Glossary of Terms

CESoP: Circuit Emulation Services over Packet is a method of transporting T1/E1 or T3/E3 streams over a packet-switched network, such as IP, MPLS and Ethernet. A TDM circuit is transparently ?tunneled? through the network, so the TDM equipment at either end is unaware of a connection to anything other than a TDM network.

DTMF: Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling is used for telecommunication signaling over analog telephone lines in the voice-frequency band between telephone handsets and other communications devices and the switching center.

EMTA: Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapter combines a cable modem and telephone adapter

Femtocell: A small cellular base station designed for use in a home or small business. It connects to the service provider?s network via broadband (such as DSL or cable) and typically support 2 to 4 active mobile phones in a residential setting and 8 to 16 active mobile phones in enterprise settings. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable.

FXS: Foreign exchange station, a telephone interface which supplies battery power, provides dial tone, and generates ringing voltage.

FXO: Foreign exchange office, designates a telephone signaling interface that receives POTS, or "plain old telephone service".

MICS: The Medical Implant Communication Service specifies the use the 402-405 MHz frequency band for communication between medical implants, monitoring base stations and programming equipment. The standard is defined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

PLL: A phase-locked loop is an electronic circuit that controls an oscillator so that it maintains a constant phase angle (i.e. lock) on the frequency of an input or reference signal. A PLL ensures that a communication signal is locked on a specific frequency and can also be used to generate, modulate and demodulate a signal and divide a frequency.

PON: A passive optical network is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network consisting of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the service provider's central office and a number of optical network units (ONUs) near end users.

SoC: System-on-a-chip integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single integrated circuit (IC). It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions all on a single chip substrate

SyncE: A technology that allows carriers to support real-time services over asynchronous Ethernet networks. In synchronous Ethernet operation, each piece of network equipment must have synchronized timing capabilities.

ToP: Timing over Packet technology uses the existing packet network to transport synchronization information. This allows service providers to migrate to a packet architecture while supporting time-sensitive services. 

VEC: Voice echo cancellation describes the process of removing echo from a voice communication in order to improve voice quality on a telephone call.