Blind Dialing-Broadband Wireless Local Loop

Blind Dialing

All modems come from the factory programmed to "listen" for a dial tone before dialing their connection. However, there are some phone lines which don't have dial tones or, more often, strange dial tones, which your modem doesn't recognize. A "strange" dial tone might be one you find in an strange place, usually not in North America. In this case, you have to tell your modem to start dialing when you want it to. This is called "blind dialing." The old way you did this was to insert an X1 in the dialing stream. The new way, in Windows 95/98, is to go into Control Panel / Modems / Properties / Connection and remove the check mark from "Wait for dial tone before dialing." Actually, you can leave this unchecked. Your modem will work just fine.

Blind Survey

When a company does a survey of its customers and potential customers and doesn't tell the customers who the company is, then it's called doing a blind survey.

Blind Testing

Tests in which the brand name of the product is not disclosed during the test.

Blind Transfer

Someone transfers a call to someone else without telling the person who's calling. Also called Unsupervised or Cold Transfer. Contrast to Screened Transfer.

Bling Bling

Another name for ostentatious jewelry . Catrina Murphy gave me this definition. She attends the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, which my daughter was IT director of. Catrina is sweet and does not wear bling bling. But her eyes will go bling bling when she sees her name in this dictionary.

Blinking

An intentional periodic change in the intensity of one or more display elements or display segments.

BLIP

Ericsson term for Bluetooth's local infotainment points ” the 30- foot radius hot spots around wireless connectors that may, one day, feed news, entertainment and ads to the mobile masses.

Blister Pack

A pocketed polyvinyl chloride shipping container with a snap-on cover.

Blitz

A call center/marketing term. Used to describe telephone sales or prospecting activity of intense , high volume accomplished in a short period of time.

Blivit

A problem that is intractable, a piece of hardware that can't be fixed if it breaks, an embarrassing bug that pops up during a customer demo, or anything of that ilk.

An embarrassing bug at a sales pitch is also a blivit.

Bloatware

Ever-fatter packages of "upgraded" software that, with each upgrade, come with dozens and dozens of new features. With each upgrade, the customer has less need to look elsewhere. At least that's the theory. See also Hyperware and Vaporware.

BLOB

Binary Large OBjects. When a database includes not only the traditional character, numeric, and memo fields but also pictures or other stuff that consumes a large amount of space, it is said to include these.

Block

In data communications, a group of bits transmitted as a unit and treated as a unit of information. Usually consists of its own starting and ending control deliminators, a header, the text to be transmitted and check characters at the end used for error correction. Sometimes called a Packet.

Block Character Check

BCC. The result of a transmission verification algorithm accumulated over a transmission block, and normally appended at the end, e.g. CRC, LRC.

Block Cipher

A digital encryption method which ciphers long messages by segmenting them into blocks of fixed length, prior to encryption. Each block, which typically is 64 bits in length, is encrypted individually. The blocks may be sent as individual units, or they may be linked in a method knows as Cipher-Block-Chaining. See also Encryption.

Block Diagram

A graphic way to show different elements of a program or process by the use of squares, rectangles, diamonds and various shapes connected by lines to show what must be done, when it must be done and what happens if it's done this way or that. In short, it shows how all the small decision points add up to the whole process.

Block Down Converter

A device which lowers a whole band of frequencies from one band to another lower band .

Block Error Rate Test

See BLERT.

Block Error Ratio

See BLER.

Block Length

Measure of the size of a transmission block in data communications stated in characters, records, language words, computer words, and bits.

Block Misdelivery Probability

The ratio of the number of misdelivered blocks to the total number of block transfer attempts during a specified period.

Block Mode Terminal Interface

BMTI. A device used to create (and break down) packets to be transmitted through a ITU-T X.25 network. This device is needed if block-mode terminals (such as IBM bisync devices) are to be connected to the network without an intermediate computer.

Block Multiplexer Channel

An IBM mainframe input/output channel that allows interleaving of data blocks.

Block Pair

BP. The telephone wires that run from the terminal box to the customer's premises.

Block Parity

The designation of one or more bits in a block as parity bits whose purpose is to ensure a designated parity, either odd or even. Used to assist in error detection or correction, or both.

Block the Blocker

Call Block. A feature that lets you automatically reject calls from parties that have blocked the transmission of their calling telephone number in order that you are unable to determine who is calling you. These features have meaning only if you subscribe to CLID (Calling Line ID) from your LEC, and you have call display equipment. See also Call Block and CLID.

Block Transfer

The process of sending and receiving one or more blocks of data.

Block Transfer Attempt

A coordinated sequence of user and telecommunication system activities undertaken to effect transfer of an individual block from a source user to a destination user. A block transfer attempt begins when the first bit of the block crosses the functional interface between the source user and the telecommunication system. A block transfer attempt ends either in successful block transfer or in block transfer failure.

Block Transfer Efficiency

The average ratio of user information bits to total bits in successfully transferred blocks.

Block Transfer Failure

Failure to deliver a block successfully. Normally the principal block transfer failure outcomes are: lost block, misdelivered block, and added block.

Block Transfer Rate

The number of successful block transfers made during a period of time.

Block Transfer Time

The average value of the duration of a successful block transfer attempt. A block transfer attempt is successful if

1. The transmitted block is delivered to the intended destination user within the maximum allowable performance period and

2. The contents of the delivered block are correct.

Blocked Attempt

An attempt to make a call that cannot be further advanced to its destination, due to an equipment shortage or failure in the network.

Blocked Calls

The fraction of calls failing to be served immediately are called "blocked calls." Blocking can occur in two ways: All facilities are occupied when a demand is originated, and/or a matching of idle facilities cannot be made even though certain facilities are idle in each group.

Blocked Calls Delayed

A variable in queuing theory to describe what happens when the user is held in queue because his call is blocked and he can't complete it instantly.

Blocked Calls Held

A variable in queuing theory to describe what happens when the user redials the moment he encounters blockage.

Blocked Calls Released

A variable in queuing theory to describe what happens when the user, after being blocked, waits a little while before redialing.

Blocking

When a telephone call cannot be completed it is said that the call is "blocked." Blocking is a fancy way to say that the caller is "receiving a busy." There are many places a call can be blocked: at the user's own telephone switch ” PBX or key system, at the user's local central office or in the long distance network. Blocking happens because switching or transmission capacity is not available at that precise time.

The number of calls you try compared to the number of times you get blocked measures "the grade of service" on that network. Blocked calls are different from calls that are not completed because the called number is busy. This is because numbers that are busy are not the fault of the telephone switching and transmission network. One might think the fewer blocked calls, the better. From the user's point of view, the answer is obviously YES, it is better. Less blockage, fewer busies and less frustration. But as one designs a switching and transmission network for less and less blocking, the network becomes more and more expensive. Logarithmically so. We keep adding extra circuits and extra equipment. Thus, in any telecommunications network design there is always a trade-off: What are you prepared to pay, compared to what can you tolerate ?

Everyone designs their network with different trade-offs depending on what they and their users or customers, can tolerate and/or are willing to pay. Most companies are willing to pay more for better service if someone explains the logic of telephone design to them. Many network salesmen , however, don't believe this. They practice the sales "theory" of selling better service for less money. This doesn't work in business, and especially not in telephony.

The "Grade of Service" is a measurement of blocking. It varies from almost zero (best, but most expensive case, no calls blocked) to one (worst case, all calls blocked). Grade of Service is written as P.05 (five percent blocking). "Blocking" used to be a technical term but has now become a sales tool especially among PBX manufacturers, who increasingly claim their switch to be " non-blocking ." This means it will not, they claim, block a call in the switch.

There are several flaws in this logic: First, it's not logical or useful to buy a non-blocking PBX if the chances of being blocked elsewhere ” the local lines, the local exchange or the long distance network ” are very high. Second, a true non-blocking PBX can be very expensive, perhaps too much power and too much money for most peoples' needs. Third, most manufacturers define "non-blocking" differently. One defines it strictly in terms of switching capability and ignores the fact that his PBX might not have sufficient other "things," like devices which ring bells on phones (to indicate an incoming call) or devices which deliver dial tone to a phone (to indicate the PBX is ready to receive instructions).

Blocking Factor

The number of records in a block; the number is computed by dividing the size of the block by the size of each record contained therein. Each record in the block must be the same size.

Blocking Formulas

Specific probability distribution functions that closely approximate the call pattern of telephone users probable behavior in failing to find idle lines.

Blocking Ratio

For a group of servers, the ratio of blocked attempts to total attempts within a specified time interval.

Blog

Also called weblog. The word blog is a combination of web and log. A blog or weblog is a type of online, hosted chatroom usually devoted to a specific subject the host wants to discuss. When you think about weblogs, think short essay . The host usually leads off a discussion by posting his thoughts on an issue of interest. A person who runs a blog is called a blogger. Unlike professional journalists , who often move from beat to beat, bloggers are often passionate , if not fanatical, about the subjects they cover.

Blogger

See Blog.

Blogorrhea

Pointless or excessive filler in a weblog. As one wrote: "I was accused recently of blogorrhea. Well, yes, that's fair. But see, here's the thing: I'm leaving town for a month and I needed to get everything said before I left town. So there."

Blooming

The bleeding of signal charge from extremely bright pixels, resulting in over- saturated pixels. Blooming compares with over-exposure in film photography. Blooming can occur in the entire image or part of an image."

Blow Battery

When troubleshooting a line or phone with no dial tone, a technician will use a telephone or his butt set and blow into the receiver to see if he hears it in his ear. "I don't have dialtone but I have Blow Battery." This definition contributed by Keith Boe General Manager, Business Communication Services in Everett, Washington.

Blower

A microphone in America. A telephone in Australia, as in "I'm on the blower, Sheila."

Blowfish

The name of the scrambling algorithm behind Philip Zimmerman's powerful encryption scheme called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, which lets you converse in total privacy over normal phone lines. See PGP for a fuller explanation.

Blowing Your Buffer

Losing one's train of thought. This happens when the person you're speaking with won't let you get a word in edgewise or just said something so astonishing that your brain gets derailed. "Damn, I just blew my buffer!"

Blown Fiber

Blown fiber is an installation method where a housing with lots of smaller tubes is installed without fiber. Once the housing is checked out, they take an air compressor and use air pressure to float the fiber down the tube. This greatly lowers the rate of failures during underground burying of fiber since the housing is empty during the installation. The air flow moves in the same direction as the fiber is installed and helps lower friction and any tugging on the fiber itself. One advantage to blown fiber is that the tubes can be installed with lots of joins (as needed to accommodate the installation problems, such as tight corners), but the fiber strands are later installed with no splices required. Another is that you can upgrade your fiber when you need it.

Blown Fuse

A broken fuse.

BLR

Branch Level Revenue.

BLSR

See Bidirectional Line Switched Ring.

Blue Alarm

Used in T-1 transmission. Also known as the AIS (Alarm Indication Signal). The blue alarm is turned on when two consecutive frames have fewer than three zeros in the data bit stream. A blue alarms sends 1's (ones) in all bits of all time slots on the span. See Blue Alarm Signal and T-1.

Blue Alarm Signal

Alarm Indicating Signal (AIS). Also known as a "Blue Alarm Signal" or "All Ones Keep Alive," an AIS is an unframed all-ones bit pattern sent by equipment at the far end to indicate that an alarm condition exists upstream in a circuit leading to the downstream equipment. Keep- alive signals are required by the network facilities to prevent oscillation of the line repeaters which causes interference (i.e. cross-talk and bleeding) within adjacent channels. SONET defines four categories of AIS: Line AIS, STS Path AIS, VT Path AIS, DSn AIS.

Blue Books

The CCITT 1988 recommendations were published in books with blue covers, hence the term "Blue Books." The CCITT is now called the ITU-T.

Blue Box

A device used to steal long distance phone calls. The classic blue box was slightly larger than a cigarette container. It had a touchtone pad on the front and a single button on top. Typically, you went to a coin phone and dialed an 800 number. While the distant number was ringing, you punched the single button on the top of the blue box. That button caused the blue box's speaker to emit a 2600 Hz tone. This disconnected the ringing at the other end but left the user inside the long distance network. The user then punched in a series of digits on the touchtone pad. The phone network heard those tones and sent the call according to the instructions in the tones. The tones duplicated the tones which the touchtone pads of long distance operators emitted. They are different from those emitted by normal telephones. The first blue box was " discovered " at MIT in a small utility box that was painted blue, thus the term blue box. When they were young, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple Computer, sold blue boxes, which Wozniak built. People who used blue boxes in their salad days included characters with adopted pseudonyms like Dr. No, The Snark and Captain Crunch, who got his name from the free 2600 Hz whistle included as a promotion in boxes of Captain Crunch breakfast cereal. With the advent of CCIS, Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (i.e. out-of-band signaling), blue boxes no longer work.

Blue Chips

In poker, the blue chips are worth a lot and are thus worth having. That's why high priced shares are often called blue chips. The white chips, on the other hand, are worth very little. Most professional gamblers leave the white chips as tips.

Blue Collar Computer

A colloquial term for a handheld computer which is used by "blue collar" workers for tasks such taking inventory, tracking goods, etc. Such a computer may have a pen, a large pen-sensitive or touch-sensitive screen, a bar code scanner and a modem. It may be able to capture signatures ” useful for confirmation of the delivery of goods.

Blue Collar Worker

Someone who "works" for a living is a blue collar worker, which we used to call "craft" in the telephone company. In years gone by, such folks wore blue shirts with blue collars, since they didn't show dirt readily. A white collar worker may be either management or a non-management "professional," and is theoretically a step above a blue-collar worker in the company hierarchy. The term originated in the fact that, in years gone by, such folks wore white shirts with white collars as evidence of the fact that they didn't do the kind of "dirty" work that would soil a shirt.

Blue Glue

IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture). Blue Glue is a "glue logic" architecture that serves to interface physical and logical units in the IBM world. See also Glue Logic and Systems Network Architecture.

Blue Goo

Nanotechnological machines that monitor and control other machines to ensure that their replication does not get out of control.

Blue Grommet

The rubber collar over the joint between the handset and the armored cable on a pay phone. Blue identifies a "hearing aid compatible" handset.

Blue Laser

A blue laser is a short-wave lasers with concentration in the blue and violet part of the spectrum, as opposed to the red portion. Blue lasers have wide commercial applications. They can create high-definition DVDs that deliver HDTV quality reproduction; a single disc could contain more than 12 hours of music per side. Blue lasers can also make possible digital tape recorders that are comparable to today's VCRs, but can store high-definition images. The first blue laser with commercial possibilities was developed in January 1999 by Shuji Nakamura, a Japanese inventor . In 1993 IBM announced that it had used blue laser technology to read and write data at a rate five times faster than the infrared laser rewritable optical disk drives of the day.

Blue Laser Disc

An optical storage medium that uses shorter wavelength blue laser light instead of the red laser light used in CDs and DVDs to fit more bits onto the disc surface. Storage capacity is expected up to 50 Gb. See also Blue Laser, Blu-Ray, DVD.

Blue Pages

Section of a phone directory commonly used for government phone numbers, as distinct from white and yellow pages.

Blu-Ray

A standard for recording onto a digital video disc (DVD). Blu-Ray boosts the disc's storage capacity from its present 4.7 gigabytes to 27 gigabytes, sufficient to store a two- hour movie in high-definition video format, or over ten hours of standard television broadcast. The technique uses blue-violet laser light, which has a shorter wavelength (405 nanometres) than the red laser light traditionally used with DVD players (650 nm). This clearly allows a greater number of bits that can fit onto a disc. A consortium of nine firms including Sony, Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Thomson Multimedia backs this format. It is in competition with another protocol backed by NEC and Toshiba, which can hold up to 20 gigabytes. See also Blue Laser Disc and DVD.

Blue Screen of Death

BSOD. An affectionate name for the screen displayed when Microsoft Windows encounters an error so serious that the operating system cannot continue to run. Windows may also display information about the failure and may perform a memory dump and an automatic system restart. The Macintosh equivalent is a blank screen with a text box containing a graphic of a bomb with a lit fuse. There are two typical causes of a BSOD ” a bad driver or bad memory. You get a new driver from the software company whose driver was bad. You get new memory. The problem is figuring out which driver and which memory. Using a program call Alexander SPK from www.Alexander.com may help you figure out which driver. Memory is a different problem. You may never figure out which memory is bad. You got to do it by trial and error. See also Crash.

Blue Sky Laws

State securities laws designed to protect individual investors. The phrase purportedly originated from a state judge who said that the securities of a particular company had all the value of a patch of blue sky. Companies and mutual funds are affected by state blue sky laws. However, the SEC and Congress have superceded most of these these state laws because they were obsolete, arbitrary, and poorly enforced.

Blue Stake

A verb that means to mark an area. Here's how it works. Let's say you're a phone company and you want to lay a cable alongside a highway. You go to the highway authority and ask for permission to lay your cable. They give it to you. Then you call for "blue staking." This means that one organization comes out and marks on the ground using blue paint where all the stuff is located. This one organization represents all the various utilities who have stuff buried in the proposed running line (the path that you intend to lay your cable in). There is a legality here. If you then dig and hit someone's buried cable, you are absolved from legal responsibility ” so long as you called for blue staking. If you hit something that was not located (i.e. not blue staked and not located on any map), it's called "off locate."

Bluejack

To temporarily hijack another person's cell phone by using Bluetooth wireless networking. This involves sending anonymous text messages to other phone users via Bluetooth short-range radio. Bluetooth works over a range of about 10 metres and phones fitted with it can be made to search for other handsets using it that will accept messages sent to them. The group of lanky tourists strolling through Stockholm's old town never knew what hit them. As they admired Swedish handicrafts in a storefront window, one of their cell phones chirped with an anonymous note: "Try the blue sweaters. They keep you warm in the winter." The tourist was "bluejacked" - surreptitiously surprised with a text message sent using a short-range wireless technology called Bluetooth. Already, Web sites are offering tips on bluejacking, and collections of startled reactions are popping up on the Internet, reported the Associated Press. See also Bluetooth.

Bluetooth

A wireless protocol that is used to communicate from one device to another in a small area usually less than 30 feet. It uses the 2.4 ghz spectrum to communicate a 1 megabit connection between 2 devices for both a voice channel and a 768k data channel. The Bluetooth specification calls for different profiles such as voice and serial emulation to be used by devices to communicate. However interoperability needs to be tested to confirm compatibility of the higher level protocols that use Bluetooth to communicate between devices. Version 1.0 requires users to register the connection between the 2 devices while version 1.1 allows a Bluetooth device to communicate with up to 8 devices.

A specification to standardize wireless transmission between a wide variety of devices such as PCs, cordless telephones, headsets, printers, and PDAs. The initial effort (April, 1998) was in the form of a consortium of Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Toshiba, Nokia, Ericsson and Puma Technology. The project was code-named Bluetooth after Harald Blaatand, the 10th century Danish king who unified Denmark. The idea of Bluetooth is to create a single digital wireless protocol to address end-user problems arising from the proliferation of various mobile devices that need to keep data synchronized (i.e., consistent from one device to another). According to an article in Telecommunications Magazine, December, 1998, "The standard's proponents (Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Intel, Toshiba) talk of a world where equipment from different vendors works seamlessly together using Bluetooth as a sort of virtual cable, where a laptop can automatically use a mobile phone to pick up e-mail or a PDA can send data wirelessly to a fax machine." Bluetooth operates using FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum), spreading data packets across the designated frequency range (2.45 GHz) at a rate of 1,600 hops per second to lesson interference. The nominal link range is 10 meters , and the gross data rate is 1 Mbps, with plans to double the data rate in the future.

Bluetooth devices will operate in a picocell topology in the 2.45 GHz range of the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) spectrum. Note that this same frequency band is used by a wide variety of other devices, which fact causes some concern in terms of the potential for interference. For example, both HomeRF and IEEE 802.11, the specification for wireless Ethernet LANs, specifies this frequency range for RF (Radio Frequency) communications. The Bluetooth baseband technology will support both SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) links for voice and AC (Asynchronous Connectionless) links for packet data. Bluetooth can support

1. an asynchronous data channel in asymmetric mode of maximally 721 Kbps in either direction and 57.6 Kbps in the reverse direction; alternatively, the data channel can be supported in symmetric mode of maximally 432.6 Kbps;

2. up to three simultaneous synchronous packet voice channels; or

3. a channel which simultaneously supports both asynchronous data and synchronous voice. Full-duplex communications will be supported using TDD (Time Division Duplex) as the access technique. Voice coding will be accomplished using the CVSD (Continuously Variable Slope Delta) modulation technique. Security will be provided through encryption and authentication, using the challenge-response mechanism. Frequency hopping, a spread spectrum technique, is used to improve performance in the unlicensed and heavily-used ISM band. www.bluetooth.com. See also 802.11, CVSD, HomeRF, ISM, Picocell, Spread Spectrum, SWAP, and TDD.

Bluetooth Device Class

A parameter that indicates the type of device and which types of services that are supported. The class is received during the discovery procedure. The parameter contains the major and minor device class fields. The term "Bluetooth device class" is used on the UI (User Interface) level. See the next definition and Bluetooth.

Bluetooth Device Type

The term "Bluetooth Device Type" is used on the UI (User Interface) level. This term overrides the terms "Bluetooth device class" and "Bluetooth service type" when there is a mix of information containing both Bluetooth Device Class and Bluetooth Service Types.

Bluetooth Passkey

The name of the PIN. The term "Bluetooth passkey" is used in the UI. See PIN.

Bluetooth Service Type

One or more services a device can provide to other devices. The service information is defined in the service class field of the Bluetooth device class parameter.

Bluetooth Session

The activity and participation of a device on a piconet.

Bluetooth Special Interest Group

An industry group comprising about 700 members of the telecommunications and computing industries promoting the development of the Bluetooth standard. According to its own promotion literature, "Bluetooth wireless technology is set to revolutionize the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wired connections for portable handheld devices. The Bluetooth SIG is driving development of the technology and bringing it to market. The SIG is comprised of telecommunications, computing, network, and consumer electronics industry leaders and includes Promoter group companies 3Com Corporation, Ericsson Technology Licensing AB, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Agere Systems, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, as well as hundreds of Associate and Adopter member companies." www.bluetooth.com. See also Bluetooth.

BM

Burst Modem.

Bmp

1. A Windows BitMaP format. The images you see when Windows starts up and closes , and the wallpaper that adorns the Windows desktop, are all in BMP format. BMP is the standard Windows image format on DOS and Windows-compatible computers. The BMP format supports RGB, indexed-colour, grayscale, and bitmap color modes.

2. Basic Multilingual Plane. A 16-bit coding scheme resulting from the merger of Unicode and the scheme developed by jointly by the ISO and IEC. Generically, BMP is known as a Universal Character Set (UCS). See also UCS and Unicode.

BMTI

Block Mode Terminal Interface. A device used to create (and break down) packets to be transmitted through a ITU-T X.25 network. This device is needed if block-mode terminals (such as IBM bisync devices) are to be connected to the network without an intermediate computer.

BN

1. Bridge Number: A locally administered bridge ID used in Source Route Bridging to uniquely identify a route between two LANs.

2. An ATM term. BECN Cell: A Resource Management (RM) cell type indicator. A Backwards Explicit Congestion Notification (BECN) Rm-cell may be generated by the network or the destination. To do so, BN=1 is set to indicate the cell is not source-generated and DIR=1 is set to indicate the backward flow. Source generated RM- cells are initialized with BN=0.

3. Business Name.

BNA

1. Burroughs Network Architecture. Communications architecture of Burroughs, now Unisys.

2. Billing Name & Address.

BNAP

A British telecommunication industry term. It stands for Broadband Network Access Point and generally refers to a site where access can be obtained to a higher bandwidth network, e.g. SDH and SONET.

BNAR

Busy No Answer Reroute (or Routing). Rules that a LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) employs to redirect a call that encounters a Busy or No Answer. Often these calls are billed per call with additional message units applied to the calls that are forwarded.

BNC

See BNC Connector.

BNC Barrel Connectors

These connectors join two lengths of thin Ethernet coaxial cable together. See BNC.

BNC Connector

A bayonet-style, twist-locking connector for slim coaxial cables, like those used with old 10Base-5 Ethernet and CATV systems. BNC is an acronym for Bayonet Niell-Concelman, which describes the bayonet style of the connector. Neill and Concelman are the inventors. BNC also sometimes is referred to as British Naval Connector, because it was originally developed by the British Navy as a trustworthy connection technique for harsh environments such as onboard ships. Researchers at the College of Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, say it was a "Baby Nevel Connector" named after a man called Nevel who invented the large size of connector that resembles a regular BNC connector. In any event, a TNC is a threaded (T) version of a BNC.

BNC Female To N-Series Female Adapter

The BNC female to N- Series female adapter is a connector which enables you to connect thin coaxial cable to thick coaxial cable. The BNC female connector attaches to the thin cable and the N-Series male connector attaches to the thick Ethernet cable.

BNC T-connectors

The top of the T in a BNC T-connector functions as a barrel connector and links two lengths of thin Ethernet coaxial cable; the third end connects to the SpeedLink/PC 16.

BNC Terminators

50-ohm terminators are used to block electrical interference on a Ethernet coaxial cable network and to terminate the network at certain spots. You attach a BNC terminator to one plug on a T-connector if you will not be attaching a length of cable to that plug. You may also need to use a BNC terminator with a grounding wire to ground the network. See BNC.

BNR

Bell-Northern Research. Northern Telecom's research arm. Northern Telecom is now called NorTel.

BnZS Code

A bipolar line code with n zero substitution.

Board

1. Short for printed circuit board. Phone systems have boards for all sorts of purposes ” from boards that serve trunk lines, to boards that serve proprietary phone sets, to boards that serve T-1 lines, etc. Computers also have boards ” ones for SCSI ports, for floppy and hard disks, for CD-ROMs, etc. In display/monitor terminology a board refers to the adapter (or controller) that serves as an interface between the computer and monitor.

2. An SCSA term. Any hardware module that controls its own physical interface to the SCbus or SCxbus. From a programming point of view, a board is an addressable system component that contains resources.

BOB

1. Software from Microsoft, which describes it as a "superapplication" for Windows designed for consumers intimidated by computer technology. According to Microsoft, users will use Bob to write letters , send e-mail, manage their household finances, keep addresses and dates and launch full-blown Windows applications, all under the guidance of cartoon characters. Bob hasn't done well and has effectively died.

2. BreakOut Box.

BOC

1. Bell Operating Company. The local Bell operating telephone company. These days there are 22 Bell Operating Companies. They are organized into (i.e. owned by) seven Regional Bell holding companies, also called RBOCs, pronounced "R-bocks," or RHCs. See Bell Operating Company.

2. Business Office Code. Western region FID that carries a three character alphanumeric code identifying the U S WEST business that handles the customer's service.

BoD

Board of Directors.

Body

The main informational part of a message. Body is the information, not the address nor the addressing information. There can be single or multiple parts to a body. For example, a single part could be text, or multiple parts could include text and graphics, or voice and graphics, etc. See Body Part 14.

Body Belt

Used to attach telephone workers to poles and structures. Also called safety belt and climbing belt. You got to be gutsy, fit and well trained to use one of these things to go up a telephone pole. It would be good if you had spikes on your boots. That way your feet could dig into the pole.

Body Part 14 BP 14.

An X.400 messaging term. A non-specific, identifying body part. A binary attachment with identifying an header to explain the nature of the content such as a particular spreadsheet, word processor, etc.

Body Worn Transmitter

A body worn transmitter is an audio transmitter secretly worn by an agent for surveillance purposes. Body wires must be carefully designed to be rugged in everyday use and transmit a strong signal regardless of how the antenna and wearer are positioned.

BOE

Buffer Overflow Error.

BOF

1. Business Operations Framework. A wireless telecommunications term. A document compiled to describe the operations of a telecommunications business entity in a specific area.

2. Birds of a Feather. A group of people with similar interests. If interest in a subject is strong enough, a BOF may develop into a SIG (Special Interest Group).

BOGBS

Blue, Orange, Green, Brown, Slate. See WRBYV.

Bogo-sort

The ultimate evil algorithm, equivalent to tossing a deck of cards into the air, picking them up at random, and then testing to see whether they are in order. If a programmer sees an example of this type of algorithm, he could say, "OK, this program uses bogo-sort." Not to be confused with BogoMIPS, which is the number of million times per second a processor can do absolutely nothing. The Linux operating system actually measures BogoMIPS at startup in order to calibrate some kinds of timing loops .

Bogon

Something that is stupid or nonfunctional.

BOHICA

Bend Over Here It Comes Again. See FUBAR and Snafu.

BOIC

Barring of Outgoing International Calls. A wireless telecommunications term. A supplementary service provided under GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications).

Boiler Room

This is an old police vice squad slang for an illegal gaming operation where bets are called in and the bookies take them down. It is now attributed largely in telemarketing circles, to describe phone room set ups where calls are made.

Bollocks

English Cockney slang for balls, as in dogs' bollocks. It really means " Nonsense !" As a verb, it means to make a total mess of something. The word was introduced to North America in the movie "Bend It Like Beckham."

Bollywood

Slang for the Bombay, India equivalent of Hollywood, i.e. a place movies are made.

Bolt From The Blue

On a clear day with blue skies, lightning can jump outside of its parent cloud and travel for more than five miles through clear air. This is called the "bolt from the blue" phenomenon . The study of lightning is called kerauno-pathology.

Bolt Pattern

The pattern that the bolts on the back of the device make. The idea is that if you attach something to the device, you don't want to mess up its warranty by opening the box and putting your stuff inside. So you design your stuff to fit the bolt pattern. This does not mess up the warranty. His product is designed to fit the bolt pattern, but not to intrude into the box.

Bolt-On

An application software system that performs certain specific tasks, and that interfaces with another, broader system. For example, a Warehouse Management System (WMS) might bolt on to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

BOM

An ATM term. Beginning of Message: An indicator contained in the first cell of an ATM segmented packet.

Bond

The electrical connection between two metallic surfaces established to provide a low resistance path between them.

Bonding

1. In ISDN BRI transmissions, bonding refers to joining the two 64 Kbps B channels together to get one channel of 128 Kbps. Also known as dial-in channel aggregation.

2. Bonding is also the name of a group known as the Bandwidth ON Demand INteroperability Group (BONDING). The group's charter is to develop common control and synchronization standards needed to manage high speed data as it travels through the public network. This will allow equipment from vendors to interoperate over existing Switched 56 and ISDN services. Version 1.0 of the standard, approved on August 17, 1992, describes four modes of inverse multiplexer (I-Mux) interoperability. It allows inverse multiplexers from different manufacturers to subdivide a wideband signal into multiple 56- or 64-Kbps channels, pass these individual channels over a switched digital network, and recombine them into a single high-speed signal at the receiving end.

3. Bonding is the permanent joining of metallic parts to form an electrically conductive path that will assure electrical continuity and the capacity to conduct safely most any current likely to be imposed on it.

4. In microelectronics, the process of connecting wires from the leads on the package to the bonding pads on the chip. Part of the assembly process.

Bonding Conductor for Telecommunications

A conductor that connects the telecommunications bonding infrastructure to the building's service equipment power ground.

Bonding Jumper

A bonding jumper is a reliable conductor to ensure the required electrical conductivity between metal parts required to be electrically connected.

Bone

Telephone in London cockney rhyming slag is dog 'n' bone, bone obviously rhyming with phone, In most cases of cockney the rhyming word is dropped leaving just dog, but bone works for phone, too.

Bong

A tone that long distance carriers and value added carriers use in order to signal you that they now require additional action on your part ” usually dialing more digits in order to provide billing information. For example, you hear a bong (or boing) to prompt you to enter a calling card number. The bong tone consists of a short burst of the # touch tone, followed by a rapidly decaying dial tone. See also Voice Modem.

BONTs

Broadband Optical Network Terminations.

Bonus

What Kari Etter asked for after working for me for one year in lieu of being let go because that business (i.e. the one she worked for) went down the toilet . It was the year 2000. And it wasn't the only one.

Book-To-Bill Ratio

Manufacturing companies use this ratio to report on their financial health. The "book" means orders booked, i.e. sold. You sell something when your customer calls up and orders something. The "bill" means when the order is actually billed and customers have to pay for it. The idea is that if your customers order more than you bill, you're doing OK. Your sales are rising . The book-to-bill ratio is used by the semiconductor industry to give an overall sense of supply and demand. If the number is below 1.00, it suggests there is more supply than demand, and times are awful . If it's bigger than 1.00, times are wonderful. Orders are pouring in. The semiconductor industry's equipment Book-to-Bill ratio is one of the most important indicators of that industry's financial health. In July, 2001, its book-to-bill ratio was 0.67. It explained that a book-to-bill of 0.67 means that $67 worth of new orders were received for every $100 of product shipped for the month.

Booking Factor

Booking factor is a percentage of the frame relay links used by frame relay paths, based on the sum of the Committed Information Rates (CIRs) of all the frame relay paths (FRPs) on the frame relay link (FRL).

Bookmark

A gopher or Web file that lets you quickly connect to your favorite preselected page. Appropriately named. The way it works: You connect to a home page. You decide you'd like to return at some other time. So you command your internet surfing software to mark this web site with a "bookmark." Next time you want to return to that web site, you simply go to your bookmarks and click on the one you want. And bingo, you're there. A bookmark is also known as a hot list. Most Web browsers have bookmarks or hot lists. Microsoft calls a bookmark a favorite. Netscape calls it a bookmark.

Boolean Expression

An expression composed of one or more relational expressions; a string of symbols that specifies a condition that is either true or false.

Boolean Logic

Boolean Logic is named after the 19th century mathematician , George Boole. Boolean logic is algebra reduced to either TRUE or FALSE, YES or NO, ON or OFF. Boolean logic is important for computer logic because computers work in binary ” TRUE or FALSE, YES or NO, ON or OFF.

Boolean Operators

See Boolean Logic. Boolean operators are AND, OR, XOR, NOR, NOT. The result of an equation with one or more of the boolean operators is that the result will either be true or false.

Boolean Valued Expression

An expression that will return a "true" or "false" evaluation.

Boomerang

The boomerang feature of some PBXs and voice processing systems comes in two types. The simplest allows you to access your voice messages on the road and return a call based on the CLID (Calling Line IDentification) information received by the system when the original caller left the message. This feature usually can be invoked either by depressing a single key on the touchtone keypad, or by spoken command, which is interpreted by a voice recognition module contained within the voice processing system. The more powerful version allows you to obtain a second dialtone within the voice mail system. You then can dial the number of the original caller, assuming that your access privileges allow you to do so based on your Class of Service (CoS). This second version is considered more powerful because CLID information often is unavailable. Under either scenario, the boomerang feature allows you to return to your original place in the voice mail queue once the return call has been terminated . See also CLID and Class of Service.

Boomerang Worker

Retiree returning to former employer.

Booster

A television or FM broadcast station, operating at relatively low power that receives a distant input signal, amplifies it, and retransmits it on the same channel.

Boot

1. Abbreviation for the verb to bootstrap. A technique or device designed to bring itself into a desired state where it can operate on its own. For example, one type of boot is a routine whose first few instructions are sufficient to bring the rest of itself into memory from an input device. See Bootstrap and Rebooting.

2. Slang for to steal.

Boot Loader

A Windows 2000 term. Defines the information needed for system startup, such as the location for the operating system's files. Windows NT automatically creates the correct configuration and checks this information whenever you start your system.

Boot Partition

A Windows 2000 term. The volume, formatted for an NTFS, FAT or HPFS file system, that contains the Windows NT operating system and its support files. The boot partition can be (but does not have to be) the same as the system partition.

Boot Priority

Which disk drive the computer looks to first for the files it needs to get started. Modern PCs start their boot cycle with the hard disk and then move to the floppy disk drive. Older PCs started their boot cycle with the floppy disk drive.

Boot Protocol

BOOTP. The protocol used for the static assignment of IP address to devices on the network.

BootP

Bootstrap Protocol. A TCP/IP protocol, which allows an internet node to discover certain startup information such as its IP address.

Boot ROM

A read-only memory chip which contains instructions on how to start the computer. Typically the boot ROM starts the computer and then instructs the computer to take its information from the hard disk. Boot ROM are also used in workstations that are not PCs. In this case the boot ROM tells the workstation to talk to the file server and to take its software from the server. Workstations can thus operate on the network without having a disk drive. These are commonly called diskless PCs or diskless workstations. In Wind River 's VxWorks, boot ROMs are used to download the VxWorks kernel from a host computer over the network.

Booth Bunny

An attractive, scantily-clad woman who attends a booth at a trade show. Her job is to attract tired, bored men to the booth by displaying a pretty smile, long handsome legs or large breasts, or, preferably, all three. Booth bunnies might give away literature, imprint badges, serve coffee or just smile and direct people to a salesperson. At night, they might act as hostess for a company party. Sexual favors are not usually part of the job description, though most of the tired , bored men visiting the booth fantasize otherwise . A sure fire way of figuring whether the lady at the booth is a bunny or the CEO is to ask, "Does it work on DOS?" See also Barcode Rape.

Bootstrap

The process of starting up a computer. Think about the following explanation in regard to your desktop PC. Usually, when you turn your computer on, it goes to a location of permanent Read Only Memory (See ROM) for instructions. These instructions, in turn , load the first instructions from the disk telling the computer what tasks to start performing. The name of this process comes from the expression "pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps." The typical personal computer BOOT (startup) throws a message on the screen instructing the user to "insert a disk."

To confuse matters, there are WARM boots and COLD boots. Cold boots occur when the ac power switch on the computer is turned on. Warm boots occur when you hit the reset button (or Ctrl/Alt/Del) while the ac power switch stays on. A warm boot ” reset ” is done when you're changing disks or programs, or have done something dumb, like tried to access a drive that didn't access, or tried to print without connecting up to a printer.

You do a cold boot when the machine locks up rock hard and a warm boot doesn't work. To do a cold boot with your computer, turn the ac power off, count to ten and then turn it on. Remember: never leave disks in your computer when you're turning it on and off. The surge of electricity might destroy the disks. When modems give trouble, do a cold boot on them. In fact, when phone systems give trouble, do a cold boot on them also. See also Boot RAM, Device Driver.

Bootstrap Loader

A computer input routine in which preset operations are placed into a computer that enable it to get started whenever a reset condition occurs. In electronic PBXs this is often called Automatic Program loading. In personal computers it is the sequence that searches predetermined disks for a Command Interpreter program, then a Configure System file, and finally an Autoexecution Batch file. See also Bootstrap.

Bootstrap Protocol

BOOTP. An Internet protocol that provides network configuration information to a diskless workstation. When the workstation first boots, it sends out a BOOTP messageon the network. This message is received by the server, which obtains the appropriate configuration information and returns that information to the workstation. This information includes the workstation's IP address, the IP address of the server, the host name of the server, and the IP address of a default router.

BOP

Bit Oriented Protocol. See Bit Oriented Transmission.

Border

A security perimeter formed by logical boundaries that can only be crossed at specifically defined locations known as border gateways.

Border Cell

A cellular term. A cell that is located on the edge of the serving area of a MSC (Mobile Switching Center). As the caller moves outside the range of the MSC border cell, it must be handed off to another MSC. See also MSC.

Border Gateway Protocol

See BGP.

Border Node

An ATM term. A logical node that is in a specified peer group, and has at least one link that crosses the peer group boundary.

Borscht

A group of functions provided in Line Circuits (LCs). It stands for:

B: Battery supply to subscriber line.

O: Overvoltage protection.

R: Ringing current supply.

S: Supervision of subscriber terminal.

C: Coder and decoder.

H: Hybrid (2 wire to 4 wire conversion).

T: Test.

Borscht is a group of functions provided to an analog line from a line circuit of a digital central office switch. An analog electronic switch can omit C and possibly H. A line circuit on a switch with a metallic matrix (SXS, Xbar, 1,2,3ESS) only detects call originations and disconnects itself.

BOS

Bill Output Specifications. Provides exchange companies with generic detailed specifications to support the billing function of CABS. An industry standard CABS data format used for both paper and mechanized billing.

BOSS

Billing and Order Support System, or Business Office Support System. An OSS (Operations Support System) used by the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies) and other telcos in support of their internal processes, BOSS essentially is a database containing customer records and billing information. Telephone company service representatives in incoming call centers can access BOSS online for information that will assist them in issuing orders, issuing billing adjustments, investigating complaints, and answering customer questions across a wide range of service- related issues.

Bot

Shortened word for Robot, from the Czech "robata," meaning "work." A bot is a program that works for you on an automated basis, perhaps running on a computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, automating mundane tasks for the owner. Bots are used on the Internet in many ways. Most popular is their use in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Web search engines. IRC bots are programs that connect to the Internet and interact with the Internet in very much the same way a normal users do. In fact, IRC servers treat bots as regular users, where they typically are used for channel control. Bots have also been called automatons. In the world of Web searching, bots are also called spiders, crawlers, and agents . They explore the World Wide Web by retrieving a document and following all the hyperlinks in it. Then they generate catalogs that can be accessed by search engines. See also Robot and Spider.

Bottle

A water-tight device shaped like a glass bottle which contains amplifiers , regenerators and other equipment is used at regular distances along an underwater cable.

Bottlenecks

Think of a Coca Cola bottle. It has a neck at the top. It's the narrowest part of the bottle. When you upend the bottle, the neck is what slows the coke from coming out. Likewise in a network the narrowest or slowest part of the network is the "bottleneck." Bottlenecks, of course, never go away. Bottlenecks just move around from one point to another.

Bottom Line

A phrase that can mean net profit, the lowest possible price that someone will take or the basic meaning with all the frills and nonsense cut away.

Bottom Lining

From Wired's Jargon Watch column. What phone and cable companies consider when picking areas for trials and early deployment of interactive services. They look for areas full of upper- and middle-class households with enough money to pay for these services and generally ignore areas with lower incomes.

Bounce

1. The return of an email message to the sender when the message is undeliverable. This usually means that you have gotten the address wrong, the destination address has been changed or the destination server has died. The bounce often includes information from the email system that explains the nature of the problem.

2. To reboot or restart a PC or a phone system, as in "let's bounce the server (reboot)." In some circles bouncing the server has replaced the traditional term of rebooting the server. Some people think it's more PC ” politically correct. See also Bounced.

Bounce Board

A large microwave reflector resembling an outdoor movie screen which is use to redirect (bounce) microwave telephone signals between two remote transceivers.

Bounced

"We bounced the system" means we rebooted or restarted the system. Bouncing the system means that you basically clean out its random access memory memory and load the operating system and programming afresh. Theoretically, after you bounce the system, it should work better. Theoretically. See Bounce.

Bounced Mail

Mail that is returned to the originator due to an incorrect e-mail address or a downed mail server.

Bouncing Busy Hour

The daily busy hours that do not remain consistent over a number of days.

Bouncing Circuit

K. Nathan Casassa of Bell Atlantic Global Networks tells me that it's a term he uses when a dedicated Internet or WAN circuit goes up and down, up and down, for a period of time. He says "The circuit has been bouncing all morning." A bouncing circuit is also called a flapping circuit.

Bound Mode

In an optical fiber, a mode whose field decays monotonically in the transverse direction everywhere external to the core and which does not lose power to radiation. Except in a single-mode fiber, the power in bound modes is predominantly contained in the core of the fiber.

Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions are those that are found at the cusp of valid and invalid inputs and parameters. Many faults are found in a computer telephony system's ability to handle boundary conditions, especially when the computer telephony system is under load. For example, for a network that expects a switch to reset a trunk port within two seconds, the associated boundary conditions would be found at 1.9 to 2.1 seconds.

Boundary Function

Capability in an SNA sub-area node to handle some functions that nearby peripheral nodes are not capable of handling.

Boundary Node

In IBM's SNA, a sub-area node that can provide certain protocol support for adjacent sub-area nodes, including transforming network addresses to local addresses, and vice versa, and performing session level sequencing and flow control and less intelligent peripheral nodes.

Boundary Routing

A 3Com proprietary name for a method of accessing remote networked locations, such as a bank branch office. Effectively a form of bridging, the idea is to reduce the need for technical expertise locally and the cost of equipment at the remote site and manage the communications from the head office.

Bounding Box

Traditionally, computer programs have dealt with onscreen objects, such as images, by placing them in an invisible rectangle called a bounding box. You can see an example of a bounding box by clicking an image inside a word processor such as Word. The outline that appears around the image is the bounding box.

Bounty

A bounty is a premium or reward for doing something.

Boutique

A firm which has few clients , but charges each of them a great deal of money. It's a "designer" company. A research boutique is a high-priced research firm that issues reports costing thousands of dollars. The word "boutique" is designed to justify the high prices. There is no correlation between the cost of the information and its truth, nor its usefulness .

Bow

A type of distortion in which opposite sides of the screen image curve in the same direction.

Bowl Surfer

A person who ubiquitous WiFi Internet access a little too far ” to the toilet. A favorite activity of my son, Michael, and his friends at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH who thoroughly enjoy the benefits of being on the most wired campus in the world.

Box

A box is a hip way of referring to a PC or a server, as in "We have 10 Compaq boxes" or "Attach the CD tower to the NT Box."

Bozo Filter

Imagine that you're receiving zillions of emails from [e-mail]. You don't want to receive. Simple. You set up a "bozo filter." This piece of software automatically deletes any incoming emails from [e-mail]. Bozo filters are best set up by your email provider at this site. You don't want to set them up on your machine. See Mail Bomb.

BP

Block Pair. See Block Pair.

BP 14

Body Part 14, an X.400 electronic messaging term referring to a nonspecific body part, commonly used to transfer binary attachments.

BPAD

Bisynchronous Packet Assembler/Disassembler.

BPDU

Bridge Protocol Data Unit: A message type used by bridges to exchange management and control information.

BPI

Bytes Per Inch. How many bytes are recorded per inch of recording surface. Typically used in conjunction with magnetic tape.

BPM

Business Process Management.

BPON

Broadband Passive Optical Network.

BPP

1. Brokered Private Peering, an evolving industry plan designed to revamp the way providers exchange traffic.

2. Bits Per Pixel. The number of bits used to represent the color value of each pixel in a digitized image.

Bps

Bps is confusing. Is it bits per second or bytes per second? In telecommunications, bps always means bits per second. In computing, BPs (note the capital "B") often means bytes per second. But don't trust people to always be correct ” using the correct upper or lower case "B." You have to figure what context you're working in. The "Rule of Thumb" is that outside the computer, in the telecom world ” and that means from the computer to the world, on the USB, on the LAN, on the local loop, on the WAN, across the country, across the ocean ” it's bits per second. Raw bits per second. In telecom you don't always get the speed you pay for. All telecom circuits require signaling and timing and that requires bits. You need to know if your signaling is "inband" or "out of band." For example, a 64 Kbps circuit might use 8 Kbps for inband signaling. This means you only get 56 Kbps (64 minus 8) for sending your precious material. On the other hand, a 64 Kbps ISDN BRI B channel circuit is actually a full 64 Kbps. The signaling for that ISDN channel is handled on a side channel of 16 Kbps, called the D channel.

Inside the computer, Bps is bytes per second. More commonly, it's KBps ” kilobytes per second, or MBps ” million bytes per second. Virtually all hard disk drive transfer rates (between the hard disk and the main microprocessor, or KSU) are in megabytes per second, Mbps. Sometimes the computer industry refers to KBps (kilobytes per second) when it's talking about transferring files from distant places to your machine ” you see the number when you download files over the Internet. You wonder why the number is so much smaller than the alleged speed of your modem, which is measured in bits per second. You can translate between the two by knowing that the computer industry is referring to serial data communications in which each byte is actually ten bits ” eight bits for the letter, number, or character of the information you're receiving and two bits for start and stop information.

Virtually all telecom transmission is full duplex and symmetrical. This means that if you read that T-1 is 1,544,000 bits per second (1,544,000 bps or 1.544 Mbps), it's full duplex (both ways simultaneously) and symmetrical (both directions the same speed). That means it's 1,544,000 bits per second in both directions simultaneously. If the circuit is not full duplex or not symmetrical, this dictionary points that out. For now, the major asymmetrical (but still full duplex) circuit is the xDSL family, starting with ADSL, which stands for asymmetric, which means unbalanced. The DSL "family" no longer starts with "A," but most of it is still asymmetrical . Our definitions point out which is which.

There's one more complication. Inside computers, they measure storage in bytes. Your hard disk contains this many bytes, let's say eight gigabytes. That's fine. But they're not bytes the way we think of them in internal or external computer transmission terms. They're different and they have to do with a way computer stores material ” on hard disks or in RAM. They're what I call "storage bytes." When we talk 1 Kb of storage bytes, we really mean 1,024 bytes. Which comes from the way storage is actually handled inside a computer, and calculated thus: two raised to the power of ten, thus 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 1,024. Ditto for one million, two raised to the power of twenty, thus 1,048,576 bytes.

Finally, in telecom, when talking about transmission speed, the rule to be aware of is that the speed of a circuit is determined by the slowest part of the circuit. If one part of your circuit can only transmit at 9600 bps, then that's going to be the speed of your circuit ” irrespective of the fact that other parts can go much faster. When measuring speed, you also have to factor in accuracy. All data communications schemes have error-checking systems, some better than others. Typically such systems force a re-transmission of data if a mistake is detected . You might have a fast, but "dirty" (i.e. lots of errors) transmission medium, which may need lots of re-transmissions. Thus, the "effective" bps (transmission speed) of that communications network is likely to be lower than what it's billed as. See also Baud and Mbps.

BPSK

Binary Phase Shift Keying. Also known as BiPhase Shift Keying. A simple modulation technique that involves the phase shifting of the RF (Radio Frequency) signal 180 degrees in accordance with a digital bit stream. A "one" bit prompts a phase shift; a "zero" bit does not. BPSK is used in some implementations of IEEE 802.11a wireless LANs, and in some analog, coax-based CATV systems. See also 802.11a, CATV, FSK and PSK.

BPV

BiPolar Violations.

BQM

Business Quality Messaging. An initiative intended to facilitate the collaboration of vendors of e-mail and other messaging-enabled applications toward business systems that run reliably on both corporate networks and the Internet. The BQM SIG (Special Interest Group) was formed in April 1997. Founding members include AT&T, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. www.bqm.com.

BR

BackReflection.

BRA

Basic Rate Access. A Canadian term for the ISDN 2B+D standard, which is called BRI in the U.S. ” Basic Rate Interface. See ISDN.

BRADS

Bell Rating Administrative Data System. A Bellcore shared notification system for changes in NXXs. Also governs administration of RAOs.

Bragg Grating

A process in which multiple lines are etched into a fiber optic cable to form a type of filter or reflector. These gratings act as prisms by diffracting light within the fiber. By using these gratings, an optical network adds the ability to select, divert, or focus light from within the fiber, negating the need for additional equipment to perform these functions. See Bragg Reflector.

Bragg Reflector

A device designed to finely focus a semiconductor laser beam. Dennis Hall, a professor at the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics in New York, told the Economist Magazine in the Spring of 1993 that he and his colleague Gary Wicks have etched into the surface of his gallium-arsenide laser a grating of 600 concentric grooves , each a quarter of a millionth of a meter apart. The grating acts as what is known as a Bragg reflector. As the waves of laser light pass through each of its ridges, they are reflected by each of its ridges, a process which causes them to come together into an even, circular beam. See Bragg Grating.

Braid

A fibrous or metallic group of filaments interwoven cylindrically to form a covering over one or more insulated conductors.

Brain Fart

A brain fart is a temporary lapse in doing or describing something which is usually self-evident to the person suffering, and suddenly realizing , the lapse. On receiving an answer, it is often followed by a slap on the head and expostulation, "Duh, I knew that!"

Brainerd, Paul S.

Founder of Aldus Corporation in 1984, Mr. Brainerd is reputed to be "the father of desktop publishing." His program Aldus PageMaker allowed the average PC user to produce professional-looking documents.

Branch

A path in the program which is selected from two or more paths by a program instruction. "To branch" means to choose one of the available paths.

Branch Feeder

A cable between the distribution cable and the main feeder cable to connect phone users to the central office. An outside plant term.

Branch Manager

"Waiter, there's a twig in my Bird's Nest Soup." "Just a moment, sir, I'll call the Branch Manager."

Branching Filter

A device placed in a waveguide to separate or combine different microwave frequency bands.

Brand

A set of differentiating promises that link a product to its customers. The brand assures the customer of consistent quality plus ' superior ' value for which the customer is willing to give loyalty and pay a price that results in a reasonable return to the brand ” presumably one above a similar commodity product. Think Coca Cola (a powerful brand) versus a supermarket fizzy cola drink (with no brand image). Coca Cola will typically cost more.

Branding

A term for identifying the Operator Service Provider (OSP) to the caller. Picture calling from your hotel room. You dial long distance. You have no idea which carrier you're using. But a message comes on: "Thanks for using MCI." Now you know. That's called branding.

Brassiere

In 1912, Otto Titzling invented a breast supporter for an amply endowed singer by the name of Swanhilda Olafsen. Eighteen years later, in 1930, Phillipe de Brassiere copied the Titzling design and started a successful business selling the breast supporters. When word of Brassiere's success reached Titzling, he sued but lost because he had not thought of patenting his invention. This is why women today wear brassieres instead of titzlings.

Brazil

Brazil is home to the world's largest snake (the anaconda, measuring up to 35 feet in length), largest spider, largest rodent (the capybara, a guinea-pig-lookalike the size of a police dog), and the world's largest ant.

BRB

Be Right Back. Used in online chat to tell other participants in the session that you'll be away from the keyboard for awhile (and that your silence shouldn't be misinterpreted). Often used for a bathroom break.

BRCS

Business and Residence Customer Services. Also known as Custom Calling Features (CCF) including call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling, etc., available through the central office without requiring the subscriber to use special equipment.

Breadboard

Writes Alex Richardson, "A breadboard is called a breadboard simply because that's what it was. You bought a ten cent wooden breadboard at the dime store, screwed down the tube sockets and heavy components such as transformers , and wired her up. Metal chassis were beyond those of us who had no sheet metal skills or tools. That came later. There were a lot of us."

Break

An interruption. As in "Make and Break." Make means contacts which are usually open , but which close during an operation. "Make and Break" accurately describes rotary dialing.

Break In

The attendant can interrupt conversations and announce an emergency or an important call.

Break Key

A Break Key is found on some PCs. It is used to interrupt the current task running. On PCs, two keys touched together ” Ctrl and C ” will sometimes stop the present task. In contrast, touching your Pause key simply stops something momentarily. Hitting the key a second time causes the task to begin again.

Break Optimization

A call center term. The automatic adjustment of break start times for schedules in the Daily Workfile so as to more closely match staff to workload in each period of the day. The program can thus improve upon the originally scheduled break arrangement because it now has information about schedule exceptions, newly added schedules, and additional call volume in AHT (Average Handle Time) history. See Break Parameters.

Break Out Box

A testing device that permits a user to cross-connect and tie individual leads of an interface cable using jumper wires to monitor, switch, or patch the electrical output of the cable. The most common break out box in our industry is probably the RS-232 box. Some of these boxes have LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), which allow you to see which lead is "live." See also Breakout Box.

Break Parameters

A call center term. A group of scenario assumptions you set to govern the placement of breaks in employee scheduling. These are typically:

• Earliest allowable break start time

• Latest allowable break start time

• Duration of the break

• Whether the break is paid or unpaid

Break Strength

A term denoting the greatest amount of weight or longitudinal stress, flexing, or bending a substance can bear without tearing apart or rupturing. See also Flex Strength and Tensile Strength.

Break Test Access

Method of disconnecting a circuit, which has been electrically bridged, to allow testing on either side of the circuit. Devices that provide break test access include: bridge clips, plug-on protection modules, and plug-on patching devices. Break test access also provides a demarcation point.

Breakage

When a prepaid phone card is never used, the distributor/manufacturer gets to keep the money.

Breakdown Set

A device that attaches to copper telephone pairs and sends current down the pairs. The current causes the wire to heat slightly, thus slowly drying out the cable. The device is used by telephone companies to dry out pairs of cables which have become wet.

Breakdown Voltage

The voltage at which the insulation between two conductors breaks down.

Breaker Distribution Fuse Box

BDFB. A distinct rack of equipment in the Switch Room.

Breaking Strength

The amount of force needed to break a wire or fiber.

Breakout

A wire or group of wires in a multi-conductor configuration which terminates somewhere other than at the end of the configuration.

Breakout Box

A device that is plugged in between a computer terminal and its connecting cable to re-configure the way the cable is wired. When hooking up a terminal that is wired as if it were a computer itself (such as a VT-100), a break out box is used to break out, or fan out the 25 connections in the RS-232 cable. Each wire in the break out box goes through a switch that can be turned off, and a wire jumper is provided to connect each pin on one side to one or the other pin on the other side. This allows you, for example, to switch pins 2 & 3, thus fooling two computer devices into thinking one is talking to a terminal. (Now you have the essence of a null modem cable.) Break out boxes are necessary because there is no such thing as "standard" pinning on an RS-232 cable. To connect one computer to a printer one minute and to another computer the next minute, usually requires totally different wiring in the RS-232 cable, i.e. two sets of cables. This lack of standardization is why you'll always see dozens of RS-232 cables lying around where computers are used.

Brendan Smith Logic

What is the dollar conclusion you want? Figure the number. Then find the numbers and the logic that you can use to justify your conclusion. Thus your arguments will be impeccable and your conclusion will be unassailable.

BREW

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless. BREW was developed by Qualcomm to provide a standard set of APIs for developers to quickly and easily add new features and applications to Qualcomm-based wireless hardware. The BREW development process is heavily reliant on a relationship with Qualcomm, and requires "True Brew" certification for use as an approved application. BREW is basically Qualcomm's open source application development platform for wireless devices equipped for code division multiple access (CDMA). BREW makes it possible for developers to create portable applications that will work on any handsets equipped with CDMA chipsets. Because BREW runs in between the application and the chip operating system software, the application can use the device's functionality without the developer needing to code to the system interface or even having to understand wireless applications. Users can download applications ” such as text chat, enhanced e-mail, location positioning, games (both online and offline), and Internet radio ” from carrier networks to any BREW-enabled phone. BREW is competing for wireless software market share with J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), a similar platform from Sun Microsystems.

BRI

Basic Rate Interface. There are two subscriber "interfaces" in ISDN. This one and PRI (Primary Rate Interface). In BRI, you get two bearer B-channels at 64 kilobits per second and a data D-channel at 16 kilobits per second. The bearer B-channels are designed for PCM voice, slow-scan video conferencing, group 4 facsimile machines, or whatever you can squeeze into 64,000 bits per second full duplex. The data (or D) channel is for bringing in information about incoming calls and taking out information about outgoing calls. It is also for access to slow-speed data networks, like videotex, packet switched networks, etc. See Basic Rate Interface and ISDN.

Brick

A large hand-held cellular phone or handheld two-way radio. In more technical language, a "brick" is a station in the mobile service consisting of a hand-held radiotelephone unit licensed under a site authorization. Each unit can work while being hand-carried.

Bricks and Mortar

Slang referring to businesses such as retail stores that exist in the real world, as opposed to just on the Internet.

Bridge

1. In classic terms, a bridge is a data communications device that connects two or more network segments and forwards packets between them. Such bridges operate at Layer 1 (Physical Layer) of the OSI Reference Model. At this level, a bridge simply serves as a physical connector between segments, also amplifying the carrier signal in order to compensate for the loss of signal strength incurred as the signal is split across the bridged segments. In other words, the bridge is used to connect multiple segments of a single logical circuit. Classic bridges are relatively dumb devices, which are fast and inexpensive; they simply accept data packets, perhaps buffering them during periods of network congestion, and forward them. Bridges are protocol-specific , e.g., Ethernet or Token Ring in the LAN domain. Bridges also are used in the creation of multipoint circuits in the WAN domain, e.g., DDS (Dataphone Digital Service).

   Bridges also can operate at Layer 2 (Link Layer) of the OSI Reference Model. At this level, a bridge connects disparate LANs (e.g., Ethernet and Token Ring) at the Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer of Layer 2. In order to accomplish this feat, the MAC Bridge may be of two types, encapsulating or translating.

   Encapsulating bridges accept a data packet from one network and in its native format; they then encapsulate, or envelope, that entire packet in a format acceptable to the target network. For instance, an Ethernet frame is encapsulated in a Token Ring packet in order that the Token Ring network can deliver it to the target device, which must strip away several layers of overhead information in order to get to the data payload, or content. In order to accomplish this process, a table lookup must take place in order to change basic MAC- level addressing information.

   Translating bridges go a step further. Rather than simply encapsulating the original data packet, they actually translate the data packet into the native format of the target network and attached device. While this level of translation adds a small amount of delay to the packet traffic and while the cost of such a bridge is slightly greater, the level of processing required at the workstation level is much reduced.

   Bridges also can serve to reduce LAN congestion through a process of filtering. A filtering bridge reads the destination address of a data packet and performs a quick table lookup in order to determine whether it should forward that packet through a port to a particular physical LAN segment. A four-port bridge, for instance, would accept a packet from an incoming port and forward it only to the LAN segment on which the target device is connected; thereby, the traffic on the other two segments is reduced and the level of traffic on the those segments is reduced accordingly . Filtering bridges may be either programmed by the LAN administrator or may be self-learning. Self-learning bridges "learn" the addresses of the attached devices on each segment by initiating broadcast query packets, and then remembering the originating addresses of the devices which respond. Self-learning bridges perform this process at regular intervals in order to repeat the "learning" process and, thereby, to adjust to the physical relocation of devices, the replacement of NICs (Network Interface Cards), and other changes in the notoriously dynamic LAN environment.

   While bridges are relatively simple devices, in the overall scheme of things, they can get quite complex as we move up the bridge food chain. (Please don't blame me. I didn't invent this stuff!) Bridges also can be classified as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), Source Routing Protocol (SRP), and Source Routing Transparent (SRT).

   Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) bridges, defined in the IEEE 802.1 standard, are self- learning, filtering bridges. Some STP bridges also have built-in security mechanisms which can deny access to certain resources on the basis of user and terminal ID. STP bridges can automatically reconfigure themselves for alternate paths should a network segment fail.

   Source Routing Protocol (SRP) bridges are programmed with specific routes for each data packet. Routing considerations include physical node location and the number of hops (inter- mediate bridges) involved. This IBM bridge protocol provides for a maximum of 13 hops.

   Source Routing Transparent (SRT) bridges, defined in IEEE 802.1, are a combination of STP and SRP. SRT bridges can act in either mode, as programmed.

2. In the context of either audioconferencing (voice) or videoconferencing, a bridge connects three or more telecommunications channels so that they can all communicate together. In either case, compensation is made for signal loss (called balancing) in order to maintain consistent quality, thus allowing all participants to hear and see each other with equal ease. In video conferencing, bridges are often called MCUs ” Multipoint Conferencing Units. One feature of some video bridges is their ability to figure who's speaking and turn on the camera which is on that person and have that person's face be on everyone's screen.

3. Finally, we'll explain bridge as a verb, as in "to bridge." Imagine a phone line. It winds from your central office through the streets and over the poles to your phone. Now imagine you want to connect another phone to that line. A phone works on two wires, tip and ring (positive and negative). You simply clamp each one of the phone's wires to the cable coming in. That's called bridging. Imagine bridging as connecting a phone at a right angle. When you do that, you've made what's known as a "bridged tap." The first thing to know about bridging is that bridging causes the electrical current coming down the line to lose power. How much? That typically depends on the distance from the bridged tap to the phone. A few feet, and there's no significant loss. But that bridged tap can also be thousands of feet. For example, the phone company could have a bridged tap on your local loop, which joined to another long- defunct subscriber. The phone company technicians simply saved a little time by not disconnecting that tap. If you want the cleanest, loudest phone line, the local loop to your phone should not be bridged. Instead it should be a direct "home run" from your central office to your phone.

   Bridging can be a real problem with digital circuits. Circuits above 1 Mbps (e.g., T-1) should never, ever be bridged. Because of the power loss, they simply won't work or will work so poorly they won't be worth having. ISDN BRI channels are also digital. But they were specifically designed to work with the existing telephone cable plant, which has a huge number of bridged circuits. Telephone companies typically will install ISDN BRI circuits with up to six bridged taps and about 6,000 feet of bridged cabling. But that's a rule of thumb. And frankly, if I were getting an ISDN line, I'd ask for a line that had no taps and no bridges.

4. To conference on another party. For example, when the repair tech says "let me bridge on my Supervisor" or "who's on this bridge?". See Conference and Conference Bridge.

   See Internetworking, Loading Coil, Routers, Source Routing and Transparent Routing.

Bridge/Router

A device that can provide the functions of a bridge, router, or both concurrently. A bridge/router can route one or more protocols, such as TCP/IP and/or XNS, and bridge all other traffic.

Bridge Amplifier

An amplifier installed on a CATV trunk cable to feed branching cables.

Bridge and Roll

Also called a "facility roll." A telecom term that refers to the process of moving a signal from one line to another in a network. It's a two-stage process: first the "bridge" and then the "roll." In the "bridge" phase, the signal to be moved is "bridged" by running it along its original path and a second path at the same time. Then it is "rolled" to the second path and removed from the first path completely. The sequence would be:

1. signal on path A.

2. signal on path A and B. (The Bridge)

3. signal on path B; Path A cleared for new signal. (The Roll) Bridge and roll is used mainly in network maintenance, to move traffic off a line so the line may be tested or repaired without interrupting service.

Bridge Battery

A small supplementary battery on a laptop which holds the contents of the memory and the system status for a few minutes while you replace a drained battery. NEC uses the term on its UltraLite Versa laptops.

Bridge Clip

A small metal clip that used to electrically connect together two sides of a 50 pair block. Removing the bridging clips breaks the circuit. You might remove the clips when you want to insert a piece of test gear and check to see which side the trouble is on.

Bridge Equipment

Equipment which connects different LANs, allowing communication between devices. As in "to bridge" several LANs. Bridges are protocol-independent but hardware-specific. They will connect LANs with different hardware and different protocols. An example would be a device that connects an Ethernet network to a StarLAN network. With this bridge it is possible to send signals between the two networks, and only these two networks.

These signals will be understood only if the protocols used on each LAN are the same, e.g. XNS or TCP/IP, but they don't have to be the same for the bridge to do its job for the signals to move on either LAN. They just won't be understood . This differs from gateways and routers. Routers connect LANs with the same protocols but different hardware. The best examples are the file servers that accommodate different hardware LANs. Gateways connect two LANs with different protocols by translating between them, enabling them to talk to each other. The bridge does no translation. Bridges are best used to keep networks small by connecting many of them rather than making a large one. This reduces the traffic faced by individual computers and improves network performance.

Bridge Group

Virtual LAN terminology for a group of switch interfaces assigned to a singular bridge unit and network interface. Each bridge group runs a separate Spanning Tree and is addressable using a unique IP address.

Bridge Lifter

A device that removes , either electrically or physically, bridged telephone pairs. Relays, saturable inductors, and semiconductors are used as bridge lifters.

Bridge Protocol Data Unit

BPDU. The implementation of the spanning tree protocol (STP) and rapid spanning tree protocol (RSTP) protocols allows network devices to detect and block links that could cause logical loops within a network and to manage redundant links to maintain network integrity in the event of a link failure. Bridges and switches that use the spanning tree protocol (STP) or the rapid spanning tree protocol (RSTP) use the bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) to communicate with each other and exchange information. The BPDU is a datagram that has a specific format to relay the following information about the switch that transmits it:

• Media Access Control (MAC) addresses (switch and port)

• Switch priority

• Port priority

• Port cost

• Root switch identifier

• Root port and designated port identifiers

• Path cost from port to root switch

• Spanning tree enabled devices gather the BPDUs from other devices on the network and use the information to make configuration decisions such as the election of a root device, the election of a designated switch to become a link between a subnet and the root device, the designation of root and designated ports that are used to communicate STP and RSTP information, the shortest best path between a device and the root switch, and finally the detection and removal of loops in the network. When a change occurs in a network topology BPDUs are resent between the network devices to determine if a reconfiguration is required. For instance, if the root switch fails, BPDUs can be resent to figure out a new root switch. Also if a link between network devices fails, a previously blocked redundant link can be opened to maintain network communication. The exchange of BPDUs makes configuration and reconfiguration of the spanning tree topology possible, however, STP and RSTP BPDUs are not the same. RSTP BPDUs are optimized for quicker configuration of the network and are therefore different than traditional STP BPDUs. Steps have been taken though to ensure the compatibility between the two standards such that data exchanged between STP and RSTP devices is unhindered.

Bridge Static Filtering

The process in which a bridge maintains a filtering database consisting of static entries. Each static entry equates a MAC destination address with a port that can receive frames with this MAC destination address and a set of ports on which the frames can be transmitted. Defined in the IEEE 802.1 standard. See also IEEE 802.1.

Bridge Tap

An undetermined length of wire attached between the normal endpoints of a circuit that introduces unwanted impedance imbalances for data transmission. Also called bridging trap or bridged tap. See Bridged Tap.

Bridged Jack

A dual position modular female jack where all pins of one jack are permanently bridged to the other jack in the same order.

Bridged Ringing

A system where ringers on a phone line are connected across that line.

Bridged Tap

A bridged tap is multiple appearances of the same cable pair at several distribution points. A bridged tap is any section of a cable pair not on the direct electrical path between the central office and the user's offices. A bridged tap increases the electrical loss on the pair ” because a signal traveling down the pair will split its signal between the bridges and the main pair. Since most existing telephone company cable pair is bridged, the phone company puts loading coils in the circuit. The effect of load coils is to modify the loss versus frequency response of the pair so it is nearly constant across the voice band. This works for voice. However the loss above the voice band due to load coils increases rapidly. ISDN, T-1, DSL and other digital circuits operates above the voice band. So, when the phone company installs digital circuits, it must remove the load coils. See Bridge and Loading Coil.

Bridger

Bridger Amplifier. An amplifier which is connected directly into the main trunk of a CATV system, providing isolation between the main trunk and multiple (high level) outputs.

Bridging

Bridging across a circuit is done by placing one test lead from a test set or a conductor from another circuit and placing it on one conductor of another circuit. And then doing the same thing to the second conductor. You bridge across a circuit to test the circuit by listening in on it, by dialing on it, by running tests on the line, etc. You can bridge across a circuit by going across the pair in wire, by stripping it, etc. You can bridge across a pair (also called a circuit path) by installing external devices across quick clips on a connecting block.

Bridging Adapter

A box containing several male and female electrical connectors that allows various phones and accessories to be connected to one cable. Bridging adapters work well with 1A2 key systems and single line phones, but usually not with electronic or digital key systems and electronic or digital telephones behind PBXs.

Bridging Clip

A small piece of metal with a U-shape cross-section which is used to connect adjacent terminals on 66-type connecting blocks.

Bridging Connection

A parallel connection by means of which some of the signal energy in a circuit may be extracted, usually with negligible effect on the normal operation of the circuit. Most modern phone systems don't encourage bridging connections, since the negligible is rarely negligible.

Bridging Loss

The loss at a given frequency resulting from connecting an impedance across a transmission line. Expressed as the ratio (in decibels) of the signal power delivered to that part of the system following the bridging point before bridging, to the signal power delivered to that same part after the bridging.

Bridle Cards

Proprietary Basic Rate ISDN Dual Loop Extension that lets ISDN service be provided up to 28,000 feet away. See ISDN.

BRIDS

Bellcore Rating Input Database System.

Briefcase

A Windows 95 feature that allows you to keep multiple versions of a file in different computers in sync with each other.

Brightness

An attribute of visual reception in which a source appears to emit more or less light. Since the eye is not equally sensitive to all colors, brightness cannot be a quantitative term.

BRISC

Bell-Northern Research Reduced Instruction Set Computing.

Brite Cards And Services

Basic Rate Interface Transmission Extension lets telephone companies extend service from ISDN-equipped central offices to conventional central offices. See ISDN.

British Telecommunications Act

In 1981 in the U.K. this act separated telecommunications from the post office and created British Telecommunications (BT). See also Post Office Act.

Brittle

Easily broken without much stretching.

Broadband

Today's common definition of broadband is any circuit significantly faster than a dial-up phone line. That tends to be a cable modem circuit from your friendly local cable TV provider, a DSL circuit, a T-1 or an E-1 circuit from your friendly local phone company. In short, the term "broadband" can mean anything you want it to be so long as it's "fast." In short, broadband is now more a marketing than a technical term. See also the definitions following.

Broadband Amplifier

An amplifier with a relatively wide frequency response as distinguished from a single channel or narrower band amplifier.

Broadband Bearer Capability

A bearer class field that is part of the initial address message.

Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network

B-ISDN.

Broadband Inter-Carrier Interface

BICI. A carrier-to-carrier interface line PNNI (private network-to-network interface) that is needed because carriers do not permit their switches to share routing information or detailed network maps with their competition's equipment. NOTE: BICI supports permanent virtual circuits between carriers; however, the ATM Forum is currently addressing switched virtual circuits.

Broadband Loop Emulation Services

See BLES.

Broadband Multimedia

Broadband multimedia is the present obsession of Terry Matthews, the only man in Canada who founded two companies to reach annual sales of over $1 billion. He is now working on his third, called March Networks, which focuses on broadband multimedia. Terry's obsession in a nutshell :

• As we wire the world for broadband communications and as the cost drops dramatically (a factor of a hundredfold over the past five years), we open the world to an entire new range of new telecommunications opportunities ” those involving video, voice and data combined as a viewable, storable , retrievable record. Visiting patients electronically makes for happier nurses, happier , longer living patients. Ditto for online, broadband education. Shrinkage (i.e. stealing) is a $32 billion "industry" in the U.S. Cut it by 10% with extensive video surveillance tied to cash register transactions and you'll increase retail store net income by 18%. In the utility industry (pipelines, electricity, oil, etc.) security and operations managers must manage hundreds of remote installations, mitigating threats to reliable power delivery. Centralizing video and data records from remote sites allows utilities to collect valuable multimedia (graphic and useful) information that can significantly lower operations cost. Such applications include verification of alarms reported by SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems, visual equipment inspection, remote project management and monitoring of conditions at dams, rivers and other electricity generating sites.

• The telecommunications industry is about to enter a new era ” selling speciality multimedia vertical industry applications. This contrasts with what we do today. We sell horizontal applications. This means that the industry's services are the same for every customer. Every customer buys bandwidth in various widths. And because my bandwidth is indistinguishable from your bandwidth, our major method of competing as telecom carriers has been to cut prices. No more.

• Selling these new broadband multimedia applications will help chew up the excess bandwidth carriers installed in recent years.

• Selling these applications as applications, not as bandwidth, will significantly boost profits.

• Selling these new applications as applications is akin to selling additional channels of television programming on one common pipe ” the coaxial cable which your CATV brings to your house.

Broadband Personal Communications Standards

BPCS. Consists of 120 MHz of new spectrum available for new cellular networks. Also known as wideband PCS.

Broadband Switching System

See BSS.

Broadband Wireless Local Loop

B-WLL is also known as local multi-point distribution service, i.e. LMDS. B-WLL is a way of getting various multimedia services such as high-speed Internet, cable TV, and VOD (video-on-demand) to subscribers. The great advantage of B-WLL is that wireless technology can be used to connect the costly last mile of high data speed networks from an operator's backbone network to individual users. The technology uses millimeter wave signals in the 28 GHz spectrum to transmit voice, video, and data signals within a three-mile to 10-mile radius.

LMDS differs from an ordinary transport system in the way a train differs from a pipeline. Both are data transport systems, but a pipeline can transport only one product from one place to another. A train, on the other hand, can transport many different products over the same infrastructure. LMDS, implemented with multi-service protocol such as AIM, can transport, among others, voice, Internet, Ethernet, video, computer files, and transaction data. It is the multipoint radio technology, combined with the appropriate protocol and access method that gives LMDS its potential tremendous potential. LMDS/B-WLL infrastructure technology can be divided into two basic multiple access technologies: FDD and TDD. FDD equipment uses separate frequencies for the up-link and down-link channels, as opposed to TDD, which uses the same frequency channel for both up-link and down-link, separating the traffic by the use of time slots. FDD equipment differs among vendors in the type of backbone network technology incorporated into the system. The two primary divisions are cable-modem-based versus telecom-network-based. With respect to the telecom- backbone-based solutions. there are two basic architectures being developed: time division multiplex (1DM) and packet-based (either ATM or IP). B-WLL has some advantages:

1. It can be engineered to provide 99.99% availability, rivaling that of the best fiber backbones.

2. It can be deployed quickly. Once a hub is installed (a matter of days), new customers can be added in a matter of hours.

3. It is estimated that deployment of a B-WLL system is about 60% cheaper than fiber-optic cable-based networks. Physical technologies such as copper or fiber require individual rights-of-way to each building, as well as the physical placement of the transport media.

4. Wireless equipment is less vulnerable to sabotage , theft, or damage resulting from exposure to the elements. There are negatives .

   • It requires line-of-sight. You typically can't shoot it through buildings or hills.

   • Bad weather can affect it.