AC: Alternating current
Amp (A): (Ampere) - the unit of electrical current
ANSI: American National Standards Institute
Attenuation: the gradual loss in intensity of signals in electrical circuits
Bending radius: the radius that a cable can be bent without any negative effects.
BS: British Standards (National Standards Body for the UK).
Category cables: high performance twisted pair cables for local area networking
Cat 3 Cable supports 10 Base-T Standard for bandwidths up to 10 Mbps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. They can support frequencies in the range of 0-10 Mhz.
Cat 5/5e Cable supports 100 Base-T Standard for bandwidths up to 100 Mbps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. They can support frequencies in the range of 0-100 Mhz. Cat 5e cables can support 1000 Base-T as well.
Cat 6 Cable supports 1000 Base-T Standard for bandwidths up to 1000 Mbps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. Cat 6 standard can support frequencies in the range of 0-250 Mhz. They also support 10GE bandwidth over limited distances.
Cat 6A Cable supports 10G Base-T standard for bandwidths up to 10 Gaps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. Cat 6A standard can support frequencies in the range of 0-500 Mhz.
Cat 7 Cable supports 10G Base-T standard for bandwidths up to 10 Gbps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. Cat 7 standard can support frequencies in the range of 0-600Mhz. It offers better performance and improved cross talk suppression over the Cat 6A cables.
Cat 7A Cable supports 10G Base-T standard for bandwidths up to 10 Gbps over a maximum distance of 100 meters. In addition to this, they can also support 40 Gbps bandwidth for around 50 meters and 100 Gbps bandwidth for around 15 meters. They support frequencies in the range of 0-1000 Mhz.
Cat 8 Cable supports frequencies in the range of 0-1200 Mhz. Under development.
CATV: Community Antenna Television (Cable TV)
CCTV: Closed-circuit television
CEN: European standards committee
CENELEC: European committee for electrotechnical standardisation
Circuit integrity: refers to the operability of electrical circuits during a fire
CPE: Customer Premise Equipment
Current: electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium. See Amp
CWDM: Coarse wavelength division multiplexer
Decibel (dB): a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity
DIN: Deutsche Institute Normung (German standards body)
DVR: Digital Video Recorder
DWDM: Dense wave division multiplexer
EDFA: Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier
EN: European Norms maintained by CEN
ETSI: European Telecommunications Standards Institute
Farad: the unit of capacitance.
Frequency (Hz): the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time
FTTB: Fibre to the building
FTTC: Fibre to the cabinet
FTTH: Fibre to the home
FTTN: Fibre to the node
FTTP: Fibre to the premises
FTTX: Generic term for fibre optic based last mile network architecture
GPON: Gigabit Passive Optical Network
Henry (H): unit of inductance.
Hertz (Hz): unit of frequency. 1 Hz means that an event repeats once per second.
HFC: Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network architecture
HFFR: Halogen-Free, Flame or Fire Retardant
Impedance: the ratio of voltage applied to the current
Insertion Loss: also referred to as attenuation, refers to the loss of signal strength at the far end of a line compared to the signal that was introduced into the line
Inductance: the property of an electrical circuit causing voltage to be generated proportional to the rate of change in current in a circuit
IP: Internet Protocol
IPTV: Internet Protocol Television
LGX: Linux Distribution (within a cabinet)
Local Area Network (LAN): any communication network for connecting computers within a building or small group of buildings~
Mbit/s (Mbps): Megabit per second
MDF: Main Distribution Frame
MDU: Multiple Dwelling Unit
MHz (Megahertz): 1 MHz = one million Hertz.
MoCA: Multimedia over Coax Alliance
Mux: Multiplexer
ODF: Optical Distribution Frame
Operating temperature (range): the temperature range at which the product can operate.
POF: Polymer (plastic) Optical Fibre
PON: Passive Optical Network
RF: Radio Frequency
Rated Temperature: the maximum continuous temperature that the product can withstand during its lifetime
Rated Voltage: the maximum voltage at which a product can operate for extended periods without undue degradation or safety hazard
Resistance (Ohm): the electrical resistance of a conductor measures its opposition to the passage of an electric current
Return Loss (RL): the Return or Reflection Loss of a line is the ratio of the power reflected back from the line to the power transmitted into the line
SMATV: Satellite Master Antenna Television
TIA: the Telecommunications Industry Association
VOIP: Voice over Internet Protocol
Volt (V): Voltage
WDM: Wave Division Multiplexer