Rate Period Indicator-Recovery

Rate Period Indicator

A code that denotes time periods applicable for rating purposes.

Rate Realignment

In California's Alternative Regulatory Framework Phase III, rate realignment refers to redesigning telephone rates to reduce intraLATA toll rates and increase rates for other services to make up for the phone companies lost revenues . The Public Utility Commission (PUC) must approve all rate realignment proposals in the rate design stage of the proceeding.

Rate Stability Plan

Commit yourself to keeping a a phone service for several years and you'll pay less than if you keep it only from month to month. Some use this term . Others don't.

Rate Table

A data base that contains the cost of calls referenced to the Area Code and/or number dialed plus time of day considerations. See Rate Period.

Rate Zone

1. A defined geographic division of an exchange area used as the primary basis for figuring toll rates.

2. A Verizon definition. A pricing unit for rating High Capacity Switched Access Transport and Special Access Services. Rate zones are based on the volume of traffic carried by a wire center, or the traffic density.

Rated Temperature

The maximum temperature at which an electric component can operate for extended periods without loss of its basic properties.

Rated Voltage

The maximum voltage at which an electric component can operate for extended periods without undue degradation or safety hazard .

Ratio Detector

A specific type of FM detector circuit which uses principles similar to a discriminator but provides some amplitude limiting.

Rats Nest

Terminals and connections with poor maintenance and sloppy wiring techniques.

Raw Bite Data

The data channel bit rate that includes all protocol overhead and system overhead data bits.

Raw Sockets

An operating system with raw sockets can put out data packets with faked IP addresses. This means that a recipient of these data packets ” say in a Denial of Service Attach ” has no way of figuring where the data packets are coming from.

Ray

A beam of radiant energy. Ray is most energetic , responding to email requests from Harry for strange definitions at 2:00 AM. He also is an excellent teacher. He teaches courses on all aspects of networking all over the country and all over the world. Catch one of his seminars if you can. He often teaches a day-long seminar the day before a major trade show, like InterOp or Computer Telephony Expo. He's also a brilliant consultant. Ray's mother gave him his name and named his sisters Joy and Dawn. Ray is thus the only one not named after a dishwashing detergent. There is hidden significance in this. Ray writes the hard part of this dictionary. Blame him for all the mistakes. See Margaret, his wife.

Rayleigh Fading

Multipath fading in a radio system, arising from an ensemble of reflected signals arriving at the receiver antenna and creating standing waves. From the transmitting antenna, even a tightly focused radio signal scatters, or spreads out. The ground and bodies of water reflect the signal back upward, and the atmosphere reflects the signal downward. At the receiver, portions of the signal arrive at different times, as the signal has taken multiple paths of differing path lengths from transmitter to receiver. Occasionally, the aggregate signal from the indirect paths can be of similar strength to the signal from the direct path . If the two signals are of opposite phase, a standing wave is created, and the signal fades in overall strength. The ultimate impact is that of increased transmission errors. See Rayleigh Scattering.

Rayleigh Scattering

A scattering phenomenon which affects optical fiber transmission systems. As incident (i.e., falling on or striking something) light is scattered as it strikes an atom of solid physical matter, most of the photons retain their incident energy, or frequency, which we would see as a color of light. This "elastic" (no energy loss, or frequency shift) scattering effect is known as Rayleigh scattering. The scattering efficiency varies inversely with the 4th power of the light frequency. Thereby, in the visible light spectrum, high-frequency blue light is scattered more strongly by the molecules in the atmosphere than are colors of longer wavelengths (i.e., lower frequencies). This fact accounts for the blue color of the sky (absent high levels of pollution) when the sun is high in the sky. When the sun is low in the sky (particularly when there is a lot of pollution in the air), the blue light is scattered so much as to lose its intensity, and red or even green light takes over. (Strictly speaking, light scattering can be termed Rayleigh scattering only if the molecules are small compared to the wavelength of the radiation.) Relatively long wavelengths are preferred in optical fiber transmission systems, as the level of scattering is less. Rayleigh scattering also affects other forms of electromagnetic energy, such as microwave radio. The phenomenon was named after John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh (1832-1919), the English physicist who discovered it. See also Raman Amplifier , Raman Scattering, and Rayleigh Fading.

Razor

See Occam's Razor.

RB

Reverse Battery.

RBAC

Role-Based Access Control. Form of identity-based access control where the system entities that are identified and controlled are functional positions in an organization or process.

RBDS

Radio Broadcast Data System. A new system designed to let radio stations broadcasters send text messages, such as emergency warnings and traffic alerts to radios equipped with special LCD screens. The system is designed ultimately to replace the Emergency Broadcast System.

RBOC

Regional Bell Operating Company. Here's the story on this soon-to-be-obsolete term: On January 8, 1982 AT&T signed a Consent Decree with the United States Department of Justice, stipulating that at midnight December 31, 1983, AT&T would divest itself of its 22 wholly -owned telephone operating companies. According to the terms of this Divestiture Agreement, also known as the Modified Final Judgement (MFJ), those 22 operating Bell telephone companies would be formed into seven RHCs of roughly equal size , with Federal Judge Harold H. Greene making the final determinations as to the reorganization. The seven RHCs (and the operating companies that formed them) were Ameritech (Illinois Bell, Indiana Bell, Michigan Bell, Ohio Bell, and Wisconsin Telephone), Bell Atlantic (Bell of Pennsylvania, Diamond State Telephone, The Chesapeake and Potomac Companies, and New Jersey Bell), BellSouth (South Central Bell and Southern Bell), NYNEX (New England Telephone and New York Telephone), Pacific Telesis (Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell), Southwestern Bell (Southwestern Bell), and US West (Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell, and Pacific Northwest Bell). In October, 1994, Southwestern Bell Corporation changed its name to SBC Communications, Inc., for reasons we'll see in just a sentence or two. In April, 1996 Bell Atlantic acquired NYNEX for $22.1 billion. NYNEX lost its identity. Also in April, SBC Communications, Inc. bought Pacific Telesis for $16.7 billion, with Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell continuing to operate under those names . On October 9, 1999, Ameritech was acquired by SBC, and lost its identity. On June 30, 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE, and changed the name of the entire company to Verizon. Also on June 30, 2000, US West was acquired by Qwest, an upstart long distance carrier, and now operates as Qwest. Of the original seven RBOCs, only BellSouth has not yet been merged, acquired or otherwise morphed, at least not at the time of this writing. Continuing our little story, the terms of the MFJ also placed a number of business restrictions on AT&T and the RBOCs. Those restrictions were threefold. The RBOCs weren't allowed into long distance, equipment manufacturing, or information services. AT&T wasn't allowed into local telecommunications, so it couldn't compete with the newly formed RBOCs. But it was allowed to manufacture anything it wanted, including computers. (That was effectively a lifting of a prohibition on it by the earlier 1956 Consent Decree which had not allowed it to make computers.) The federal courts overseeing slowly relaxed the restrictions. The BOCs were allowed into information services, and AT&T into local service. Some of the RBOCs have been allowed to offer interLATA intrastate long distance service, but have yet to be allowed into the more lucrative interstate business. This is a continuing saga.

RBS

Robbed-Bit Signaling. See Robbed-Bit Signaling.

RC

Rate Center

RC-4

An encryption/decryption algorithm supported in Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD).

RCA

1. Regional Calling Area. The geographical area covered by a telephone company.

2. Once it stood for Radio Corporation of America. Now it's just RCA.

RCA Cable

Audio or phono cables used to transmit sound between two pieces of equipment.

RCAT

Radio Communications Analysis Test, used in MSC sites.

RCC

1. Radio Common Carrier.

2. Radiocommunications Consultative Council. Australian council established to provide advice and feedback on radiocommunications issues, consisting of senior members of industry and consumer groups.

3. Rescue Coordination Center, a facility which may have direct connection to an Inmarsat fixed Earth station to facilitate search and rescue operations, primarily maritime.

RCDD

Registered Communication Distribution Designer, a title conferred on people who have acquired certain requisite education, experience and expertise in the design, implementation and integration of telecommunications and data transport systems and infrastructure, by BICSI, the Building Industry Consulting Service International. See also www.bicsi.org/Content/Index.aspx?File=rcddoverview.htm

RCEE

Resource Control Execution Environment. A term from Bellcore Advanced Intelligent Network model.

RCL

1. ReCaLl.

2. Restrictive Cabling Licence.

RCP

The Berkeley UNIX remote copy program.

RD

1. An ATM term. Routing Domain: A group of topologically contiguous systems which are running one instance of routing.

2. Route Distinguisher, used in MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) VPN to extend the IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) address. Within an MPLS VPN, the Route Distinguisher is a 64-bit VRF-based header that's added to the beginning of the customer's IPv4 prefixes to change them into globally unique VPN-IPv4 prefixes. In summary, it enables a service provider to differentiate enterprise IP addressing schemes that may overlap.

RDBMS

Relational DataBase Management System. A system that manages databases on a relational basis. The individual databases are in the form of flat files, which are two- dimensional files comprising rows and columns in the logical form of a table, or spreadsheet. Each data record in such a flat file contains all of the information about that entity, or object. For example, your listing in the telephone directory is a row comprising columns for name, address, and telephone number. The same goes for all other entities, including other people and various other legal entities, such as companies, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations. An RDBMS is able to develop and maintain relationships between entities, such as individuals and organizations with common interests (e.g., last names, addresses, telephone number prefixes, or even other attributes such as hobbies or work- related interests). Further, a RDBMS is able to automatically update the interrelationships between the entities, as entities are added or deleted, or as attributes change over time.

RDBS

Routing Data Base System (an old database from which LERG was once created).

RDC

Redirect Confirm packet. Used in Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) mobility packet.

RDCCH

Reverse Digital Control CHannel. A digital cellular term defined by IS-136, which addresses cellular standards for networks employing TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). The RDCCH includes all signaling and control information passed upstream from the user terminal equipment to the cell site. The RDCCH acts in conjunction with the FDCCH (Forward Digital Control CHannel), which includes all such information sent downstream from the cell site to the user terminal equipment. The FDCCH consists of the RACH (Reverse Access CHannel). See also IS-136, and TDMA.

RDF

1. Radio Direction Finding.

2. An ATM term. Rate Decrease Factor: An ABR service parameter, RDF controls the decrease in the cell transmission rate. RDF is a power of 2 from 1/32,768 to 1.

RDI

Remote Defect Indication. An indication that a failure has occurred at the far end of an ATM network. Unlike FERF (Far-End Remote Failure), the RDI alarm indication does not identify the specific circuit in a failure condition. See FERF.

RDP

See Rate Demarcation Point.

RDQ

Redirect Query Packet. Used in Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) mobility management.

RDR

Redirect request packet. Used in Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) mobility management.

RDRAM

Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory. Developed jointly by Intel and Rambus Inc., is a high-speed memory chip that runs on a 400 MHz data bus. As RDRAM supports data transfer twice per CPU (Centralized Processing Unit) clock cycle, the effective speed is 800 MHz. The RDRAM architecture also supports a 2-byte wide (i.e., 16 bits) data channel, bringing its effective data transfer rate to 1.6 GBps (GigaBytes per second). While faster than its nearest competitor, DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate-Synchronous DRAM), it also is more expensive. See also DDR-SDRAM, DRAM, EDO RAM, Flash RAM, FRAM, Microprocessor, RAM, SDRAM, SRAM, and VRAM.

RDS

Radio Data System. A way of sending data along with a standard FM radio broadcast.

RDSI

The Spanish term for ISDN.

RDT

1. Recall Dial Tone.

2. Remote Digital Terminal.

RDY

ReaDY.

RE-422

A high-speed electrical interface defined by the ITU-T, supporting data rates of up to 768 Kbps over up to 300 feet of cable.

Re-Engineering

A term probably invented by Michael Hammer in the July-August, 1990 issue of Harvard Business Review. In that issue, he wrote "It is time to stop paving the cowpaths. Instead of embedding outdated processes in silicon and software, we should obliterate them and start over. We should 're-engineer' our business: use the power of modern information technology to radically redesign our business processes in order to achieve dramatic improvements in their performance." The term re-engineering now seems to me mean taking tasks presently running on mainframes and making them run on file servers running on LANs ” Local Area Networks. The idea is to save money on hardware and make the information more freely available to more people. More intelligent companies also redesign their organization to use the now, more- freely available information. Also called VALUE DRIVEN RE-ENGINEERING.

Re-Initiation Time

The time required for a device or system to restart (usually after a power outage ).

Re-Installed Customer

An MCI term. An MCI customer who is installed again with the same customer account number after having been previously canceled either at their, MCI's, or a third party's request.

REA

Rural Electrification Administration. A federal agency within the Department of Agriculture, the REA was established in 1935 to bring electricity and, later, telephone service to rural America. The REA was one of the most successful federal government programs ever. Telephone companies loved the REA, as it offered loans to telcos at a very low rate of interest (2% or less, in many cases). Once the facilities were in place, the telcos nevertheless would have suffered huge losses, as the rates for basic telephone service would not have yielded a satisfactory rate of return on investment. However, the Universal Service Fund provided very substantial additional revenues to further subsidize service in such high- cost areas through the settlements process, which established the cross-subsidy mechanism between the LECs and the IXCs. In fact, a number of independent telephone companies, such as CONTEL, thrived specifically and only because of the combination of REA money and the settlements process. REA money largely dried up some years ago, at least for this purpose, as the definition of "high-cost" changed considerably and as the restrictions on access to and use of such funding became onerous. The REA now is known as the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). See also RUS.

Reach

Reach, according to the FCC, refers to the availability of a service in the community. It is the number of homes to which the service is available regardless of whether or not residents choose to subscribe.

Reach Through

Reach through is a means of extending the data accessible to the end user beyond that which is stored in the OLAP server. A reach through is performed when the OLAP server recognizes that it needs additional data and automatically queries and retrieves the data from a data warehouse or OLTP system.

Reactance

The opposition offered to the flow of an alternating current which is due to the presence of inductance or capacitance or both, in the circuit. Reactance is measured in Ohms. The symbol designation is X.

Read

1. To glean information from a storage device, like a floppy disk. The opposite of READ is to WRITE. That's when you put information onto that storage device. Some storage devices can only be READ, but not written to. On a floppy disk that's called being "WRITE PROTECTED." See also WORM, which stands for Write Once, Read Many.

2. The process of turning radio waves from an RFID tag into bits of information that can be used by computer systems.

Read After Write Verification

A means of assuring that data written to the hard disk matches the original data still in memory. If the data from the disk matches the data in memory, the data in memory is released. If the data doesn't match, the block location is recognized as "bad," and something happens. The data is transferred again. Or in Novell's NetWare, Hot Fix redirects the data to a good block location within the Hot Fix Redirection Area.

Read Before Write

A feature of some videotape recorders that plays back the video or audio signal off of tape before it reaches the record heads, sends the signal to an external device for modification, and then applies the modified signal to the record heads so that it can be re-recorded onto the tape in its original position.

Read Only File

A PC computer term. A read only file is a file that you can read but cannot make changes to. The read-only attribute specifies whether a file is read-only. To remove the read-only attribute, you would type the following command

ATTRIB -R FILENAME

Read Only Memory

ROM.

1. A computer storage medium which allows the user to recall and use information (read) but not record or amend it (write).

2. The smaller part of a computer's memory, in which essential operating information is recorded in a form which can be recalled and used (read) but not amended or recorded (written).

ROM is memory which is programmed at the factory and whose contents thereafter cannot be altered , even by a power breakdown, or being written to, or anything else. ROM memory is also random-access, which means accessing its information is very fast. See also Microprocessor and RAM.

Read Only Tags

RFID tags that contain data that cannot be changed unless the microchip is reprogrammed electronically .

Read Range

The distance from which a reader can communicate with an RFID tag. Active tags have a longer read range than passive tags because they use a battery to transmit signals to the reader. With passive tags, the read range is influenced by frequency, reader output power, antenna design, and method of powering up the tag. Low frequency tags use inductive coupling, which requires the tag to be within a few feet of the reader.

Read Rate

The maximum rate at which data can be read from an RFID tag expressed in bits or bytes per second.

Read Write Cycle

Time of reading and writing data onto a memory device. See Read.

Read Write tags

RFID tags that can store new information on its microchip. San Francisco International Airport uses a read-write tag for security. When a bag is scanned for explosives, the information on the tag is changed to indicate it has been checked. The tag is scanned again before it is loaded on a plane. Read-write tags are more expensive than read only tags, and therefore are of limited use for supply chain tracking.

Readable Frames

The number of video frames received without error.

Readable Octets

The number of octets (bytes) received without error.

Readdressing

A cellular radio term. The process whereby the serving Mobile Data Intermediate System (MD-IS) receives the encapsulated packets, de-encapsulates them, then locates the Mobile End System (M-ES) to determine the cell and channel stream associated with the M-ES. The function is also performed by the Foreign Agent in Mobile IP. This definition come from the book "Internetwork Mobility," by Mark Taylor, William Waung and Mohsen Banan.

Reader

1. A device which converts information into a format recognized by a machine as input.

2. A device which interprets coded data in the process of transferring that data from one coded state of storage to another.

3. Also called an interrogator. The reader communicates with the RFID tag via radio waves and passes the information in digital form to a computer system.

Reader field

The area of coverage. RFID tags outside the reader field do not receive radio waves and can't be read.

Readerboard

Also called Electronic Displayboard, Electronic Wall Display or Message Display Unit (MDU). Readerboards are typically found in call centers. They are electronic displays. They are typically hooked to the call center's ACD or the PC monitoring the ACD (automatic call distributor) and they throw up information about how many people are waiting in line, how long the longest person has been in line, how well the agents are doing and, whose birthday it is. The idea is that all the agents in the call center can see the readerboards and change their behavior accordingly ” speak faster if there are a lot of people in queue. Readerboards aren't TVs. They're typically large hanging electronic displays sporting red LCDs or small red lights. By lighting the correct collection of lights, you can put up a message. Some readerboards are very large with letters reaching 12 inches high.

Readyline 800

A toll-free service designed for the small business. Receive "800" dialed calls over your existing telephone lines and equipment ” no new lines to install, no new equipment needed. You can still use those same lines to make and receive local and long distance calls. Choose the geographic areas you want to cover ” from a single area code to an entire state or the whole country. Even decide when you want your toll- free number to be available. You pay a one-time start-up charge and a low monthly fee. Calling prices are based on the market coverage you choose. There are time-of-day and dayof-week discounts , and a volume usage discount. Calls are priced on a mileage/distance- sensitive basis.

Real Mode

Originally there was the first IBM PC and it was powered by an Intel 8086 chip which addressed a maximum of 1MB (megabyte of RAM). Real mode is the term that later generations of Intel chips came to call their ability to run programs written for the 8086. Real mode allows 80286, 80386, or 80486 processors to emulate an 8086 processor but perform better than the 8086 because they operate at a faster clock rate. Real mode is limited to a maximum of 1MB of addressable memory because the 8086 processor uses a memory address bus of 20 bits. This is calculated thus: Since a bit can have one of two values, raising the base number of 2 to the power of 20 is equal to 1,048,576 unique memory addresses. Each memory address can store 1 byte of information (1,048,576 bytes equal 1MB). See also Protected Mode.

Real Soon Now

A on-line term used to describe when something will happen, maybe.

Real Time

A voice telephone conversation is conducted in real time. That is, there is no perceived delay in the transmission of the voice message or in the response to it. This concept often applies to interaction between a computer and a terminal. In data processing or data communications, real time means the data is processed the moment it enters a computer, as opposed to BATCH processing where the information enters the system, is stored and is operated on a later time. See the follow definitions beginning with real time.

Real Time Adherence

Adherence is a term used in telephone call centers to connote whether the people working in the center are doing what they're meant to be doing. Are they at work? Are they on break? Are they answering the phone? Are they at lunch ? All these activities are scheduled by work force management software. If they're in line, the workers is "in adherence." If not, they're "out of adherence." Some automatic call distributors have a real time adherence data link which connects the ACD to an external computer which then tracks and displays current service rep activity measured against a predefined schedule. The idea is to give call center supervisors tools to manage the call center's work force more efficiently . Supervisors are able to define the task, the start time of each task, and the task duration. In addition, thresholds and ranges of acceptable deviations for the call center can be set for each task or service rep work state. Once the schedules have been defined and thresholds set, real-time displays inform the supervisor of discrepancies between the work schedule and actual activity. Service rep information will automatically appear should their status exceed the threshold, such as being on someone being break for too long.

Real Time Capacity

The capacity of the central computer processor of a stored program control telephone system to process the instructions coming at it. Real Time Capacity is probably the most important measure of the size of a telephone system relying on a single main processor.

Real Time Chat

A program allowing live conversation between individuals by typing on a computer terminal. The most common tools are Talk and IRC (International Relay Chat).

Real Time D-Channel Status Display

This maintenance enhancement allows you to assess active or failed status of ISDN D-Channels in real-time. This saves time since ports no longer need to be evaluated.

Real Time Streaming Protocol

RTSP. RFC2326; an application-level protocol for control over the delivery of data with real-time properties. RTSP provides an extensible framework to enable controlled, on-demand delivery of real-time data, such as audio and video. Sources of data can include both live data feeds and stored clips. This protocol is intended to control multiple data delivery sessions, provide a means for choosing delivery channels such as UDP, multicast UDP and TCP, and provide a means for choosing delivery mechanisms based upon RTP (RFC 1889).

Real Time Transport Protocol

RTP. Developed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) it adds a layer to the Internet protocol. It is designed to address problems caused when real-time interactive exchanges such as video are transported over LANs were designed for data. Running video on LAN means you can encounter significant end-to-end latency. RTP's approach is to give video higher priority than connectionless data. RTP resides above the IP, Datagram Protocol and ST-II protocols.

RealAudio

RealNetworks' RealAudio client-server software system enables Internet and on-line users equipped with conventional multimedia personal computers and voice- grade telephone lines to browse, select, and play back audio or audio-based multimedia content on demand, in real time. Several radio stations broadcast their daily fare to anyone on the Internet who's listening. RealAudio is a real breakthrough compared to typical download times encountered with delivery of audio over conventional on-line methods , in which audio is downloaded at a rate that is five times longer than the actual program; the listener must wait 25 minutes before listening to just five minutes of audio. Download RealAudio from www.realaudio.com/products/player2.0.html. For Internet radio listings (what they call NetRadio Central) go to www.netradio.net. See also www.audionet.com. RealAudio is produced by a company called RealNetworks, which had previously been called Progressive Networks.

RealMedia

A term encompassing RealNetworks' RealAudio and RealVideo.

RealVideo

A streaming technology developed by RealNetworks (formerly Progressive Networks) for transmitting live video over the Internet. RealVideo uses a variety of data compression techniques and works with both normal IP connections as well as IP Multicast connections.

Reality Check

Does something make sense? Does it exist? Can it happen? Is it for real? For example, "Will we get the speed out of the circuit they're promising us? Who knows ? Good news is that John is doing a reality check on it."

RealPlayer

See RealAudio.

Realm

A term sometimes used for domain, in this case to refer to user domains established for security reasons, not Internet domains. For password-protected files, the name of the protected resource or area on the server. If the user tries to access the protected resource while browsing, the name of the realm usually appears in the dialog box that asks for a user name and password.

Rearrangement

A fancy word for moving phone extensions around.

Reason Code

A three digit numeric code describing the reasons for a variety of transactions, including cash (split, partial payments), adjustments, automatic write-offs, returned checks, credit memos, etc.

Reasonableness Checks

Tests made on information reaching a real-time system or being transmitted from it to ensure that the data lie within a given range.

Reassembly

1. The process by which an IP datagram is "put back together" at the receiving host after having been fragmentation and MTU.

2. The process of combining a number of the Link Layer Service Data Unit (LSDU) into an SN-Data Protocol Data Unit (PDU) or SN-Unit-data PDU.

Reasserting Status

An ISDN term. When the ISDN phone is being directly controlled by the application program, the set's physical status may be different from the status that has been received from the network. When direct control ends, the ISDN set reasserts the status received from the network to bring its physical condition back into conformity with the network status.

Reassignment

Here is an explanation by Bill Etling, a senior planner for GTE. "Under the assigned plant concept, a pair is dedicated from the central office to the subscriber home and maintained at that address, even when idle. The likelihood of such a pair being reused, thus eliminating a field visit and extra assignment work, more than makes up for lost revenue while the pair is vacant. In areas of high cable fills, such a pair, when vacant, is often used to fill an order at a different address. Reassignment quickly snowballs, generating many installation field visits and assignment changes, increasing paperwork and the chance of errors."

Rebalancing

Rebalancing is a new term. It means changing tariffs (the price of phone calling) to levels closer to the actual costs of providing the service. Let me explain: Tariffs are published public documents which describe the prices and conditions of buying service from regulated telephone company. Tariffs developed over a period of many years. Tariffs may apply at a local, state, national, regional, or international level. Traditionally, tariffs were created in a complex fabric of balancing the overall costs of the service against regulatory and competitive issues. For instance, many regulatory authorities put in complex cross-subsidies. These allowed highly profitable or optional services (e.g., long distance and custom calling services) to subsidize residential service, i.e. to keep its price low. Similarly, business service rates commonly were set at high levels to cross-subsidize residential service rates ” the logic, at least partially, was based on the assumed ability to pay and the legislators' obsession with "universal service," i.e. giving everyone phone service. As nations move toward deregulated, competitive telecommunications, older tariffs structure put burdens on the incumbent (read regulated) carriers and put them in a potentially bad competitive position. Hence, the concept of rebalancing, which seeks to reset tariffs at levels which are representative of the actual costs of provisioning the various services. At the extreme, rebalancing eliminates cross-subsidies. Thus each service would bear its rightful share of associated costs. As it relates to international calling costs, rebalancing would eliminate the disparity in calling costs. For example, it is much more expensive to call the U.S. from Argentina than it is to call Argentina from the U.S. See also Accounting Rate System, Billing Rate, Cross Subsidization, and Tariff .

Rebiller

A rebiller, also called a switchless reseller, buys long distance service in bulk from a long distance company, such as AT&T, and resells that service to smaller users. It typically gets its monthly bill on magnetic tape, then rebills the bulk service to its customers. A rebiller owns no communications facilities ” switches or transmission. It has two "assets" ” a computer program to rebill the tape and sales skills to sell its services to end users. The profit it makes comes from the difference between what it pays the long distance company and what it is able to sell its services at. It's not an easy business to be in, since you are selling a long distance company's services to compete against itself.

Reboot

See Rebooting.

Rebooting

Repeating a Boot. Turning on or resetting the telephone system or the computer. The word derives from "boot-strapping." Starting from scratch. Pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps. Booting a telephone system or a computer means starting it from scratch, usually by turning its AC power on. Rebooting a telephone system is done by simply turning it off, counting to ten and turning it back on again.

Rebooting is done to clear the volatile part of the telephone system's or computer's memory and its various processing and clock chips. You reboot typically when your PC "locks" inexplicably or when your telephone system does something you can't explain logically ” like ring phones randomly or give strange error messages on the console. On a computer, "Lock" means that no matter which key or combination of keys you touch on your keyboard, you can't get your computer to do anything. In addition to "unlocking" your computer, you also reboot to clear RAM or RAM-resident programs. On an IBM or an IBM clone, rebooting is done by pressing the CONTROL, ALT and DELETE keys simultaneously . You can also reboot by pressing the reset button if your computer has one. (Not all do.)

You can reboot any computer by turning its power off, then turning it back on. This is usually not a good idea, since the surge of power that accompanies a computer being turned on and off will reduce the life of many of its electronic components . Some experts recommend leaving computers running full-time , though turning their hard disks off. They also recommend turning your screen off using a screen saver after several minutes of doing nothing (inactivity).

Rebuilding

Imagine you have five hard disks in an array. Imagine that they are organized that data is being written to all five drives in such a way that if one drive fails, no data will be lost. That failed drive is now removed and replaced with a good drive. Immediately, the remaining four drives start writing data to the new, good, but empty drive. That process of rebuilding might take a few minutes, or an hour or two. It depends on how much data is in the system and how much activity is taking place. Typically, this rebuilding process happens in a system called RAID (which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). And typically RAID (which is not cheap) is found on servers on LANs. The process of rebuilding is also called reconstruction.

Rebundling

Rebundling is the process of putting UNEs (Unbundled Network Elements) back together by a CLEC to become part of a competitive service offering by him to a customer. See UNE.

Recall

The recall button on many phones provides a fresh dial tone without physically putting down and picking up the handset. Don't confuse it with REDIAL, which is a feature of a phone or phone system that allows a user to call the previously-dialed number by pressing one or a few buttons .

Recall Dial Tone

A stutter or interrupted dial tone indicating to the extension user that the hookswitch flash has been properly used to gain access to system features.

Recall Key

Used to get dial-tone or to transfer calls on a key system installed within a PBX. See also Recall.

RECAPSS

REmote CAble Pair Switching System is used to remotely handle cable transfers and related cable switching tasks by connecting a distribution cable pair to either an old cable pair or a new cable pair without interrupting service. The system accommodates both POTS and special services and the computer console operator can select one pair at a time or select thousands for sequential transfer.

Receipt Notification

A report prepared by a recipient UA (User Agent) or Access Unit (upon request) and sent to the originating UA or Access Unit when a message is received by a recipient.

Receive Interruption

The interruption of a transmission to a terminal to receive or send a higher priority message from the terminal.

Receive Only

RO. Describing operation of a device, usually a page printer, that can receive transmissions but cannot transmit.

Received Line Signal Detector

Modem interface signal defined in RS-232- C EIA interface which indicates to the attached data terminal equipment that it is receiving a signal from the distant modem.

Received Signal Level

RSL. The strength of a radio signal received at the input to a radio receiver.

Received Signal Strength Indication

The measured power of a received signal.

Receiver

1. Any device which receives a transmission signal.

2. Any portion of a telecommunications device which decodes an encoded signal into its desired form.

3. The earpiece portion of a telephone handset, which converts an alternating electric current into sound waves, usually through an electromagnet moving a diaphragm.

4. An electronic component capable of collecting radio frequency broadcasts and reproducing them in their original audio and/or video form, e.g. a TV or radio receiver.

Receiver Congestion

A Token Ring error reported by any ring station that receives a frame addressed to itself, but has no room in its buffer to store the frame. The frame is then discarded, and within two seconds the station will report how many times this happened over the reporting period.

Receiver Multicoupler

A receiver multicoupler is a device that enables several radio receivers to use a single antenna system. Typically a receiver multicoupler will consist of a bandpass preselector (filter) to determine range of receiving frequencies, and a RF amplifier with low noise figure and high gain to overcome multicoupling losses, and a balanced impedance power divider to divide the amplifier's output into the number of receiving channels required. A regulated power supply is also required for the ampifier. A received multicoupler is used extensively for cellular and trunked radio sites. Natalie Duran of the Area Transmission Engineering department of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power writes "We use it for the simple reason of having to run only one coaxial cable versus three."

Receiver Off-Hook Tone

The loud tone sent by the central office to tell the telephone user that his/her phone is off the hook.

Receiver Sensitivity

The magnitude of the received signal necessary to produce objective BER or channel noise performance.

Receiving Perforator

Reperforator. A telegraph instrument in which the received signals cause the code of the corresponding characters or functions to be punched in a tape.

Recent Change

Changes to line and trunk translations in a stored program control switching machine that have not been merged with the permanent data base.

Recession

A recession is defined by economists as two consecutive quarters in which the nation's GDP (gross domestic product) declines.

Recip Comp

See Reciprocal Compensation.

Recipient Switch

The switch to which a local number being ported is ported to. Sorry for the mouthful.

Reciprocal Agreements

Also called Intercarrier Roaming Agreements. An agreement between two cellular carriers that allows the respective customers of the two carriers to use each others' systems automatically, without the necessity of registering as roamers.

Reciprocal Compensation

Recip comp. A form of financial compensation that occurs when a local or long distance service provider terminates a call on another provider's facilities. Imagine a phone call from New York to Los Angeles. It may start with the customer of a new phone company, then proceed to a local phone company (let's say New York Telephone, now called Bell Atlantic). Then it may proceed to a long distance company before ending in Los Angeles and going through another one or two local phone companies before reaching the person dialed. Under the existing rules, all the companies carrying these phone calls have to be paid in some way for their transmission and switching services. There are programs in place such that the company doing the billing and collecting the money pays over some of those monies to the other phone companies in the chain. One such program is called "reciprocal compensation." The opposite of reciprocal compensation is called "Bill and Keep." Under this program, the company billing the call gets to keep all the money. The others in the chain (or most of the others in the chain) get nothing.

Reciprocal Compensation Call

A telephone exchange service call, completed between the end users of different carriers, which qualifies for reciprocal compensation under the terms of an interconnection agreement and any prevailing regulatory rules that may exist. Reciprocal compensation is the payment by telecommunications providers to one another for terminating each other's local exchange traffic.

Reciprocal Link

A hyperlink or link placed on one Web site to return the favor of another site putting a link on their page.

RECO

A line item Profit and Loss description for a typical networking services business signifying the four major cost classifications: Resources (People), Equipment, Circuits and Other. RECO is used by countless IBMers.

Recognition Assisted Data Entry

Commonly known as Forms Processing.

Recognized Operating Agency

See ROA.

Recognized Private Operating Agency

RPOA. The ITU-T term for a packet interexchange carrier. The status granted to a communications entity by its national government after it pledges to abide by mandatory regulations under Article 44 of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) convention. For example, a publicly recognized VAN (Value Added Network)

Recognizer

A voice recognition term. A system that attempts to classify speech (input utterances) as words from an active vocabulary.

Reconfiguration

A fancy word for rearranging equipment, features and options.

Record

In a database, a record is a group of related data items treated as one unit of information ” for example, your name, address and phone number. Each Record is made up of several fields. A field is simply your last name.

Record Communications

Any form of communication which produces a "written" record of the transmission. Teletypewriter and facsimile are examples or record communications. Companies such as RCA Globecom, ITT Worldcom, TRT and MCI, which provide international telex, are known as international record carriers. Before deregulation , that business was exceptionally profitable.

Record Head

The electromagnetic device which magnetizes the surface of a magnetic recording ” tape, disk, etc. ” in proportion to an electrical signal.

Record Length

The number of bytes in a record. See Record.

Record Locking

Think about an airline reservation. You call up. You want to change your reservation. While the airline has your record open , your travel agent calls up to change it. You change your reservation. Your travel agent changes it. Which one ends up in the "permanent" record? Confusion reigns. Clearly it makes sense to only allow one person to access one record at once and lock everyone else out. Record locking is the most common and most sophisticated means for multi-user LAN applications to maintain data integrity. In a record locking system, users are prevented from working on the same data record at the same time. That way, users don't overwrite other users' changes and data integrity is maintained. But though it doesn't allow users into the same record at the same time, record locking does allows multiple users to work on the same file simultaneously. So multi-user access is maximized. Contrast with file locking, which only allows a single user to work on a file at a time.

Recorded Announcement Intercept

Provides a recorded message to an intercepted call indicating why the call cannot be completed, as an alternative to attendant intercept or intercept one for DID and CCSA calls to restricted or unassigned numbers .

Recorded Announcement Service

A special type of central office trunk which when dialed, will connect the caller to a prerecorded message.

Recorded Answering Device

See RAD.

Recorded Telephone Dictation

Phone users can dial into centralized telephone dictation equipment. The dictation equipment is usually handled as a trunk connection or it can be wired on an extension level.

Recorded Voice Announcement

See RVA.

Recorder

A device many large phone users use to record conversations with their callers . Recording truck dispatches can help a company gain the upper hand in customer service. Purchasing departments may use the recorder to remind vendors of their promises.

The financial department can document money transfer orders and investments. Recorders come in several sizes. There are cassette recorders with standard speed and slow extended play speed. Open or reel-to-reel recorders have features similar to cassette recorders. Cassette recorders may be voice-operated (VOX) or started by a recorder coupler. Channel capacities available today include 7, 10, 14, 20, 28, 30, 40, 56 and 60 channels, depending on the manufacturer. Some recorders can search for and recall conversations recorded with an option called "autosearch."

Recorder Warning Tone

A one-half second burst of 1400 Hz applied to a telephone line every 15 seconds to indicate to the called party that the calling party is recording the conversation. This tone is required by law to be generated as an integral part of any recording device used for the purpose and is required to be not under the control of the calling party. The tone is recorded together with the conversation.

Recoverability

The way a computer or telephone system resumes operation after overcoming a problem with the hardware (say a power failure) or a program error. Some phone systems recover quickly by themselves. Some recover slowly by themselves . Some loose data. Some need human intervention. What causes a system to fail and how and how fast it recovers is key to understand and verify during the test process. This definition from Steve Gladstone, author of the book "Testing Computer Telephony Systems."

Recovery

The way a computer or telephone system resumes operation after overcoming a problem with the hardware (say a power failure) or a program error. Some phone systems recover quickly by themselves. Some recover slowly by themselves. Some need human intervention. These are the slowest. Check yours out. If your recovery is slow, and if you local power company is unreliable, you might consider backing your computer up with an uninterruptible power supply.