Wireless Technology Terms Glossary and Dictionary

0G
OG refers to pre-cellular mobile telephony technology. These mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks. Typically, the transceiver (transmitter-receiver) is mounted in the vehicle trunk and attached to the "head" (dial, display, and handset) mounted near the driver seat.

64 QAM: 16ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
16ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16-QAM), one of the forms of QAM, is a modulation scheme. In QAM, the constellation points are usually arranged in a square grid with equal vertical and horizontal spacing, although other configurations are possible. Since in digital telecommunications the data is usually binary, the number of points in the grid is usually a power of 2 (2,4,8...). Since QAM is usually square, the most common forms of QAM are 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 128-QAM and 256-QAM. By moving to a higher-order constellation, it is possible to transmit more bits per symbol. However, if the mean energy of the constellation is to remain the same (by way of making a fair comparison), the points must be closer together and are thus more susceptible to noise and other corruption; this results in a higher bit-error rate and so higher-order QAM can deliver more data less reliably than lower-order QAM.

1G: First Generation wireless technology
First Generation wireless technology (1G) is the original analog, voice-only cellular telephone standard, developed in the 1980s. One such standard is NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), used in Nordic countries, Eastern Europe and Russia. Others include AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) used in the United States, TACS (Total Access Communications System) in the United Kingdom, JTAGS in Japan, C-Netz in West Germany, Radiocom 2000 in France, and RTMI in Italy. Analog cellular service is being phased out in most places worldwide.

1xEV-DO
1xEV-DO, also known as Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO), is a third-generation (3G) cellular data technology for GPRS-enabled cellular phones, networks and handheld devices. Its bandwidth is up to 3.1Mbps.

1xEV-DV
1xEV-DV, also known as Evolution Data/Voice (EV-DV), is a third-generation (3G) cellular data technology for GPRS-enabled cellular phones, networks and handheld devices. Its bandwidth is up to 3.1Mbps.

1xRTT
1xRTT is a cellular data technology for CDMA networks. RTT stands for Radio Transmission Technology. 1xRTT has a theoretical maximum of 144 Kbps of bandwidth, but achieves a practical throughput of only 50 to 70 Kbps in the real world.

2.5G
2.5G refers to the bridging technologies between second (2G) and third generation (3G) wireless communications. It is a digital communication allowing e-mail and simple Web browsing, in addition to voice. The key technologies include GPRS and WiDEN.

2G: Second Generation Wireless Technology
2G stands for the second generation of mobile wireless communication technology, which uses the digital technologies for the mobile communication. 2G technologies can be divided into TDMA-based (GSM) and CDMA-based standards depending on the type of multiplexing used. It allows slow data communications, but its primary focus is voice.

3.5G
The 3.5G generally refers to the technologies beyond the well defined 3G wireless/mobile technologies. Currently, HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is considered the primary 3.5G technology which is a software upgrade of WCDMA and provides high-speed broadband wireless access.

3G: Third Generation Wireless Technology
3G stands for the third generation of wireless communication technologies, which support broadband voice, data and multi-media communications over wireless networks. Main 3G standards include CDMA2000, WCDMA, UMTS, etc.

3GPP: The 3rd Generation Partnership Project?
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December, 1998. It's a co-operation between ETSI (Europe), ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ATIS (North America) and TTA (South Korea). The scope of 3GPP was to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. 3GPP specifications are based on the evolved GSM specifications, now generally known as the UMTS system.

3GPP2: The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December, 1998. It's a co-operation between ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), TIA (North America) and TTA (South Korea). The scope of 3GPP2 is to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. In practice, 3GPP2 is the standardization group for CDMA2000, the set of 3G standards based on earlier 2G CDMA technology.

3GPP LTD
3GPP Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE), also known as Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA or EUTRA) or UMTS Long Term Evolution, is specified in the 3GPP release 8. It is a key 3G technology to ensure the competitiveness of UMTS and provide a high-data-rate, low-latency and packet-optimized system. Besides peak data rates of 100 Mbps in downlink and 50 Mbps in uplink, a significant increase in spectrum efficiency and capacity as well as a significant latency reduction are planned. Commercial aspects like costs for installing and operating the network form also part of the requirements.

3GPS: 3G Service Provider
3GPS (3G Service Provider) is the mobile operator that has 3G license to provide 3G services to customers

3GSM: Third generation GSM network
Third generation GSM (3GSM) is the combination of the 3G nature of the technology and the GSM standard. The core technology that enables the 3GSM is called Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

3-Way Calling
3-Way Calling is a feature in voice communications which allows you to conduct a conference call among three parties.

4G: Fourth generation of wireless communications
4G is the name for the next generation of technology for high-speed wireless communications that is currently in research and development stage. 4G will be designed for new data services and interactive TV through mobile network.

6lowpan: IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks
6lowpan is the IETF working group to define the standards of IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6lowpan is the paragon that is aimed at allowing IPv6 packets to be sent to and received from PANs, more specifically over IEEE802.15.4 (ZigBee) -standard based networks. Likewise, IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee devices provide sensing communication-ability in the wireless domain.

802.11
802.11 is a group of wireless specifications developed by the IEEE for wireless local area network (WLAN) communications. It details a wireless interface between devices to manage packet traffic to avoid collisions. Some common specifications include the following: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, etc.

802.11a
802.11a is an extension to IEEE 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band. 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. 802.11a, actually newer than 802.11b, offers significantly more radio channels than the 802.11b and has a shorter range than 802.11g. It isn't compatible with 802.11b.

802.11b
802.11b, also referred to as 802.11 High Rate or Wi-Fi, is an extension to IEEE 802.11 that applies to wireless LANS and provides 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2 and 1 Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b uses only DSSS. 802.11b was a ratification to the original 802.11 standard, allowing wireless functionality comparable to Ethernet.

802.11e
802.11e, an IEEE standard, is the quality-of-service specification over a LAN, in particular, the 802.11 WiFi standard. The standard is considered of critical importance for delay-sensitive applications, such as Voice-over-Wireless IP and Streaming Multimedia. The protocol enhances the IEEE 802.11 Media Access Control (MAC) layer.

802.11g
802.11g is an extension to IEEE 802.11 which offers wireless transmission over relatively short distances at 20 "€œ 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. The 802.11g also uses the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) encoding scheme. 802.11g is compatible with older 802.11b.

802.11i
802.11i, also called Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA 2), is the standard for WLAN security. WPA 2 supports the 128-bit-and-above Advanced Encryption Standard, along with 802.1x authentication and key management features. It also uses TKIP (Temporal Kye Integrity Protocol) which rotates key periodically to improve WLAN security.

802.11j
802.11j is the IEEE standard to the 802.11 family of standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs) for 4.9 GHz - 5 GHz frequency use of WLAN systems in Japan.

802.11k
The 802.11k is the Radio Resource Management standard to provide measurement information for access points and switches to make wireless LANs run more efficiently. It may, for example, better distribute traffic loads across access points or allow dynamic adjustments of transmission power to minimize interference.

802.11n
802.11n is the IEEE Standard for WLAN enhancements for higher throughput designed to raise effective WLAN throughput to more than 100Mbit/sec. and to cover a range up to 400 meters. IEEE 802.11n technology is also known as Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO).

802.11r

The 802.11r is the Fast Roaming standard to address maintaining connectivity as a user moves from one access point to another. This is especially important in applications that need low latency and high quality-of-service.

802.11s
802.11s standard is designed to deal with mesh networking in wireless communication. It is predicted to be ratified in mid-2008.

802.11x
802.11x refers to a group of evolving wireless local area network (WLAN) standards that are elements of the IEEE 802.11 family of specifications. 802.11x should not be mistaken for any one of its elements because there is no single 802.11x standard. The 802.11 family currently includes six over-the-air modulation techniques that all use the same protocol. The most popular (and prolific) techniques are those defined by the b, a, and g amendments to the original standard; security was originally included and was later enhanced via the 802.11i amendment. 802.11n is another new modulation technique. Other standards in the family (c--f, h, j) are service enhancements and extensions or corrections to previous specifications. 802.11b was the first widely accepted wireless networking standard, followed by 802.11a and 802.11g.

802.15.1
802.15.1 is an IEEE wireless technology standard based on the Bluetooth technology. It is used for short range network monitoring and control applications, which is called wireless personal area network (WPAN).

802.15.3
802.15.3 is an IEEE wireless technology standard that is used for short range network monitoring and control applications, which is called wireless personal area network (WPAN). 802.15.3 is also called UWB.

802.15.4
802.15.4 is an IEEE wireless technology standard that is used for short range network monitoring and control applications, which is called wireless personal area network (WPAN). 802.15.4 is also called Zigbee.

802.16-2004
802.16-2004, also known as 802.16d, is an IEEE standard for the fixed wireless broadband (WiMax). IEEE 802.16-2004 product profile utilizes the OFDM 256-FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) system profile. The Fixed WiMAX 802.16-2004 standard supports both time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) services -- the latter of which delivers full duplex transmissions on the same signal if desired. Mobile WiMAX will do the same.

802.16-2005
802.16-2005, also known as 802.16e, is an IEEE standard addressing mobility of wireless broadband (WiMax). IEEE 802.16-2005 is sometimes called "Mobile WiMAX", after the WiMAX forum for interoperability. 802.16-2005, based on an existing WiMax standard 802.16a, adds WiMax mobility in the 2-to-6GHz-licensed bands.

802.15
802.15 is a group of IEEE standards that specifies communications for wireless personal area networks (WPAN) based on the Bluetooth tehnologies. The current technologies included in the IEEE 802.15 family are: 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), 802.15.2 (UWB) and 802.15.4 (ZigBee).

802.16
The IEEE 802.16 refers to a group of standards that defines wireless communications between a subscriber site and a core network such as the public telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet. It is called Wireless MAN technology, which is also branded as WiMAX. This wireless broadband access standard provides the missing link for the "last mile" connection in metropolitan area networks where DSL, Cable and other broadband access methods are not available or too expensive.

802.16a
802.16a is an IEEE wireless communications specification for metropolitan area networks (MANs) as part of a set of standards known as 802.16 or WiMAX. The 802.16a standard was developed for wireless MANs operating between 2 GHz and 11 GHz at data speeds of up to 75 megabits per second (Mbps). 802.16a has been replaced by later standards in the family 802.16d (802.16-2004) and 802.16e (802.16-2005).

802.16d
802.16d, also known as 802.16-2004, is an IEEE standard for the fixed wireless broadband (WiMax). IEEE 802.16d product profile utilizes the OFDM 256-FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) system profile. The Fixed WiMAX 802.16-2004 standard supports both time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) services -- the latter of which delivers full duplex transmission on the same signal if desired.

802.16e
802.16e, also known as 802.16-2005, is an IEEE standard addressing mobility of wireless broadband (WiMax). IEEE 802.16e is sometimes called "Mobile WiMAX", after the WiMAX forum for interoperability. 802.16e, based on an existing WiMax standard 802.16a, adds WiMax mobility in the 2-to-6 GHz-licensed bands. 802.16e allows for fixed wireless and mobile Non Line of Sight (NLOS) applications primarily by enhancing the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access).

802.1x
802.1x is an IEEE authentication specification that allows a client to connect to a wireless access point or wired switch but prevents the client from gaining access to the Internet until it provides credentials, like a user name and password, that are verified by a separate server. In 802.1X, there are three roles: the supplicant (client), authenticator (switch or access point), and authentication server.

802.20
802.20 is an IEEE standard of Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) by specifying new mobile air interfaces for wireless broadband. 802.20 is a competing standard with 802.16e. 802.16e, based on 802.16a, adds mobility in the 2-to-6 GHz-licensed bands, while 802.20, a brand new standard, aims for operation in licensed bands below 3.5GHz and with a peak data rate of over 1 Mbit/s.

802.22
802.22 is an IEEE standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN). IEEE 802.22 specifies a cognitive air interface for fixed, point-to-multipoint, wireless regional area networks that operate on unused channels in the VHF/UHF TV bands between 54 and 862 MHz. Signals at these frequencies can propagate 40 km or more from a well-sited base station, depending on terrain.