Technical Dictionary
This section contains common terms used in the world of telecommunications and on the World Wide Web.
K
Key System: The equipment used for providing features associated with key sets, including multipair cable, key service units, distribution blocks, and miscellaneous services.
Kilobyte: A unit of measurement for physical data storage on a storage device. A kilobyte is approximately 1,000 bytes, or two to the tenth power.
L
LAN: Local Area Network. A geographically localized network consisting of both hardware and software. LANs link personal computers, workstations, printer file servers, and other peripherals. Devices on a LAN typically transmit data inside buildings or between buildings located near each other.
Local Exchange Carrier (LEC): A local telephone company that can be categorized as either a Bell Operating Company or as an independent, which traditionally had the exclusive franchised right and the responsibility to provide local transmission and switching services.
Local Loop: The physical connection from the subscriber's premise to the carrier's point of presence (POP).
Local Number Portability (LNP): The ability to change phone companies and keep an existing phone number.
M
Mail Server: Mail Server is the "post office" of a messaging network. Mail server offers electronic mail reception and forwarding service. Users may send and receive messages from any user in the system.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): A high-speed data, intra-city network that links multiple locations within a campus, city, or LATA. Typically extends as far as 50-Kilometers, operates at speeds form 1 Mbit/s to 200 Mbps and provides an integrated set of services for real-time data, voice and image transmission.
Megabyte (MB): A unit of measurement for data storage, a megabyte is approximately 1,000,000 bytes. In binary terms, a megabyte is 2 to the 20th power.
Meta Tag: A meta tag is an optional HTML tag that is used to specify information about a Web document.
Modem: An acronym for Modulator/DEModulator. Conventional modems comprise equipment that can convert digital signals to analog signals and vice versa.
N
Network Action Point (NAP): A point of access into the Internet that is used by the ISPs and providers of Internet regional and local subnets.
Network Interface Card (NIC Card): A printed circuit board comprising electronic circuitry for the purpose of connecting a workstation to a LAN.
Network Outward Dialing (NOD): A service feature of an automatically switched telephone network that allows a user to dial directly to all user numbers on the network without operator intervention.
Node: A point of connection into a network.
NRTC (National Rural Telephone Cooperative): An organization that provides telecommunications services to rural electric and rural telephone cooperatives in the United States.
NTCA (National Telephone Cooperative Association): A trade association representing rural telephone cooperatives and other small telephone companies.
NXX: In a seven-digit local telephone number, the first three digits identify the central office of the telephone company that serves that number. These digits are referred to as NXX, where "N" can be any number from 2 to 9, and "X" can be any number.
O
Open System Interconnection (OSI): The only internationally-accepted framework of standards for communication between different vendors. The OSI model organizes the communications process into seven different categories and places these categories in layered sequence based on their relation to the user:
Layer 1- Physical Layer
Layer 2- The Data Link Layer
Layer 3- The Network Layer
Layer 4- The Transport Layer
Layer 5- The Session Layer
Layer 6- The Presentation Layer
Layer 7- The Application Layer
