Glossary of Terms
relating to DECT and other topics in cordless
telecommunications
This glossary is reproduced from the recent book 'Cordless Telecommunications Worldwide', with kind permission from the author and the publishers, Springer Verlag. Most of the terms are explained in considerable more detail in the book.
If you've looked for a term which you think ought to be in here that isn't, please tell us, so that we can include it in a coming update. Thank you.
A B C D E F G H I JK L M N O P Q R S T U V WXYZ
ACCH Associated Control Channel
ACELP Algebraic Code-Excited Linear Prediction Vocoder
ACK Acknowledgement protocol
ACTE Approval Committee for Telecommunication Equipment
ACW Address Code Word
ADM Adaptive Delta Modulation
ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation
AGC Automatic Gain Control
AIN Advanced Intelligent Network
ALT Automatic Link Transfer
AM Access Manager
AMPS American Mobile Phone System, US cellular standard
API Application Programming Interface
ARA Alerting / Registration Area
ARI Access Rights Identifier
ARIB Japanese Association of Radio Industries and Businesses
ARQ Automatic Repeat Request
ATIS The US Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise
B Echo Balance Return Loss
B channel User information bearer channel, 64 kbits/s, in ISDN
BABT British Approvals Board for Telecommunications
BCCH Broadcast Channel
BCT Business Cordless Telephone
BER Bit Error Ratio
BMC / BMD Burst Mode Controller / Device
BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying modulation
BRA ISDN Basic Rate Access
BS Base station - the fixed radio component of a cordless link, single channel or multi channel. Term also used in cellular radio
BSC Base station controller
BS6833 A UK standard for digital cordless telephones allowing for proprietary air interfaces, (mainly specifying telephony related aspects)
BT Bandwidth-Time product for GMSK modulation
BTR Bit Timing Recovery, used to permit synchronisation across a radio link
CAI Common Air Interface Standard, as in the CT2 standard
CAS Cordless Access Service(s)
CATV Cable Television
CBCS Cordless Business Communication System, supporting wireless PABX and data applications, for example, in the business environment
CCCH Common Control Channel
CCF Cluster Control Functions
CCFP Common Control Fixed Part
CCH Control Channel
CCT Combined CDMA / TDMA (IS-661 standard)
CCIR Consultative Committee for Radio, part of the previous ITU structure (now ITU-R)
CCITT Consultative Committee for Telecommunications, part of the previous ITU structure (now ITU-T)
CDC Cordless Data Controller
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CEC Commission of the European Communities
CELP Code Excited Linear Prediction, vocoder
CEN Comité Européen de Normalisation
CENELEC Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
CEPT Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications
CFP Cordless Fixed Part , eg a cordless telephone base station
CHMF Synchronisation pattern used in CT2
CHMP Synchronisation pattern used in CT2
CI Common Interface, type of specification or
Channel Identity sequence, used for over the air identification of a radio transmission
CISPR Comité International Spécial Perturbations Radio
CLR Connection Loudness Rating
COST The European Cooperation in Science and Technology Programme
COST 231 The COST committee dealing with future mobile systems
CPBX Cordless PBX - same as a wireless PBX
CPE Customer Premises Equipment
CPFSK Continuous Phase Frequency Shift Keying modulation
CPP Cordless Portable Part, the cordless telephone handset carried by the user
CR Carrier Recovery
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRFP Cordless Radio Fixed Part
CS Cell Station, a PHS basestation
CS2, CS3 Intelligent Network, Capability Set 2, 3
CS-ACELP Conjugate Structure Algebraic Code-Excited Linear Prediction, vocoder
CSF Cell Site Function
CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
CT0 The original analogue VHF/LF cordless telephone technology, as used in the UK, France and elsewhere
CT1 Cordless Telephone Generation One - in Europe 900 MHz analogue FM - also known as CEPT/CT1.
Sometimes in the UK the term was and occasionally still is used to refer to the CT0 technology
CT1+ Later version of the CEPT CT1 standard, with additional channels
CT2 Second Generation Cordless Telephone - Digital - originally developed in the UK and subsequently accepted by ETSI as an IETS
CT2plus Canadian variant of CT2
CT3 Early Swedish digital cordless standard
CTM Cordless Terminal Mobility, an ETSI project as well as an application concept
CTN Cordless Telecommunication Network
CTR Common Technical Regulation
CVSDM Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation
D channel Control and information data channel, 16 kbits/s in ISDN
DAM DECT Authentication Module
DASS Digital Access Signalling System
DCA Dynamic Channel Assignment
DCE Data Communications Equipment
DCS Dynamic Channel Selection or
Digital Cellular System (see DCS1800)
DCS1800 Digital Cellular System 1800 MHz - the 1800 MHz version of the GSM digital cellular radio standard
DCT Digital Cordless Telephone
DCT900 Early CT3 standard cordless telephone product from Ericsson
DCW Data Code Word
DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, the ETSI standard
(originally, prior to 1995, Digital European Cordless Telecommunications)
DFS DECT Fixed System
DLC Data Link Control layer, protocol layer
Downlink The transmission link from the fixed part to the portable part
DPCM Differential Pulse Code Modulation
DPNSS Inter PABX signalling system
DPS DECT Portable System
DQPSK Differential QPSK modulation
DRT Diagnostic Rhyme Test, used in speech quality measurements
DSP Digital Signal Processing
DSS1 ISDN signalling protocol
DTAAB DECT Type Approval Advisory Board
DTI UK Department of Trade and Industry
DTMF Dual Tone Multiple Frequency, audio tone signalling system
Duplex Simultaneous two way communication
DVSDM Digitally Variable Slope Delta Modulation
EC European Commission
ECMA European Association for Standardising Information and Communication Systems
ECTEL European Association of the Telecommunications Manufacturing Industry
EFR Enhanced Full Rate codec, developed for US PCS
EMC ElectroMagnetic Compatibility
EOC Embedded Operations Channel
ERC European Radiocommunications Committee
ERO European Radiocommunications Office
ERMES European Radio MEssaging Standard, digital paging standard specified by ETSI
ERP Effective Radiated Power or
Earpiece Reference Point
ESPA European Selective Paging Association
ETR ETSI Technical Report
ETS European Telecommunications Standard
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel
FCC US Federal Communications Commission
FCS Free Channel Search or
Frame Check Sequence
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
FEC Forward Error Correction
FH Frequency Hopping
FHMA Frequency Hopping Multiple Access
FPLMTS Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications System
FSK Frequency Shift Keying
FT Fixed termination
GAP Generic Access Profile of DECT
GFSK Gaussian filtered FSK modulation
GIP GSM Interworking Profile of DECT
GMSK Gaussian filtered Minimum Shift Keying
GoS Grade of Service
GPRS Generalised Packet Radio Service, of GSM
GPS Global Positioning System
GSM Global System for Mobile, the digital cellular radio system specified by ETSI and now adopted in many countries worldwide
Handoff The procedure whereby communications between a cordless terminal and a basestation are automatically routed via an alternative basestation (or possibly via an alternative channel to the same base station) when this is necessary and appropriate to maintain or improve communications
Handover Another term for Handoff
HDLC High level Data Link Control - type of protocol
HIPERLAN HIgh PErformance Radio Local Area Network
HLR Home Location Register, used in cellular systems and which might be used in future enhanced public cordless systems
IAP ISDN Access Profile, of DECT
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE 802.11 US spread spectrum data communication standard
I-ETS Interim ETS
IF Intermediate Frequency
IMEI International Mobile station Equipment Identity (GSM feature)
IN Intelligent Network
INAP Intelligent Network Application Part
IPEI International Personal Equipment Identity (DECT feature)
IS54 US digital AMPS standard
IS95 US CDMA cellular standard
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical frequency band
ISO International Standards Organisation
ISPABX Integrated Services PABX
ITSTC Information Technology Steering Committee
ITU International Telecommunications Union
IWP Interworking Profile
IWU Interworking Unit
JLR Junction Loudness Rating
JTC The TIA/T1 Joint Techncal Committee, US PCS standardisation committee
LAN Local Area Network
LAPB Link Access Protocol - Bearer channel
LAPD Link Access Protocol - Data channel
LAPR Link Access Protocol Radio
LAI Local Area Identifier
LBT Listen Before Talk, part of the US UPCS spectrum etiquette, FCC Part 15 Subpart D rules
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LCI Local CFP Identifier
LDB Location Data Base
LD-CELP Low Delay Code Excited Linear Prediction, vocoder
LDM Linear Delta Modulation
LE Local Exchange
LEC Local Exchange Carrier
LFA Lowest Frequency below threshold Algorithm
LIA Least Interference Algorithm
LLME Lower Layer Management Entity
LNA Low Noise Amplifier
LPC Linear Predictive Coding
LR Loudness Rating or
Location Register (as in cellular radio)
MAC Medium Access Control, protocol layer
MAHO Mobile Assisted HandOver
MAP Mobile Access Part, of the SS7 protocol
MC Marker Channel
MCHO Mobile Controlled HandOver
MDT Mobile Data Terminal
Microdiversity Diversity between antennas with relatively small spacing (of order quarter wavelength) to counter multipath fading effects
MKK Radio Equipment Inspection and Certification Institute of Japan
MMI Man Machine Interface
MOS Mean Opinion Score, used in speech quality measurements
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
MPEG Motion Pictures Expert Group, developing video codec standards
MPT1317 UK standard for data signalling over a radio path
MPT1334 UK standard for digital cordless telephones allowing for proprietary air interfaces, (mainly specifying radio related aspects)
MPT1375 UK standard for Common Air Interface, CAI, digital cordless telephones
MRP Mouthpiece Reference Point
MSC Mobile services Switching Centre, as in cellular radio
MSK Minimum Shift Keying modulation
MUX1 The traffic channel multiplex in PCI, same as MUX1.4 in CT2
MUX1.2 The multiplex within the CT2 standard containing 64 B channel bits and 2 D channel bits
MUX1.4 The multiplex within the CT2 standard containing 64 B channel bits and 4 D channel bits
MUX2 The multiplex within the CT2 standard containing 32 D channel bits and 32 SYN channel bits
MUX3 The "long" 10 ms burst transmitted by a CT2 handset when trying to establish a call
NACK Not Acknowledge - a form of protocol where action is taken if no acknowledgement is received
NAFTA North American Free Trade Area - USA, Canada and Mexico
NAMPS Narrowband AMPS cellular standard
NCHO Network Controlled HandOver
NET Norme Européenne de Télécommunications, a type of standard
NMT Nordic Mobile Telephone, an analogue cellular standard
NPAG North American PCS Advisory Group
NTIA National Telecommunications Information Administration (in the USA)
NWK/NWL Network Layer, protocol layer
O&M Operations and Maintenance
OAM Operations, Administration and Maintenance
OAM&P Operations, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning
OCDMA Orthogonal CDMA
OELR Overall Echo Loudness Rating
OFS Operational Fixed Services
OFTA Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong
OFTEL The UK Office of Telecommunications
OLR Overall Loudness Rating
OSI Open Systems Interconnection - The ISO standard for communications, a seven layer reference model for protocol specification
OTAR Over the air registration
P&A Privacy and Authentication
PA Portable Application or
Power Amplifier
PABX Private Automatic Branch Exchange
PACS Personal Advanced Communication System
PACS-UA PACS variant A for the US unlicensed bands, related to PHS
PACS-UB PACS variant B for the US unlicensed bands
PAP Public Access Profile, of DECT
PARK Portable Access Rights Key
PBX Same as PABX
PCH Paging Channel
PCI Personal Communications Interface, US unlicensed standard based on CT2
PCM Pulse Code Modulation
PCMCIA Personal Computer Manufacturers' Card Industry Association, a standard for plug-in PC cards, now known also simply as PC Card
PCN Personal Communications Network
PCS Personal Communications Service
PCS1900 US cellular standard, 1900 MHz version of DCS1800
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PDC The Japanese Personal Digital Cellular standard
PHL Physical Layer, lowest protocol layer
PHS Personal Handyphone System - Japanese cordless standard
PIC Personal Intelligent Communicator
PINX Private Integrated services Network eXchange
PISN Private Integrated Services Network
PLL Phase Lock Loop
PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
PMR Private Mobile Radio
PP Portable Part
PRA ISDN Primary Rate Access
PS Personal Station
PSK Phase Shift Keying modulation
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
PT Personal Telecommunications or
Portable Termination or
Project Team (in ETSI)
PTN Personal Telephone Number
PTO/PTT Term used to refer to a national telecommunication administration
PWT Personal Wireless Telecommunications - US cordless technology, a variant of DECT.
PWT(E) PWT (Enhanced) - enhanced version of the PWT technology for operation in the licensed PCS bands
QDU Quantisation Distortion Unit
QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulation
QSAFA Quasi-Static Autonomous Frequency Assignment
QSIG Inter PABX signalling protocol
Quantisation The process of representing samples of an analogue waveform by the nearest whole number of pre-defined voltage steps
RACE Research and development in Advanced Communication technologies in Europe, research initiative instigated by the CEC
RAP Radio local loop Access Profile of DECT
RBOC Regional Bell Operating Company
RCR Research & Development Centre for Radio Systems of Japan
RES 3 Technical subcommittee, Radio Equipment and Systems 3, of ETSI, responsible for the specification of cordless systems
RFI Radio Frequency Interference
RFP Radio Fixed Part - same as Cordless Fixed Part
RLAN Radio Local Area Network
RLL Radio Local Loop
RLR Receiving Loudness Rating
RP Radio Port
RPCU Radio Port Controller Unit
RPE-LTP Regular Pulse Excitation - Long Term Predictor, type of LPC speech coding used in the GSM digital cellular radio system
RSSI Received Signal Strength Indication
SACCH Slow Associated Control Channel
SAW Surface Acoustic Wave
SBC System Broadcast Channel
SCCH Specific Cell Channel
SCI Synchronisation, Control and Information
SDL System Description Language
SDLC Synchronous Data Link Control
Sidetone An attenuated component of the speakers voice signal fed back to his own earpiece to provide confidence that the equipment is functional
SIM Subscriber Identification Module, of GSM
Simplex One way communication
SLR Sending Loudness Rating
SMS Short Message Service, of GSM
SMT Surface Mount Technology
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
SoHo Small Office / Home Office
SPCS Satellite Personal Communications System
SQER Signal-to-Quantising-Error Ratio
STMR Side Tone Masking Rating
SU Subscriber Unit
SYN The channel used in CT2 to allow synchronisation to be established
SYNCD Synchronisation pattern used in CT2
SYNCF Synchronisation pattern used in CT2
SYNCP Synchronisation pattern used in CT2
TACS Total Access Communication System - an analogue cellular system, based upon AMPS, the US system
TAL Telephone Acoustic Loss
TBR Technical Basis for Regulation, a European standard mechanism
TCH Traffic Channel
TCL Telephone Coupling Loss
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDM Time Division Multiplex
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TE Terminal Equipment
TELR Talker Echo Loudess Rating (nearly the same as OELR)
TIA The US Telecommunications Industry Association
TIM Telephone Identity Module
TRAC Technical Recommendations Applications Committee
TTC The Japanese Telecommunication Technology Committee
UIC User Information Channel
UMC Universal Mobile Communicator
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service, being standardised by ETSI
UNI User Network Interface
UPCH User Packet Channel
UPCS Unlicensed PCS
Uplink The transmission link from the portable part to the fixed part
UPT Universal Personal Telecommunications
UW Unique Word, used for synchronisation and/or identification across a radio link
VCO Voltage Controlled Oscillator
VDU Video Display Unit
VPN Virtual Private Network
WACS Wide Area Communication System, wireless access technology developed by Bellcore, which has formed the basis for PACS
WCPE Wireless Customer's Premises Equipment, DECT based standard now referred to as PWT
WDCT Worldwide Digital Cordless Telecommunications - a Siemens proprietary digital cordless standard for products marketed in the USA, a derivative of the DECT standard, augmented to operate in the ISM band (2.4 GHz) and to comply with FCC rules.
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WLL Wireless Local Loop
WPABX Wireless Private Automatic Branch Exchange
WPBX Wireless Private Branch Exchange
WRC World Radio Conference, part of the ITU activity, superceding the previous WARC process
WRS Wireless Relay Station
WUPE Wireless User Premises Equipment