User Manual

August 6, 2003 Part 004071A revision 00b 145
G LOSSARY
A
air interface
The standards governing radio transmission
between two elements of a wireless system, such as
an NPM and a SOMAport.
The interface typically specifies the frequency
band (for example, PCS), multiple-access scheme
(for example, CDMA), modulation scheme and
coding (for example, QPSK and rate 1/2), power
control mechanisms, and protocols for setting up
and managing communications.
attenuation
The reduction of signal magnitude over a
medium. Attentuation is usually measured in dB
per unit of distance, or as a ratio of input to
output magnitude in dB. The less the
attenuation, the more efficient the medium.
Attentuation is also called signal loss.
AWG (American wire gauge)
A standard for measuring wire thickness. The
thicker the wire, the smaller AWG it has and
typically, the higher current it can carry.
B
backhaul
The network or service that connects remote
devices, such as basestations, to the central office.
In the SOMA Networks implementation,
backhaul refers to the wireline link between the
NPM and the network core.
basestation
Equipment deployed by service providers at the
center of each cell to communicate with wireless
devices. In Amosphere, the NPM basestation
communicates with wireless subscriber terminals
called SOMAports.
BIOS (basic input/output system)
Software, typically stored in nonvolatile memory,
that provides a standardized interface between a
computer’s hardware and the operating system.
bus
An electrical pathway that connects several
devices and provides addressing and data-transfer
capabilities.
C
CDMA (code-division multiple access)
A cellular technology that divides a frequency into
multiple channels by assigning a pseudo-random
digital sequence, or code, to each. CDMA does
not assign a specific frequency to each user.
Instead, every channel uses the full available
spectrum.
cellular
A communications system, originally AMPS, that
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