Home - Terminology
Note: This page has just now come under construction. It is far from complete.

The following is a list of some of the terms that will be used in class discussions or readings.

ANSI
American National Standards Institute.
ARPA
U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode--a packet-switching method that utilizes fixed-length packets, used in tranmitting voice and video.
Bandwidth
Capacity of a communications channel, usually expressed in terms of cycles per second (hertz).
Bit
Binary digit--zero or one.
Broadband
High-speed, high-capacity transmission capacity with sufficient bandwidth to transmit voice, data, and video.
DBS
Direct Broadcast Satellite--used to transmit television signals to households.
EDI
Electronic Data Interchange--Standard format used to transmit intercompany business communications (invoices, orders, etc.) from computer to computer
GATS
General Agreement on Trade in Services.
GATT
General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade.
GEO
Geostationary Satellite--Orbits 22,300 miles above the earth every 24 hours.
GII
Global Information Infrastructure.
GPS
Global Positioning System.
IFRB
International Frequency Registration Board. Part of ITU.
Intranet
Private network operating like the World Wide Web but not accessible outside the organization.
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network.
ISO
International Standards Organization.
ITU
International Telcommunication Union.
ITU-R
International Telcommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector.
ITU-T
International Telcommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector.