A
A hand book of gsm termsA5/1/2/3/8X - Encryption algorithms for GSM networks
AAL - ATM Adaptation Layer
A-bis = Interface between the BSC and BTS in a GSM network
AB - Access Burst
used for random access and characterised by a longer guard period to allow for burst transmission from a MS that does not know the correct timing advance when first contacting a network
ABR - Available Bit Rate
AC - Alternating Current ( the standard electricity type )
ACCH - Analog Control Channel
ACTE - Approvals Committee for Terminal Equipment
ACTS - Advanced Communications Technologies and Services.
a European technology initiative
ACU - Antenna Combining Unit
AC Charger :
an accessory device that allows you to power and/or charge your phone from a wall outlet
Activation the process:
Activation the process by which a cell phone account is created, your phone number assigned, and your phone programmed so that you can make and receive calls.
Active Flip/Keypad :
Active Flip/Keypad Cover a feature that will answer a call by opening the keypad cover and end a call by closing the keypad cover.
ADC - Analog to Digital Convertor
ADPCM - Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation
( a form of voice compression that typically uses 32kbit/s)
Advice of charge:
A service which provides the user with information on the cost of calls from a mobile phone
AFC - Automatic Frequency Control
AGC - Automatic Gain Control
AGCH - Access Grant Channel; downlink only, BTS allocates a TCH or SDCCH to the MS, allowing it access to the network
A-interface :
Interface between the MSC and BSS in a GSM network
Airtime:
The amount of time a subscriber spends using his/her mobile phone
Air interface:
In a mobile phone network, the radio transmission path between the base station and the mobile terminal
AM - Amplitude Modulation
AMPS - Advanced Mobile Phone Service
Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) is the analog mobile phone system standard developed by Bell Labs, and officially introduced in the Americas in 1983[1][2] It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America (and other locales) through the 1980s and into the 2000s, and is still widely available today, although use has dropped considerably with the introduction of various digital standards.
Total Access Communication System (TACS) and ETACS are mostly-obsolete variants of AMPS which were used in some European countries (including the UK). TACS was also used in Japan under the name Japanese Total Access Communication (JTAC).[3][4]
AMR - Adaptive Multi-Rate codec.
Developed in 1999 for use in GSM networks, the AMRhas been adopted by 3GPP for 3G
ANSI - American National Standards Institute.
An non-profit making US organisation which does not carry out standardisation work but reviews the work of standards bodies and assigns them category codes and numbers
ANSI-136
See D-AMPS
Analogue:
The representation of information by a continuously variable physical quantity such as voltage
Antenna:
a part of a cell phone that receives and transmits cellular radio-frequency transmissions
AoC
Advice of Charge
API - Application Program Interface
ARIB - Association of Radio Industries and Businesses.
Association of Radio Industries and Businesses. An organisation established by Japan’s Ministry of Posts and Communications to act as the standardisation authority for radio communication and broadcasting
ARM
one of the three types of processors that can be found in Pocket PCS. Created by ARM Ltd., the ARM processor has a unique architecture compared to its two competitors (MIPS and SH3), and therefore can only run programs created specifically for it.
ARPU
Average Revenue Per User
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit
Electronic chips designed for some concrete purposes (for example, in phone it controlls communication between MCU and DSP) They're designed and produced by the companies which use them.
ASP - Application Service Provider
Asymmetric Transmission:
Data transmissions where the traffic from the network to the subscriber is at a higher rate than the traffic from the subscriber to the network
A-TDMA - Advanced Time Division Multiple Access
ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode; a multiplexed information transfer and switching method in which the data is organised into fixed length 53-octet cells and transmitted according to each application’s instantaneous need
AVCH - Analog Voice Channel
B
BB5 - base band 5
BCC - Base-station Color Code
B-CDMA - Broadband Code Division Multiple Access
BCH - Broadcast Channels( carry only downlink information and are mainly responsible for synchronisation and frequency correction (BCCH, FCCH and SCH)
BCCH - Brodcast Control Channel
the logical channel used in cellular networks to broadcast signalling and control information to all mobile phones within the network
BER - Bit Error Rate; the percentage of received bits in error compared to the total number of bits received
BERT - Bit Error Rate Test
BGA - ball grid array
BHCA - Busy Hour Call Attempts( the number of call attempts made during a network’s busiest hour of the day)
B-ISDN - Broadband ISDN
BPS - Bits Per Second
( a measure of how fast binary digits can be sent through a channel. The number of 0s and 1s that travel down the channel per second.)
BREW - Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
BREW - is an open source application development platform for wireless devices equipped for code division multiple access BREW makes it possible for developers to create portable applications that will work on any handsets equipped with CDMA chipsets. A similar and competing platform is J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), from SunMicrosystems.
BSC - Base Station Controller
BSS - Base Station System
Base Station Subsystem
BSIC - Base Station Identity Code or
Base transceiver Station Identity Code
BTS - Base Transceiver Station
(This device allows communication between phones and cellular network or it is the network entity which communicates with the mobile station)
Back -light Illumination
illuminates a wireless device’s display and keypad for better low light viewing
Band :
a specific range of frequencies in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum.
Battery:
A chargeable device which provides the mobile phone with power. A variety of battery technologies have been used for mobile phones including nickel cadmiu(NiCad),nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion)
Battery status/Battery charge display
An indication of the amount of battery life remaining
Battery Capacity the capacity of wireless devices’ battery. Measured in milliampere hours (mAh).
C
C1 - path loss-criterium
C2 - cell-reselection criterion
Call barring
A service which enables users to bar certain incoming or outgoing calls on their mobile phones
Call timer:
A service which keeps track of the amount of airtime being used by the subscriber on a cumulative basis
Call divert:
The capability to divert incoming calls to another phone (fixed or mobile) or to an answering service
Call hold:
The ability to put an ongoing call on hold whilst answering or making a second call
Caller ID:
Caller Identification (displays the name/number of the person calling a mobile phone. Also known as CLI)
CAI - Common Air Interface
( a standard developed for the UK’s public CT2 networks which enabled the same handset to be used on different networks)
CAMEL - Customised Application for Mobile network Enhanced Logic
( an IN feature in GSM networks that enables users to carry personal services with them when roaming into other networks that support CAMEL)
CB - Cell Broadcast
CC - Call Control(manages call connections)
CCB - Customer Care and Billing
CCCH - Common Control Channels; a group of uplink and downlink channels between the MS and the BTS (see PCH, AGCH and RACH)
CCONT- Current Controller (in nokia fones)
CCS7 - Common Channel Signalling No. 7
CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access
(Code Division Multiple Access; also known as spread spectrum (or IS-95), CDMA cellular systems utilise a single frequency band for all traffic, differentiating the individual transmissions by assigning them unique codes before transmission. There are a number of variants of CDMA (see W-CDMA, B-CDMA, TD-SCDMA et al)
CDMAone:
The first commercial CDMA cellular system; deployed in North America and Korea; also known as IS-95
CDMA2000:
A member of the IMT-2000 3G family; backwardly compatible with cdmaOne
CDMA 1X:
The first generation of cdma2000; the standardisation process indicated that there would be CDMA 2X and CDMA 3X but this no longer appears likely
CDMA 1X EV-DO:
A variant of CDMA 1X which delivers data only
CDPD - Cellular Digital Packet Data (a packet switched data service largely deployed in the USA. The service uses idle analogue channels to carry the packetised information.)
CDPSK - Coherent Differential Phase Shift Keying
CDR - Call Detail Records
(the record made within the cellular network of all details of both incoming and outgoing calls made by subscribers, The CDR is passed to the billing system for action)
Cell:
The area covered by a cellular base station. A cell site may sectorise its antennas to service several cells from one locationCell site
The facility housing the transmitters/receivers, the antennas and associated equipment
Cell splitting:
The process of converting a single cell to multiple cells by sectorising the antennas in the cell site or constructing additional cells within a cell site
Cell Site:
a fixed cellular tower and radio antenna that handles communication with subscribers in a particular area or cell. A cellular network is made up of many cell sites, all connected back to the wired phone system.
CELP:
Code Excited Linear Prediction; an analogue to digital voice coding scheme, there are a number of variants used in cellular systems
CEPT - Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications.
(A organisation of national posts, telegraphs and telephone administrations. Until 1988, when this work was take over by ETSI, the main European body for telecommunications standardisation. CEPT established the original GSM standardisation group)
CF - Call Forwarding
CI - Carrier to Interference ratio
CIBER - Cellular Intercarrier Billing Exchange Roamer Record
CID - Caller Identification
Circuit switching:
A method used in telecommunications where a temporary dedicated circuit of constant bandwidth is established between two distant endpoints in a network. Mainly used for voice traffic; the opposite of packet switching
CLID - Calling Line Identification
CLIP - Calling Line Identification Presentation
CLIR - Calling Line Identification Restriction
CM - Connection Management(it is used to set up, maintain and take down call connections)
CNR - carrier to noise ratio
CNT- Content
COBBA- Common Baseband Analog
CPE - Customer Premises Equipment; all the equipment on the end user’s side of the network interface
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Substrate
Codec:
A word formed by combining coder and decoder the codec is a device which encodes and decodes signals. The voice codec in a cellular network converts voice signals into and back from bit strings. In GSM networks, in addition to the standard voice codec, it is possible to implement Half Rate (HR) codecs and Enhanced Full Rate (EFR) codecs
Control signal:
A signal sent to a cellular phone from a base station or vice versa which carries information essential to the call but not including the audio portion of a conversation
CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
CSE - CAMEL Service Environment
CSS - Customer Support System
CT - Cordless Telephony
CT0:
Zero generation cordless telephony; the earliest domestic cordless phones which used analogue technology and which had severe limitations in terms of range and security
CT2:
Second generation cordless telephony;
CT1:
First generation cordless telephony; Improved analogue phones with greater range and security; a number of European nations produced CT1 standards
CT2-CAI:
Second generation cordless telephony-common air interface
(Using digital technology CT2 phones offered greater range, improved security and a wide range of new functionalities. Used in both domestic and cordless PABX deployments, CT2 was standardised as an interim ETS but was overwhelmed by DECT)
CTA - Cordless Terminal Adaptor (a DECT term)
CTM - Cordless Terminal Mobility
CTR - Common Technical Regulation
CUG - Closed User Group