1-ESS x-ESS series of "Electronic Switching Systems" from AT&T/Lucent

3G Third Generation (Mobile Network)

3GPP Third-Generation Partnership Project

3WC Three Way calling

4GL Fourth-Generation Language

800 or 888 Freephone

802.x Series of LAN standards developed by IEEE

911 Emergency telephone number in North America

A

AAV Alternative Access Vendor

ABR Available Bit Rate

AC Access Control, or Alternating Current, or Authentication Center (also AUC)

ACD Automatic Call Distributor

ACE Authentication Encryption

ACEK Authentication Encryption Key

ACK Acknowledgement

ACP Access Control Point

ACRE Authorization and Call Routing Equipment

ADM Add-Drop Multiplexer (SDH Element)

ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation

ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

AGRAS Air-Ground Radiotelephone Automated Service

AIOD Automatic Identification of Outward Dialed calls

AIN Advanced Intelligent Network (ANSI IN Standard)

A-key Authentication key

ALI Automatic Location Information

AM Amplitude Modulation

AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone System

ANI Automatic Number Identification

ANS Advanced Network Services

ANSI American National Standards Institute

ANSI-41 ANSI standard for mobile management (ANSI/TIA/EIA-41)

ANT ADSL Network Terminator

AOA Angle of Arrival

AOL America On Line (ISP)

API Application Programming Interface

APPC Advanced Program-to Program Communications (IBM SNA)

APPN Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network (IBM SNA)

ARCnet Attached Resource Computer Network (Datapoint)

ARDIS Advanced Radio Data Information Service

ARP Address Resolution Protocol

ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency

ARPU Average Revenue Per User

ARPANET ARPA Network

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

ARS Automatic Route Selection

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuit

ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ISO)

ASP Application Service Provider

ASR Automatic Send Receive, Automatic Speech Recognition

AT&T American Telephone & Telegraph

ATIS Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (formerly ECSA)

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Automatic Teller Machine

ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee

AUI Attachment Unit Interface

AWG American Wire Gauge

AXE 10 Series of electronic telephone exchanges from L.M. Ericsson

B

B2B Business-to-Business

B2C Business-to-Consumer

B8ZS Binary Eight Zero Substitution

BACP Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol

BBS Bulletin Board System

Bellcore Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Now Telcordia)

BEP Back-End Processor

BER Bit Error Rate

BERT Bit Error Rate Test (or Tester)

BIOS Basic Input-Output System

B-ISDN Broadband ISDN

BOC Bell Operating Company (USA)

BONDING Bandwidth On Demand Interoperability Group

bps bits per second

BRI Basic Rate Interface (ISDN)

BS Base Station

BSC Base Station Controller, or Binary Synchronous Communications (IBM)

BSS Base Station Sub-system (GSM)

BSS Business Support Systems

BTS Base Transceiver Station

C

CAD Computer-Aided Design

CAM Computer-Aided Manufacturing

CAMEL Customized Applications for Mobile-network Enhanced Logic (GSM/ETSI)

CAN Campus Area Network

CANARIE Canadian Network for Advancement of Research, Industry, Education

CAP Competitive Access Provider

CAPS Common ISDN API Service

CARS Cable Antenna Relay Services

CASE Computer-Aided Software Engineering

CATV Cable Television or Community Antenna Television

CAVE Cellular Authentication and Voice Encryption

CB Citizens Band

CBR Constant Bit Rate

CCC Clear Channel Capability

CCCH Common Control Channel

CCD Charge Coupled Device

CCIR Comité Consultatif International des Radiocommunications (now ITU-R)

CCITT Comité Consultatif International des Télégraphes et Téléphones (now ITU-T)

CCR Customer Controlled Reconfiguration

CCS Common Channel Signaling

CCSS6 Common Channel Signaling System # 6

CD-R Compact Disk-Recordable

CD-ROM Compact Disk-Read-Only Memory

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

CDO Community Dial Office

CDPD Cellular Digital Packet Data

CDR Call Detail Record

CENTREX Central Office Exchange (PBX-like Service)

CEPT Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications

CERN Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire

CGSA Cellular Geographic Service Areas

CIR Committed Information Rate

CLASS Custom Local Area Signaling Services

CLEC Competitive Local Exchange Carrier

CLI Calling Line Identification

CMA Communications Management Association

CMIP Common Management Information Protocol (ISO)

CMIS Common Management Information Services (ISO)

CMISE Common Management Information Service Element (ISO)

CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors

CMRS Commercial Mobile Radio Service

CNET Centre National d'Études en Télécommunications (France Telecom)

CNI Calling Number Identification

CO Central Office

Codec Coder/decoder

CON Concentrator

COO Cell of Origin

CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture (OMG)

COT Central Office Terminal

cPCI Compact Peripheral Component Interconnect

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

CPN Cisco Powered Network (Ingredient Band)

CPP Calling Party Pay

CPS Cycles per second (Hertz)

CPU Central Processing Unit

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRM Customer Relationship Management

CSA Carrier Servicing Area

CSM Communications Services Management

CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection

CSR Customer Service Representative

CSU Channel Service Unit

CT Cordless Telecommunications

CTI Computer Telephony Integration

CTIA Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association

Cu Copper Local Loop

CUG Closed User Groups

D

D-AMPS Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service

DA Destination Address

DAP Demand Access Protocol

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DAT Digital Audio Tape

dB deciBel

DBMS Database Management System

DBS Direct Broadcast Satellite

DCE Data Communications Equipment, or Distributed Computing Environment

DCU Distribution and Control Unit

DDD Direct Distance Dialing

DDS Dataphone Digital Service

DECT Digital Enhanced (formerly, European) Cordless Telecommunication

DES Data Encryption Standard

DLCS Digital Loop Carrier System

DLL Dynamic Link Library

DLU Digital Line Unit

DM Distributed Management

DME Distributed Management Environment (OSF)

DMI Distributed Management Interface

DMS Digital Multiplex Switch (Nortel Networks Switching Product Family DMS 100, 200, …)

DMT Discrete Multitone

DMTF Desktop Management Task Force

DNA Digital Network Architecture (Digital Equipment Corporation)

DNS Domain Name Service DoD Department of Defense (USA)

DOS Disk Operating System

DOV Data Over Voice

DPCM Differential Pulse Code Modulator

DS Digital Service, Digital Signal

DS-0 Digital Signal, Level 0 (64 kbps)

DS-1 Digital Signal, Level 1 (1.544 Mbps)

DS-1C Digital Signal, Level 1C (3.152 Mbps)

DS-2 Digital Signal, Level 2 (6.312 Mbps)

DS-3 Digital Signal, Level 3 (44.736 Mbps)

DS-4 Digital Signal, Level 4 (274.176 Mbps)

DSI Digital Speech Interpolation

DSL Digital Subscriber Line

DSP Digital Signal Processor

DSS Decision Support System

DSU Digital Service Unit

DTAM Document Transfer and Manipulation (ISO)

DTE Data Terminal Equipment

DTMF Dual-Tone MultiFrequency

DTU Data Transfer Unit

DTV Digital Television

DVB Digital Video Broadcasting

DWDM Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing

DXI Data Exchange Interface

E

E2E End-to-End

E-911 Enhanced emergency telephone number (USA)

E&M Ear and Mouth, or recEive and transMit (signaling)

E-TDMA Expanded Time Division Multiple Access

EAI Enterprise Application Integration

EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (IBM)

EC European Community

ECMA European Community Manufacturers Association

ECSA Exchange Carrier Standards Association (now ATIS)

EDGE Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution

EDI Electronic Data Interchange

EEROM Electronically Erasable Read-Only Memory

EF&I Engineering, Furnishing and Installation

EFT Electronic Funds Transfer

EHF Extremely High Frequency (more than 30 GHz)

EIA Electronic Industries Association

EIR Equipment Identity Register

EISA Extended Industry Standard Architecture

EMEA Europe, Middle East & Africa (Business Region)

EML/EMS Element Management Layer/ Element Management Service

EMS Enhanced Messaging Services

ENS Enhanced Network Services

EOT End of Transmission

EPI External Provisioning Interface

ERMES European Radio Message System (standard for pagers)

ERP Enterprise Resource Management

ESCON Enterprise System Connection (IBM)

ESMR Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio

ETSI European Telecommunications Standard Institute

EU European Union

F

FASB Financial Accounting Standards Board (USA)

FAT File Allocation Table

FC Frame Control, or Fiber Channel

FCAPS Fault, Configuration, Accounts, Performance, Security (ISO)

FCC Federal Communications Commission (USA)

FCS Frame Check Sequence

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface

FDIC Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (USA)

FDMMA Frequency Division Multiplexing Multiple Access

FEP Front-End Processor

FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

FIFO First-In First-Out

FITL Fiber In The Loop

FM Frequency Modulation

FMS Fraud Management System

FO Fiber Optic

FOD Fax on Demand

FR Frame Relay

FRAD Frame Relay Access Device, or Assembler/ Disassembler

FRS Family Radio Service

FSK Frequency-Shift Keying

FSS Fixed Satellite System

FTAM File Transfer, Access, and Manipulation (ISO)

FT1 Fractional T1

FTP File Transfer Protocol (TCP/IP)

FTS Federal Telecommunications System

FTTB Fiber To The Building

FTTC Fiber To The Curb

FTTK Fibre To The Kerb

FTTH Fiber To The Home

FWA Fixed Wireless Access

G

GAN Global Area Network

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Gb gigabit

GB gigabyte

GDS Generic Digital Services

GEO Geostationary-Earth-Orbit

GHz gigaHertz (billions of cycles per second)

GIS Geographic Information System

GMRS General Mobile Radio Service

GOSIP Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (USA)

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GPS Global Positioning System

GRX GPRS Roaming Exchange

GSA General Services Administration (USA)

GSM Global System for Mobile telecommunications, or Groupe Spécial Mobile

GUI Graphical User Interface

GVPN Global Virtual Private Network

H

H0 High-capacity ISDN channel operating at 384 kbps

H11 High-capacity ISDN channel operating at 1.536 Mbps

H323 ANSI standard for format over IP

HDLC High-level Data Link Control (ISO)

HDSL High-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line

HDTV High-Definition Television

HF High Frequency (3 MHz to 30 MHz)

HFC Hybrid Fiber/Coax

HIC Head-end Interface Converter

HLR Home Location Register

HomePNA Home Phoneline Networking Alliance

HPPI High-Performance Parallel Interface

HTML HyperText Markup Language

HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol

HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

Hz Hertz (cycles per second)

I

I/O Input/Output

IA5 International Alpha Set No. 5

IAB Internet Architecture Board

IAC Install And Commission

IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICI Interexchange Carrier Interface

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol

ICR Intelligent Call Routing

ICS Intelligent Calling System ID Identification

IDDD International Direct Dialing Designator

iDEN integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network

IDPR Interdomain Policy Routing

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission, or InterExchange Carrier

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IESG Internet Engineering Steering Group

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

ILEC Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier

IM Instant Messaging

IMAP Internet Mail Access Protocol (IETF)

IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

IMN Intelligent Mobile Network

IMT-2000 International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (ITU)

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

IN Intelligent Network

IN7 Compaq SS7 stack (previously DECss7)

INAP Intelligent Network Application Part (IN)

INMS Integrated Network Management System

INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization

I/O Input/Output

IOC InterOffice Channel

IOPS Internet Operators' Providers Services

IP Intelectual Property

IP Intelligent Peripheral (IN)

IP Internet Protocol (IETF)

IPN Intelligent Peripheral Node

IPO Initial Public Offering

IPoATM Internet Protocol over ATM

IPR Intellectual Property Rights

IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange

IrDA Infrared Data Association

IrLAN Infrared LAN

IrLAP Infrared Link Access Protocol

IRC International Record Carrier

IRR Internal Rate of Return (Financial Modelling)

IRQ Interrupt Request

IRTF Internet Research Task Force

IS Information System, or Interim Standard (TIA/EIA)

IS-41 TIA/EIA Interim Standard for mobile management

ISA Industry Standard Architecture

ISC International Switching Center

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISM Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (frequency bands)

ISMI International mobile subscriber identity

ISO International Standards Organization

ISOC Internet Society

ISP Internet Service Provider

ISUP ISDN Service User Part

IT Information Technology

ITR Intelligent Text Retrieval

ITT International Telegraph and Telephone

ITT Invitation To Tender

ITU International Telecommunication Union

ITU-R International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunications

ITU-T International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunications

IVR Interactive Voice Response

IXC IntereXchange Carrier (also IEC)

J

JDC Japan Digital Cellular

JIT Just In Time

JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group

K

KB Kilobyte: One thousand and twenty-four bytes kbps kilo bit per second

KSR Key Send Receive

KSU Key Service Unit

KTS Key Telephone System

kHz kiloHertz (thousands of cycles per second)

L

LAN Local Area Network

LAP Link Access Protocol (or Procedure)

LAP-B Link Access Protocol-Balanced

LAP-D Link Access Procedure- Digital channel (ISDN)

LAT Local Area Transport (Digital Equipment Corporation)

LATA Local Access and Transport Area (USA)

LBA Location Based Advertising

LBS Location Based Services

LCD Liquid Crystal Display

LCN Local Channel Number

LCR Least Cost Routing

LD Laser Diode

LD Long Distance

LDC Long Distance Carrier

LEC Local Exchange Carrier

LED Light-Emitting Diode

LEO Low-Earth-Orbit

LF Low Frequency (30 kHz to 300 kHz)

LLC Logical Link Control

LMDS Local Multipoint Distribution Services

LMS Location and Monitoring Service

LRC Longitudinal Redundancy Check

LSI Large-Scale Integration

LU Logical Unit (IBM)

M

MB megabyte

MAC Media Access Control, or Move, Add, and Change

MAN Metropolitan Area Network

MAP Manufacturers Application Protocol (ISO, General Motors), or Mobile Applications Port

MAPI Messaging Applications Programming Interface (Microsoft)

MAPS Maps Application Provisioning System

MAU Multistation Access Unit

MC Management Center or Message Center

MCA Micro Channel Architecture (IBM)

MCU Multipoint Control Unit

MD Mediation Device

MDF Main Distribution Frame

MDN Mobile Directory Number

MEO Middle-Earth-Orbit

MES Master Earth Station

MF Mediation Function, or Medium Frequency (300 kHz to 3 MHz)

MHS Message Handling Source MHz megahertz (millions of cycles per second)

MIB Management Information Base

MIC Management Integration Consortium

MILNET Military Network (USA)

MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

MIN Mobile Identification Number

MIPS Millions of Instructions Per Second

MIS Management Information Services, or Marketing Intelligence System

MLS Mobile Location Services

MMDS Multichannel, Multipoint Distribution Service

MMS Multimedia Message Service

MO Magneto-Optical Modem Modulator/demodulator

MOU Minutes of Use, or Memorandum of Understanding

MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group

MPLS Multi Protocol Label Switching (IETF)

MPPP Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol

MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging

ms millisecond (thousandth of a second)

MS Mobile Station

MSC Mobile Switching Center

MSN Microsoft Network

MSRN Mobile Station Roaming Number

MSS Mobile Satellite Service

MTBF Mean Time Between Failure

MTP Message Transfer Part (IN)

MTS Message Telecommunications Service

MTSO Mobile Telephone Switching Office

MTTR Mean Time To Repair

MTU Maximum Transmission Unit

MVDS Microwave Video Distribution System

MVPRP Multivendor Problem Resolution Process

N

N-AMPS Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement

NAK Negative Acknowledgement

NAM Numeric Assignment Module

NAP Network Access Point

NAS Network Attached Storage

NATA North American Telecommunications Allocation

NAU Network Addressable Unit (IBM)

NBS National Bureau of Standards

NC Network Computer

NCC Network Control Center

NCP Network Control Program (IBM SNA), or Network Control Point

NE Network Element

NEF Network Element Function

NEBS New Equipment Building Specifications

NECA National Exchange Carrier Association

NetBIOS Network Basic Input-Output System (Microsoft)

NFS Network File System (or Server)

NIC Network Interface Card, or Network Information Center (Internet Registry)

NiCad Nickel Cadmium

NiMH Nickel-Metal Hydride

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NIU Network Interface Unit

NLM NetWare Loadable Module (Novell)

nm nanometer

NM Network Manager

NMC Network Management Center

NMC Nortel Matra Cellular

NMF Network Management Forum (now TMF)

NML/NMS Network Management Layer/Network Management Service

NMS NetWare Management System (Novell)

NNM Network Node Manager (Hewlett-Packard)

NOC Network Operations Center

NOS Network Operating System

NPI New Product Introduction

NREN National Research and Education Network (USA)

NRZ Non-Return to Zero

NSA National Security Agency

NSF National Science Foundation (USA)

NSK Non-Stop Kernel (Compaq)

NSS Network Switching Sub-system (GSM)

NSSG Network Solutions and Service Group (Nortel)

NT Network Termination, or New Technology, also Windows NT (Microsoft)

NTE Network Terminating Equipment

NTSA Networking Technical Support Alliance

NTSC National Television Standards Committee

NTU Network Termination Unit

O

OA&M Operations, Administration and Maintenance

OAM&P Operations, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning

OC Optical Carrier

OC-1 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 1 (51.84 Mbps)

OC-3 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 3 (155.52 Mbps)

OC-9 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 9 (466.56 Mbps)

OC-12 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 12 (622.08 Mbps)

OC-18 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 18 (933.12 Mbps)

OC-24 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 24 (1.244 Gbps)

OC-36 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 36 (1.866 Gbps)

OC-48 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 48 (2.488 Gbps)

OC-96 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 96 (4.976 Gbps)

OC-192 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 192 (9.952 Gbps)

OC-256 Optical Carrier Signal, Level 256 (13.271 Gbps)

OCR Optical Character Recognition

ODBC Open Database Connectivity (Microsoft)

ODS Operational Data Store

OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer

OLAP Online Analytical Processing

OLE Object Linking and Embedding (Microsoft)

OMA Object Management Architecture

OMA Open Mobile Alliance

OMC Operations and Maintenance Centre (GSM)

OMF Object Management Framework

OMG Object Management Group

OOP Object-Oriented Programming

ORB Object Request Broker

OS Operating System

OS/2 Operating System/2 (IBM)

OSF Open Software Foundation

OSI Open Systems Interconnection (ISO), or Objective Systems Integrator

OSP OutSide Plant

OSPF Open Shortest Path First

OSS Operations Support Systems

OTA Over The Air Activation

OTD Open Terminal Directive (European Union)

P

P2P Person-to-Person

PABX Private Automatic Branch eXchange

PACS Personal Access Communications System

PAD Packet Assembler-Disassemble

PAL Phase Alternating by Line

PAM Pulse Amplitude Modulation

PAN Personal Area Network

PAP Password Authentication Protocol

PBX Private Branch eXchange

PC Personal Computer

PCB Printed Circuit Board

PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect

PCIA Personal Communications Industry Association

PCM Pulse Code Modulation

PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association

PCN Personal Communications Networks

PCS Personal Communications Services

PDA Personal Digital Assistant

PDC Personal Digital Cellular (Japan)

PDE Positioning Determination Entity

PDH Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

PDN Packet Data Network or Public Data Network

PDU Protocol Data Unit

PM Phase Modulation

PHY Physical Layer

PIM Personal Information Manager

PIN Personal Identification Number, or Positive-Intrinsic-Negative

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PMD Physical Media-Dependent

PnP Plug-and-Play

POP Point Of Presence

PoS Point Of Sale

POTS Plain Old Telephone Service

PPC Pay-Per-Call

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

PPV Pay-Per-View

PRCS Philips Radio Communications Systems

PRI Primary Rate Interface (ISDN)

PROM Programmable Read-Only Memory

PSN Packet-Switched Network

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

PSK Phase Shift Keying

PT Payload Type

PTT Post, Telegraph and Telecommunications (Government Departments)

PU Physical Unit (IBM SNA)

PUC Public Utility Commission (USA)

PVC Permanent Virtual Circuit

PVN Private Virtual Network

   

Q

Q3 Network Management Interface (ITU-T)

QA Quality Assurance

QEDI Quod Erat Demonstrandum

QoS Quality of Service

R

RACE Research for Advanced Communications in Europe

RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

RAM Random Access Memory

RBES Rule-Based Expert Systems

RBOC Regional Bell Operating Company (USA)

RCU Remote Control Unit

RDBMS Relational Database Management System

RDSS Radio Determination Satellite Service

RF Radio Frequency

RFC Request For Comment (IETF)

RFI Radio Frequency Interference, or Request For Information

RFP Request For Proposal

RFQ Request for Quotation

RIP Routing Information Protocol

RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computing

RJE Remote Job Entry

RMON Remote Monitoring

ROI Return On Investment

ROM Read-Only Memory

RPC Remote Procedure Call

RSI Repetative Strain Injury

RSVP Resource ReSerVation Protocol (IETF)

RT Remote Terminal

RTU Right To Use

RX Receive

S

SA Source Address

SAA Systems Application Architecture (IBM)

SAN Storage Area Network or System Area Network (Himalaya)

SC Standards Committee (ISO)

SCCP Signaling Connection Control Point (IN)

SCE Service Creation Environment (IN)

SCP Service Control Point (IBM-SNA)

SCSI Small Computer Systems Interface

SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

SDLC Synchronous Data Link Control (IBM)

SDN Software-Defined Network (AT&T)

SDSL Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line

SHF Super High Frequency (3 GHz to 30 GHz)

S-HTTP Service Hypertext Transport Protocol

SIM Subscriber Identification Module

SIP Session Initiation Protocol (IETF)

SKU Stock-Keeping Unit

SLIC Subscriber Loop Interface Circuit

SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol (IETF)

SMDS Switched Multimegabit Data Services

SML/SMS Service Management Layer/Service Management Service

SMR Specialized Mobile Radio

SMS Service Management System

SMS Short Message Service

SMSC Short Message Service Center

SMT Station Management

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (IETF)

SN Switching Network or Station Number

SNA Systems Network Architecture (IBM)

SNI Subscriber Network Interface

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol

SONET Synchronous Optical Network (ANSI)

SP Service Provider

SPA Software Publishers Association

SPX Sequenced Packet Exchange (Novell)

SQL Structured Query Language

SS Switching System

SS#7 Signaling System # 7 (ITU-T)

SS7 Signaling System 7 (ANSI)

SSCP System Services Control Point (IBM)

SSL Secure Sockets Layer (IETF)

SSP Service Switching Point (IN)

STDM Statistical Time Division Multiplexing

STM Synchronous Transfer Mode

STP Shielded Twisted-Pair, or Signal Transfer Point (IN)

STX Start of Transmission

SUBT Subscriber Terminal

SVC Switched Virtual Circuit

S x S Step-by-Step

SYNTRAN Synchronous Transmission

T

T-Carrier Trunk Carrier

T1 Transmission service at the DS1 rate of 1.544 Mbps

T2R Trusted Transaction Roaming

T3 Transmission service at the DS3 rate of 44.736 Mbps

TAG Technical Advisory Group

TAPI Telephony Application Programming Interface (Microsoft)

TB terabyte (trillion bytes)

Tbps terabit per second

TCAP Transaction Capabilities Application Part (IN)

TCP Transmission Control Protocol (IETF)

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol /Internet Protocol (IETF)

TDD Time Division Duplexing

TDM Time Division Multiplexer

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TDOA Time Difference of Arrival

TeMIP Telecommunications Management Information Platform (Compaq)

TETRA Trans-European Trunked Radio Access (ETSI)

TIA Telecommunications Industry Association

TINA Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture

TL1 Transaction Language 1

TLS Transport Layer Security (IETF)

TMF Telecommunications Management Forum

TMN Telecommunications Management Network

TO Tandem Office or Toll Office

TO Telecommunications Operator

TOA Time of Arrival

TQM Total Quality Management

TRS Telecommunications Relay Services

TSAPI Telephony Services Application Programming Interface (Novell)

TSI Time Slot Interchange

TTY TeleType

TV Television

TWX Teletypewriter Exchange (also known as telex)

TX Transmit

U

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter

UBR Unspecified Bit Rate

UBC Utility Based Computing

UDP User Datagram Protocol (IETF)

UHF Ultra High Frequency (300MHz to 3 GHz)

UMS Universal Messaging System

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (ETSI)

UN United Nations

UNI User-Network Interface

UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply

URL Universal Resource Locator (WWW)

USF Universal Server Farm (IBM)

UTP Unshielded Twisted - Pair

UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access

V

VAN Value-Added Network

VAR Value-Added Reseller

VBR Variable Bit Rate

VC Virtual Circuit

VCR Videocassette Recorder

VDSL Very high-speed Digital Subscriber Line

VF Voice Frequency

VG Voice Grade

VHF Very High Frequency (30 MHz to 300 MHz)

VLF Very Low Frequency (less than 30 kHz)

VLR Visitor Location Register

VLSI Very Large-Scale Integration

VM Virtual Machine (IBM)

VMS Virtual Machine System (Digital Equipment Corporation)

VOD Video On Demand

VoIP Voice over IP

VPN Virtual Private Network

VRC Virtual Redundancy Check

VSAT Very Small-Aperture Terminal

VT Virtual Terminal

VTAM Virtual Telecommunications Access Method (IBM SNA)

W

W3C World Wide Web Consortium (also WWW3)

WACS Wireless Access Communications System

WAE Wireless Application Environment

WAN Wide Area Network

WAP Wireless Application Protocol

WATS Wide Area Telecommunications Service

W-CDMA Wideband - Code Division Multiple Access

WCS Wireless Communications Service

WDM Wavelength Division Multiplexing

WDP Wireless Datagram Protocol

WG Working Group

WGS Worldwide Geodesic System

WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

WLL Wireless Local Loop

WLS Wireless Location Services (SignalSoft)

WML Wireless Markup Language

WNT Windows NT (Microsoft)

WORM Write Once Read Many

WS Workstation

WSF Workstation Function

WSP Wireless Session Protocol

WTA Wireless Telephony Application

WTLS Wireless Transport Layer Security

WTO World Trade Organization

WTP Wireless Transaction Protocol

WWAN Wireless Wide Area Network

WWW World Wide Web

WWW3 World Wide Web Consortium (also W3C)

X

X25 A Packet Switching Protocol

X-Bar Crossbar telephone exchange

XC Cross-Connect

xDSL "generic" Digital Subscriber Line

XML Extensible Markup Language

XNS Xerox Network System (Xerox Corporation)

Y

Y2K Year 2000

Z

ZIP Zone Improvement Program (geographic codes/ USA)

ZLE Zero Latency Enterprise (Compaq)