Glossary of Terms / Accronym Guide

802.xx

- Wireless LAN Standards developed by IEEE (802.11b,g,etc.)

802.11a

5GHz, OFDM, 54Mbps (most radios cover 4.9-6.1GHz)

802.11b

2.4GHz, DSSS, 11Mbps (3 non overlapping channels 1, 6, 11 primarily used in WLANs)

802.11g

2.4GHz, OFDM + DSSS,54Mbps to 11Mbps (802.11g is a subset of 802.11b and is primarily used in WLANs)

802.11h

5GHz extension for Europe auto frequency and power control

802.11j

4.9GHz extension for Japan (may eventually apply to USA public safety)

802.11k

Radio Resource Measurement Extensions

802.11m

Maintenance and Management Extensions

802.11n

MIMO Extensions (12, 24, 48, 96 and 216Mbps in 40MHz bandwidth)

802.11p

WAVE - Moving Vehicle Extensions

802.11r

Advanced Roaming and Context Transfer

802.11s

Mesh Extensions

802.11t

Wireless Performance Predictions

802.11x

Authentication and Encryption

AP

Access Point

AES

Advanced Encryption Standard

ARK

Automatic Retransmission Queing

BRIDGE

Streakwave defines as a "link" between to locations (also used as a reference to a client device)

CPE

Customer Premise Equipment

dB

Deci"B"el - the difference or ratio between two signals, used to describe effect of devices on signal strength

dBm

dB MilliWat - the basic reference to the measurement of power in RF (ex: 0dBm = 1mW of power)

dBd

dB Dipole

dBi

The gain of an antenna relative to an isotropic radiator, used in calculating ERP and range

DSSS

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum - a tpye of moduclation used in standards based (802.11b/g) radios

EAP

Extensible Authentication Protocol (security for AP's)

EMI

Electro Magnetic Interference

ERP

Effective Radiated Power, also known as EIRP Effective "Immediated" Radiated Power or your total power output

FDM

- Frequency Division Mulitplexing

FHSS

- Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (Normally used in lower data rate radios)

FSL

- Free Space Loss (Amount of loss in dB that a signal looses traveling through the air)

HotSpot

- Wireless Local Area Network w/ open access but may require login or payment to gain access to the internet

ISP

- Internet Service Provider

IEEE

- Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers

IF

- Intermediate Frequency

LAN

- Local Area Network

LEAP

- Lightweight Extensible Authenticaton Protocol

LOS

- Line of Site (required in wireless point to point links in frequencies above 900MHz sold by Streakwave)

MP

- Multipath Propigation

NLOS

- Near Line of Site

NON-LOS

- Non Line of Site

ODU

- Outdoor Unit

OFDM

- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (used in 802.11g higher data rates)

OLOS

- Obstructed Line of Site (term rarely used)

PEAP

- Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol

POE

- Power Over Ethernet

POP

- Point of Precence

PSK

- Pre-Shared Key

PTP

- Point to Point

PTMP

- Point to Multipoint

RADIUS

- Remote Access Dial In User Service (Authentication Method)

SOM

- System Operating Margin (single most important ascpect of a wireless link)

SSID

- Set Service Identifier (name for a wireless network, unique 32bit identifier)

TDD

- Time Division Duplex

TKIP

- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol

TLS

- Transport Layer Security

TTLS

- Tunneled Transport Layer Security

UNII

- Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure

VLAN

- Virtual Local Area Network

VPN

- Virtual Private Network

WEP

- Wireless Equivalency Privacy (32bit, 64bit and 128bit are the normal versions)

Wi-Fi

- Wireless Fidelity (set of standards guarantees access between non branded procducts)

WISP

- Wireless Internet Service Provider

WIPOP

- Wireless Point of Presence

WLAN

- Wireless Local Area Network

WME

- Wi-Fi Multi-Media Extensions

WPA

- Wi-Fi Protected Access

WPA2

- Wi-Fi Protected Access "2" (extra set of extensions in standard - FIPS 140-2)