The only real radio link in a cellular system is between the cellular telephone and the cell site; the rest of the network uses landline... Cellular Mobile radio telephony technology tha
Trang 1A Carrier The nonwireline carrier See Nonwireline.
A-B Switch A switch on a cellular phone that permits you to change between the A and B block carrier, or make one a priority Usually the carrier you subscribe to will set their block as priority on your phone Usually only your dealer or carrier will need to change this setting
Access Charge The fixed monthly charge for cellular subscription This may include an allowance of airtime usage, as well as the use
of special features like voice messaging, in some carriers’rate plans
standard used in the United States It originally stood for Ad-vanced Mobile Phone Service, the name AT&T chose for cellular service The previous standard for mobile phone service, for example, had been called IMTS, or Improved Mobile Telephone Service Digital cellular standards, like CDMA and TDMA, are also part of the AMPS standard
Antenna A length of wire that radiates or captures radio signals Area Code The first three digits of your phone number (formerly the middle one of which was always 1 or 0, but now may be any digit) that identify the geographic area of telephone service The local calling area of your cellular service may include more than one area code The area code is technically referred to as an NPA,
or Number Plan Area
ISBNs: 0-471-31652-0 (Paper); 0-471-20340-8 (Electronic)
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Trang 2Band A portion of the radio frequency spectrum Cellular com-munications take place in the 800-MHz region of the UHF band, while PCS is in the 1900-MHz area
Base Station A cell site
B Carrier The wireline carrier See Wireline.
Block A group of radio frequencies within a band set aside for a particular purpose Cellular telephony uses four blocks of frequen-cies in the 800-MHz portion of the UHF band A-block and B-block carriers are assigned separate blocks of frequencies
Assignment Module) of a cellular phone The device that does this
is a NAM burner This process is being replaced by the ability to program the NAM directly through the phone
Carrier The company that builds and operates the cellular system
in a particular metropolitan or rural area There are two cellular carriers in each area, and up to six PCS carriers may operate in the same area
cellular technology and standard that assigns a unique code to digitized segments of calls, allowing them to use vacant channels
in a broad set of frequencies This allows great economy in the use
of channels, or radio-frequency spectrum The digitized segments are reassembled using the code at the other end and converted
back into analog voice for the listener Compare with T DMA, a
competing digital technology and standard
for digital data transmission using idle analog cellular channels It permits cellular carriers to offer wireless point-to-point packet data services at speeds up to 9600 baud
Cell The area covered by the transmitter/receiver of a cell site A cell site may sectorize its antennas to service several cells from one location
Cellphone Shortened form of cellular telephone The term orig-inated in Great Britain
Cell Site The facility housing the transmit/receive radios and an-tennas and other equipment for one cell of a cellular system The only real radio link in a cellular system is between the cellular telephone and the cell site; the rest of the network uses landline
Trang 3telecommunications facilities, although some of these may be microwave radio
Cell Splitting The process of converting one cell to multiple smaller cells by sectorizing antennas of a cell site or constructing addi-tional cell sites within a cell The power of each new cell is reduced
to avoid interference with other cells using the same channels, and additional channel capacity and better coverage are obtained within the cell
Cellular Mobile radio telephony technology that uses multiple, small radio transceivers instead of one larger one to cover a geographical area This allows frequency or channel reuse nearby within an area without interference, permitting greater system capacity and economical use of the available radio-frequency spectrum The system requires a central computer to switch calls
in progress from one cell to another as the user moves The term
is derived from the conceptual honeycomb-like pattern of coverage areas within a service area
Cellular Telephone The subscriber unit for cellular voice telecom-munications
Channel A band of radio frequency wide enough (30 kHz) to carry
a cellular conversation Usually refers to a pair of frequencies, one for the cellphone-to-cell site(mobile-to-land) link, and one for the cell site-to-cellphone(land-to-mobile) link
information from the display
Connect Time The period your cellular phone is in radio contact with a cell site, not to be confused with the actual length of time your conversation lasts Connect time is measured from the time your phone’s IN USE indicator lights up until you press the END key and it goes off, also called SEND-to-END time
Control Head The part of a mobile telephone installation, generally located near the handset, that acts as the ‘‘go-between’’ between the phone user and the transceiver/logic unit In some phones, the
control head is the handset.
Control Signal A signal sent by a cell site to a cellular phone, or vice versa, carrying information necessary to the operation of the two, but not including the audio portion of a conversation The channels used for control signals, called control channels, are
Trang 4separate from those used for voice Control signals also flow between a mobile phone’s handset and its transmitter/logic unit
originally referred to landline telephones, but now refers to any subscriber telephone equipment, whether cellular or landline, on the premises or not
standard for PCS operating in the 1800-MHz frequency range outside the United States
standard for PCS, the same as DCS-1800, except operating in a higher frequency range(1900 MHz) for use in the United States
by most people as the tones used in Touch Tone service The tones generated when the keys are pressed on a telephone, used for telecommunications signaling, voice response systems, and voice messaging, as well as dialing
Dual NAM A feature of some cellular telephones that permits them
to be registered on more than one cellular system as the home system
Dual Mode A feature of a cellular phone that permits both digital and analog operation
END The cellular telephone key that terminates a call
ESN Acronym for Electronic Serial Number The serial number of
a cellular phone, programmed into the telephone’s NAM and used
in combination with the subscriber telephone number by the cellular system to identify a user
Mobile communications A standard for digital cellular originally created to unite the various uncoordinated systems of individual countries under a single standard in Europe, but which has become the most widely accepted standard for cellular everywhere
in the world except the United States and Japan Groupe Speciale Mobile was the term for the original standards group The second term was created artificially to give the acronym some public relations meaning
Handoff The transfer of control of a call in progress from one cell site to another, changing the channel assignment as well
Trang 5Handset The portion of a transportable or mobile cellular tele-phone that the user holds, including the microtele-phone and miniature speaker, and usually incorporating the dial pad The handset is integrated with the rest of the phone in a portable
Hands-Free Operation of the cellular phone without using the handset, usually referring to use in a vehicle A special microphone and speaker are installed for this purpose Portables can be adapted to hands-free mode by using a special cradle for insertion
of the telephone while in the vehicle
HORN A function on mobile-installed telephones that when acti-vated beeps the horn to signal an incoming call, and allows the
phone to stay on with the ignition off Also called an Auxiliary Alert or Call-in-progress Protection.
IN USE An indicator on cellular phones that tells the user that a call is in progress
Keypad A set of push-button electronic switches The keys on a calculator make up a keypad, as do the buttons on a cellular phone
kHz Abbreviation for kilohertz A measure of radio frequency One kHz is one thousand cycles per second
Landline Traditional, wire-based telephony, used to distinguish it from mobile telephony
LOCK A function on cellular telephones that, when activated, prevents use of the telephone until the user enters a security code MHz Abbreviation of megahertz A measure of radio frequency One MHz is one million cycles per second
send information from one computer to another over a voice telephone line
switch that controls call setup, channel allocation, user features, and cell-site assignment of cellular telephony, and links the cellular system to the landline telephone system Now usually referred to
as an MSC(Mobile Switching Center)
cellular telephone that contains its ESN and telephone number
Trang 6assignment; the latter is programmed at the time the user sub-scribes
Nonwireline Term referring to frequency block A cellular carriers, because block B carriers were originally all conventional telephone companies Now simply referred to as the A carrier
NO SERVICE An indicator on a cellular phone that tells users that they are in an area where cellular service is unavailable, either because the signal is weak, or they are outside the coverage area
of a system
Off-Peak A calling period defined in cellular rate plans, referring to times of day when airtime rates are less because the cellular system
is not as busy as during peak calling times Usually refers to
7..—7 . weekdays as well as weekends and holidays.
PCS Acronym for Personal Communications Services A family of cellular-like voice telecommunications services(as well as nonvoice services like paging) on a different frequency and power level than cellular There is no single standard defining the capabilities and features for PCS in the United States, like AMPS for cellular, and the term only defines the frequencies and licenses set aside by the FCC
Peak A calling period defined in cellular rate plans, referring to times of day when airtime rates are higher because the cellular system must be built for higher call volume Usually refers to
7..—7 . weekdays.
when making a cellular call to deter fraudulent use
RCL A cellular telephone function that recalls a telephone number from memory
Reuse The assignment of frequencies or channels to cells so that adjoining cells do not use the same frequencies and cause interfer-ence, yet cells out of range of one cell can use the same ones; this expands the capacity of the system by enabling it to use the same channel in many areas, or cells, throughout the system simulta-neously
ROAM An indicator on the cellular phone that a carrier other than the home carrier is providing service When flashing, it means that the alternate carrier is on the opposite frequency block of the home carrier
Trang 7Roaming Using a cellular telephone outside the service area of the home carrier
SEND (SND) The cellular telephone key that initiates a call, or answers an incoming call
SMS Acronym for Short-Message Service A wireless network fea-ture that permits short messages to appear on the display of specially equipped cellular and PCS phones
Subscriber One who receives cellular service from a carrier in return for a monthly fee under a service agreement; may be distinguished from the actual user of a phone on a particular call
STO A cellular telephone function that stores a telephone number
in memory
cellular technology and standard that digitizes portions of the call and assigns them to specific time slots on a single channel, permitting several conversations on one channel Compare with
CDMA, a competing digital technology and standard.
Transceiver A combination radio transmitter/radio receiver A cel-lular telephone or cell site radio is a transceiver
Voice Messaging The recording, storing, and retrieval of voice telecommunications transmissions It is used in cellular service primarily as a telephone answering capability, especially since cellular users often do not have their telephone turned on or are out of the coverage area
Wireless The broad term for radio telecommunications that in-cludes cellular, PCS, paging, wireless data, and other mobile voice and data services
Wireline Term referring to frequency block B cellular carriers Originally they were all conventional telephone companies Now simply called the B carrier