a printer adapter. The set-top box costs $329 and contains a 112-MHz, 64-bit CPU. The TV set serves as the display. Internet access is provided through dial-up connection over the dial-up phone network to the WebTV Network at a monthly cost of $20 for unlimited usage. Content is provided by the WebTV Network, which also supports e-mail, help, and content lockout. Mitsubishi has taken a different approach, embedding the set-top box within its DiamondWeb TV. Sanyo and Samsung appear to be taking the same approach as Mitsubishi.

This approach to 'Net TV is a challenge to another concept of providing access through a cable modem which would be embedded in a set-top box. That box would serve as a communications controller/splitter, supporting simultaneous voice, data and TV. Regardless of the approach taken, issues abound, including lack of standards for the set-top boxes and cable modems.

Webware

A term coined by Ray Horak, my Consulting Editor, for misleading content on a Web site. Great graphics, some animation, and neat audio can cause you to believe that the product or service matches the description on the Web site. Basically, it's interactive brochureware. I can cite examples ” I'll bet you can, too. See Brochureware .

Webwench

An employee given all the responsibility for a Web site without any of the authority (the opposite of a Webmaster).

Webzine

Magazines that are published (i.e. made public) on the World Wide Web. Typically a Webzine is available for anyone to read who wants to visit the site the electronic magazine is located at. A Webzine is also called an e-zine or a Web-zine. Some webzines were published with free access for all ” based on getting money from advertising. Some webzines were published as "subscription only" sites, i.e. you paid money. Few have survived.

WEC

Western Electric Company, now called Lucent Technologies. See WECO.

WECA

Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance. WECA's stated mission is to " certify inter- operability of Wi-Fi (i.e. IEEE 802.11) products and to promote Wi-Fi as the global wireless LAN standard across all market segments." www.wirelessethernet.com. See also 802.11, 802.11a and 802.11b.

WECO

Western Electric COmpany. The company is now called Lucent Technologies. It used to be the equipment manufacturing arm of AT&T, but in early 1996, AT&T spun it off to the public as a separate, publicly -traded company, called Lucent Technologies. Many old- timers are sad that about the name change and new ownership. Western Electric had a wonderful reputation and is remembered with great fondness. It has an excellent reputation for high quality products and is still used as a brand name on some products.

Wedding Bouquet

In England in the 1500s, most people only bathed once a year ” in May. By the time they came to get married in June, the bride stunk. So brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. See Bathwater.

Weight Test

The test that buyers once applied to proposals, as well as purchases. According to the weight test, the weight of the proposal was directly related to the level of effort that went into it, which was directly related to the size of the company that prepared it and/or to the level of interest that the proposer had in acquiring your business (i.e. making the sale).

Weighted Average

A call center term. A method of averaging several numbers in which some numbers are increased before averaging because they have more significance relative to the other numbers.

Weighted Call Value

WCV. The average handling time of a call transaction. ACD vendors count this differently. Typically, a combination of the talk time and the after-call work or wrap-up time.

Weighted Random Early Detection

WRED. A congestion avoidance mechanism used in TCP/IP networks. WRED improves on RED by dropping packets on a selective basis, based on IP Precedence markings in the TCP packet header. Thereby, packets of a higher priority can be recognized by their IP Precedence values (1-7), and be handled with a higher probability of their reaching the destination device. WRED generally is implemented in TCP/IP routers in the network core, while RED generally is implemented in routers at the network edge. See also Random Early Detection.

WEP

Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) is an optional IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity) feature. Although most wireless LANs don't use it, they should. Without implementing it on your LAN, you are actually transmitting material which anybody can pick up. WEP offers privacy equivalent to that of a wired LAN. According to the standards, WEP uses the RC4 encryption algorithm with a 40-bit key, although a 128-bit key also may be used. When WEP is enabled, the network administrator assigns each wireless station (e.g., a laptop, client and access point) an encryption key string comprising a set of keys that are passed through the encryption algorithm. The key is used to scramble the data before it's transmitted over the airwaves between a mobile client or server and an access point. The secret key is used to encrypt packets before they are transmitted. The receiving access point performs an integrity check to ensure that the packets have not been modified in transit. If a station receives a packet that is not scrambled with with the appropriate key, the packet will be discarded and never delivered to the host, thus ensuring that spurious material doesn't enter or leave the wireless network. See also 802.11, Encryption, Wi-Fi.

Western Electric

The telecommunications manufacturing subsidiary of AT&T that was divested from AT&T on September 30, 1996. Western Electric is now called Lucent Technologies. See Lucent Technologies.

Western Union International

WUI. Acquired by MCI in 1982 to establish MCI in the International Telex and communications market. WUI is now part of MCI International, which became part of WorldCom which went bankrupt which then emerged from bankruptcy and changed its name to MCI.

WestNet

One of the National Science Foundation funded regional TCP/IP networks that covers the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

Wet Circuit

A circuit carrying direct current.

Wet High

Also called a permanent seizure. When a phone user takes the phone off the hook for a long period of time, e.g. half a hour , the central switch simply puts phone out of order.

Wet Loop Powering

Defined as local power (non-Span provided) with use of copper pairs (power is looped at the last repeater).

Wet T-1

A T-1 line with a telephony company powered interface.