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Glossary of Terms |
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B
Bandwidth
An expression of the range of signal frequencies a particular data communications channel can carry. Can be expressed in Hertz or bits-per-second depending on the channel.
BER
Bit Error Rate. The ratio of correct bits to error bits in a stream of data. Gives a measure of the quality of the bit-stream. FEC may be employed to reduce the BER.
BICC
The BICC (Bearer Independent Call Control) protocol is used to manage voice traffic between communication servers working with the existing SS7 network.
B-ISDN
Broadband Integrated Digital Network: A digital network using the ATM protocol. Operates at data rates in excess of 1.544 or 2.048 Mbits/s.
Bits
Measure of the speed at which information is transmitted across the Internet. Bits stands for bits per second or bps. To give you an idea of what that means, it takes 8 bits to transmit one letter of the alphabet. Most modern analogue modems and analogue modem cards operate at 56,000 bps or 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) over the public telephone network. For simplicity's sake this is now usually written as 56k. With a terminal adaptor and a digital line - such as BT Home Highway - you can achieve a maximum speed of 128k - more than twice as fast as an analogue modem. And with a broadband service from BT Open World, you can get up to a staggering 2Mb - up to 40 times faster than an analogue modem.
Bluetooth
Short range wireless interconnection technology designed to replace cables between commonly used electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, printers, LANs etc.
Booting up
When you turn on your computer, it automatically starts your operating system. This is called booting up. You can then use your software applications, such as Microsoft Word for example,
BRI
ISDN Basic Rate Interface. Consists of two 'B' (data) channels and one 'D' (signalling) channel of 64 kbits/s and 16 kbits/s respectively. In the USA the B channels may be restricted to 56 kbits/s.
BRIDGE
A device that interconnects local or remote networks no matter what higher level protocols (such as IPX or TCP/IP) are involved.
Browser
You're using one now! Strictly speaking, a browser allows you to connect to the World Wide Web (WWW) or web. The web is the Internet. The difference between the two is that the web presents everything to you in a recognisable format - pictures, words, sounds, etc. - while all you'll see on the Internet is plain text.
BYTE
Unit of memory, enought to store one character.
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