Telecommunications terms starting with W

116 terms

W-profile fiber Synonym doubly clad fiber.
Wafer A thin sheet of semiconductor (photovoltaic material) made by cutting it from a single crystal or ingot.
WAIS Acronym for Wide Area Information Servers. A distributed text searching system that uses the protocol standard ANS Z39.
wallpaper A graphic image that serves as a background for a Web page or for a computer operating system's screen.
WAN Wide Area Network (Telecomm/Computer term).
wander Relative to jitter and swim, long-term random variations of the significant instants of a digital signal from their ideal positions.
warm boot Synonym warm restart.
warm restart A sequence of operations that is performed to reset a previously running system, after an unintentional shutdown. Synonym warm start. 2.
warm start Synonym warm restart.
Warner exemption A statutory exemption pertaining to the acquisition of telecommunications systems that meet the exclusionary criteria of the Warner Amendment, Public Law…
watermark A translucent mark in paper incorporated during manufacture for purposes of identification or protection of a document A mark that is imprinted on a…
WATS Wide Area Telephone System.
wave equation See Maxwell's equations.
wave impedance At a point in an electromagnetic wave, the ratio of the electric field strength to the magnetic field strength.
wave trap A device used to exclude unwanted frequency components, such as noise or other interference, of a wave.
waveform The representation of a signal as a plot of amplitude versus time.
wavefront The surface defined by the locus of points that have the same phase, i.e., have the same path length from the source.
waveguide A material medium that confines and guides a propagating electromagnetic wave. Note 1: In the microwave regime, a waveguide normally consists of a hollow…
waveguide dispersion See dispersion.
waveguide scattering Scattering (other than material scattering) that is attributable to variations of geometry and refractive index profile of an optical fiber.
Wavelength The distance between one peak or crest of a wave (of light, heat, or other energy) and the next corresponding peak or crest.
wavelength stability Of an optical source during a specified period, the maximum deviation of the peak wavelength from its mean value.
wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) In optical fiber communications, any technique by which two or more optical signals having different wavelengths may be simultaneously transmitted in the…
WDM Wavelength Division Multiplexon .
weak bit A bit intentionally written on a diskette with a weak magnetic field strength that may be interpreted as zero or one and that is written as part of a…
weakly guiding fiber An optical fiber in which the refractive index contrast is small (substantially less than 1%).
Web See World Wide Web.
Web browser Software installed on the Internet user's computer that allows him or her to view web pages.
Web crawler A class of robot software that explores the Web by retrieving a Web document and following the links within that document.
Web document An HTML (hypertext markup language) document available on the World Wide Web. [Bahorsky]
Web node Synonyms Web site, Web server.
Web page An yyHTML document accessible on the World Wide Web. [Bahorsky] Note: The number and types of features that can be offered on a web page is growing almost…
Web page search engine Loosely synonymous with portal. See droid.
Web phone See Internet phone.
Web ring A confederation of (usually linked) Web sites that serve a particular special interest group or that have similar or related content. [Bahorsky]
Web server A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with…
Web site A collection of Uniform Resource Indicators (URIs, including URLs (Uniform Resource Locators)) in the control of one administrative entity.
Web spider Synonym droid. See also spider.
Web surfer Synonym cybernaut. See also droid.
Web television The concept of providing Internet access (usually Web access and e-mail) in a format that can be viewed on a standard television set rather than on the…
Webmaster A person or group of people responsible for the design, implementation, management, and maintenance of a Web site.
Webspace The virtual space created by the World Wide Web or a subset of that space occupied by a particular Web site. [After Bahorsky]
webzine See e-zine.
weighted standard work second A measurement of traffic operating work which is used to express the relative time required to handle the various kinds of calls or work functions, and…
weighting network A network having a loss that varies with frequency in a predetermined manner, and which network is used for improving or correcting transmission…
whip antenna A flexible rod antenna, usually between 1/10 and 5/8 wavelength long, supported on a base insulator.
white area The area or population which does not receive interference-free primary service from an authorized AM station or does not receive a signal strength of at…
white clip The maximum system-permissible excursion of the video signal in the white direction. [After SMPTE]
white compression In television technology, the reduction of gain applied to light areas in picture signal (corresponding to the midrange light value in the picture).
white facsimile transmission In an amplitude-modulated facsimile system, transmission in which the maximum transmitted power corresponds to the minimum density, i.e.
White noise Random energy containing all frequency components in equal proportions.
white pages A hard copy telephone directory listing of subscriber names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
white peak In video, a peak excursion of the picture signal in the white direction. [After IEEE-100] [After SMPTE]
white point In video technology, that point on the chromaticity diagram having the tristimulus of a source appearing white under the viewing conditions; i.e.
white reference 1. In video teleconferencing, the light from a nonselective diffuse reflector (in the original scene) that is lighted by the normal illumination of the…
white signal In facsimile systems, the signal resulting from scanning a minimum-density area, i.e., the white area, of the object.
white space Characters used to create visual spacing within a program. White spaces include space, tab, carriage return and line feed characters.
whiteboard A feature of an Internet videoconferencing program that allows participants to use drawing and/or annotation tools to develop collaborative images or to…
who-are-you (WRU) character A transmission-control character used for (a) switching on an answer-back unit in the station with which the connection has been established, (b)…
Whois Each domain has an owner of record. Ownership data is stored in the Whois record for that domain.
Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) A client/server software system that provides sophisticated indexing of files based on all words in each file and provides scoring and "relevance…
Wide area network (WAN) Computer data communications technology that connects computers at remote sites.
Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) A toll service offering for customer dial type telecommunications between a given customer station and stations within specified geographic rate areas…
wide track A set of two or more adjacent tracks written on a diskette with the same data, as part of a method of copy protection. [2382-pt.8]
wideband The property of any communications facility, equipment, channel, or system in which the range of frequencies used for transmission is greater than 0.
wideband channel A communication channel of a bandwidth equivalent to twelve or more voice grade channels. [47 CFR Pt.36-A]
wideband modem A modem whose modulated output signal can have an essential frequency spectrum that is broader than that which can be wholly contained within, and…
wild-point detection Synonym reasonableness check.
Wildcard A wildcard character can be used to substitute for any other character or characters in a string.
wildcard character A character that is used to represent optional characters at the front, middle, or end of a search term.
WIN Abbreviation for WWMCCS Intercomputer Network.
Window A generic term for a glazed opening that allows daylight to enter into a building and can be opened for ventilation.
windowing Sectioning of a video display area into two or more separate regions for the purpose of displaying images from different sources.
wink In telephone switching systems, a single supervisory pulse, i.e., the momentary presence of, or interruption of, a supervisory signal.
wink pulsing In telephone switching systems, recurring pulsing in which the off-condition is relatively short compared to the on-condition.
wink-start signal An off-hook condition applied to the NI (network interface) by the CI (customer installation) for a timed interval that indicates the CI recognizes a…
wire center The location of one or more local switching systems; a location where customer loops converge. [T1.222-1991]
wired community Synonym cybercommunity.
wired radio frequency systems Systems employing restricted radiation devices in which the radio frequency energy is conducted or guided along wires or in cables, including electric…
wireless Descriptive of a network or terminal that uses electromagnetic waves (including rf, infrared, laser, visible light-and acoustic energy) rather than wire…
wireless access Terminal access to the network which uses wireless technology. [T1.Rpt22-1993]
wireless access mode In personal communications service, interfacing with a network access point by means of a standardized air interface protocol without the use of a…
Wireless E911 ESRD/ESRK Number A 10-digit number used for the purpose of routing an E911 call to the appropriate Public Service Answering Point (PSAP) when that call is originating from…
wireless mobility management In Personal Communications Service (PCS), the assigning and controlling of wireless links for terminal network connections.
wireless services provider A company that provides wireless telecommunication service to customers, e.g., cellular service providers, radio common carriers, paging companies. [T1.
wireless terminal Any mobile terminal, mobile station, personal station, or personal terminal using non-fixed access to the network.
wireline A term associated with a network or terminal that uses metallic wire conductors (and/or optical fibers) for telecommunications. [After T1.414-1998]
wireline access Terminal access to the network which uses wireline technology (e.g., conventional telephone sets and subscriber lines). [T1.Rpt19-1993]
wireline access mode Interfacing with the network via a physical wired connection. This can be employed by either a wired or wireless terminal operating in a wired mode via a…
wireline common carrier A telecommunications common carrier that is also engaged in the business of providing landline local exchange telephone service. [47CFR]
wizard An intelligent, trainable Web spider. Synonyms droid, smart bot, spider.
word In normal "computerese", the piece of data of the size most efficiently handled by your computer, typically 32 bits or so, give or take a few powers of 2.
word length The number of characters or bits in a yyword.
word processing The use of a computer system to manipulate text. Note: Examples of word processing functions include entering, editing, rearranging, sorting, storing…
work space In computers and data processing systems, the portion of main storage that is used by a computer program for the temporary storage of data.
work station In automated systems, such as computer, communications, and control systems, the input, output, display, and processing equipment that provides the…
working channels The channels over which working traffic is normally transported. [T1.Rpt31-1994]
working key A key generated by the constructive process. [After X9.69]
working loop A revenue producing pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station and the central office from which the station is served. [47 CFR Pt.
working traffic Traffic traversing a ring normally carried in working channels, except in the event of a ring or span diversity routing, in which case it is restored on…