Technologies

ATM: (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). A very high speed networking transmission technology that is high bandwidth and supports both voice and data communications.

BATTERIES: The DC power source of a telephone system. They provide standby power on demand for telephone exchanges or computer data centers.
               
CABLE MANAGEMENT: The important step during the installation of services to neatly secure electrical, data and other cables. The purposes of good cable management is to plan and organize the routes and grouping of cables within a building or facility, to support the cables while being installed throughout the location, and to make future installation or service of the cables easier and more efficient . Cable trays, rings, ladders, baskets, fiber guides, ducts, risers and other types of channels to hold cables and lacing cord etc.

CHANNEL BANK: A multiplexer device that puts many low-speed voice or data lines into one high-speed digital line and vice-versa.

CROSS-CONNECT (DSX-1, DSX-3): A cross connect is a connection scheme between cabling runs, subsystems, and equipment using patch cords or jumpers that attach to connecting hardware on each end.  Cross-connection is the attachment of one wire to another usually by anchoring each wire to a connecting block and then placing a third wire between them so that an electrical connection is made. 

A Digital Cross-connect (DSX) consists of equipment frames (patch panels) where cabling between system components is connected.
 
CSU/DSU: (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit) A CSU/DSU is a digital-interface device used to connect a Data Terminal Equipment device or DTE, such as a router, to a digital circuit (for example a T1 or T3 line).
               
DACS: (Digital Access and Cross-Connect System) A DACS is simple form of channel switch. It is a piece of circuit-switched network equipment that allows lower-level TDM bit streams, such as DS0 bit streams, to be arranged and interconnected among higher-level TDM signals, such as DS1 bit streams.
               
DS-3: Digital Service, level 3. Equivalent of 28 T1 circuits, and operating at 44.736 Mbps.  Also known as a T3 line.

DSL: (Digital Subscriber Line) A technology that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network.

ETHERNET: Technology of frame-based computer networking for local area networks (LANs). Ethernet is standardized as IEEE 802.3

FIBER: (Fiber Optics) Technology in which light is used to transport large amounts of data and information from one point to another over thin glass filaments for long distances. The fiber is made of very pure glass. Optical fibers are used because they allow transmission over much longer distances and at higher bandwidths than other forms of communication. They carry signal with less loss that metal wire and also are immune to electromagnetic interference. 

FRAME RELAY: a telecommunication service designed for cost-efficient data transmission for intermittent traffic between local area networks (LANs) and between end-points in a wide area network (WAN).  The data stream is broken into small data packets called frames, to provide transmission speeds of 64 Kbps to 2.4 Gbps at relatively lower costs.

 FUSE PANELS: devices at the top of a rack to distribute power to each device. The rectifiers are protected from an over load or short circuit by individual fuses. 

GPS/TIMING SOURCE:  Time synchronization is a process that adjusts the relative timing of one or more signals with a time reference. In synchronous communications, a periodic signal is used to synchronize transmission and reception of data and control characters.

GR303: concentrator with digital cross-connect capability. It allows services to be delivered to a highly distributed customer base from a single switch -- without sacrificing bandwidth.
               
IAD: (Integrated Access Device) A device that provides access to wide area networks and the Internet. Specifically, it aggregates multiple channels of information including voice and data across a single shared access link to a carrier or service provider PoP (Point of Presence). The access link may be a T1 line, a DSL connection, a cable (CATV) network, a broadband wireless link, or a metro-Ethernet connection.

IP: (Internet Protocol) Internet Protocol is the IP part of the TCP/IP communications protocol. IP is used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork.

ISDN: (Integrated Services Digital Network) is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network

LIGHTNING/SURGE PROTECTION: Devices that protect equipment from lightning or from high voltage spikes from commercial AC power outlet.

M13: An M13 multiplexer, or M13 mux, takes 28 T1 inputs at 1.544 Mbps and integrates them into a single T-3 output at 44.736 Mbps, adding additional signaling and control bits.

MODEMS: (Modulator/Demodulator) Electronic device that allows computers to communicate over telephone wires or cable-TV cable. The modem converts digital signals to analog signals and vice versa.

MULTIPLEXERS: Electronic device that combines two or more signals so that they can pass over one communication circuit. A compatible multiplexer at the remote end separates the combined-signal back into the original component-signals.

NETWORK MONITORING: Equipment capable of capturing alarms and warnings for slow or failing components and that then notify the network administrator in case of outages.

OUTSIDE PLANT: Refers to all of the physical cabling and supporting infrastructure and any associated hardware located outside of the telephone company buildings.

PATCH CORDS: A short length of wire or fiber cable with connectors on each end, used to connect or “patch” communications circuits or optical devices to one another for signal routing. It is much like an extension cord.

POWER EQUIPMENT: Devices that change one form of power to another.

ROUTERS/BRIDGES: Routers are devices that direct data traffic between two or more networks or application. A bridge is a device that connects two similar networks together to increase the distance or number of devices a given type of network can handle.

SCADA: (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) Systems used extensively by power, water, gas and other utility companies to monitor and manage distribution facilities.

SONET: (Synchronous Optical NETwork) an optical interface standard that transfers multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

SWITCHES (VOICE): Switch often refers to network devices that connect segmented elements within the LAN.

T-1: The most commonly used digital primary rate telephone multiplexing system in the United States. It combines 24 channels of digitally coded speech or other subscriber data, at 64 kb/s for each such channel, with an 8 kb/s synchronization bit stream (the framing bits or F bits) into a 1.544 Mb/s bit stream.

VOIP: (Voice Over IP) This refers to any technology that allows voice to be carried over internet connections or other networks (which are not designed specifically to carry voice) using Internet Protocols (IP).

WIRELESS: Local area network where devices (servers, clients, printers, etc.) are interconnected via microwave radio signals.