Glossary of Telecoms Technology Terms

1G - First Generation
1xEV-DO 1x Evolution-Data Only
2.5G Generation 2.5
2G Second Generation
3G Third Generation
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
4G Fourth Generation
5G Fifth Generation
64 QAM 64-state Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

AAS Active Antenna System
AGCH Access Grant Channel
AN - Access Network
ANDSF Access Network Selection and Discovery Function
ANR Automatic Neighbour Relations
AP Access Point
API Application Programming Interface
APN Access Point Name
ARFCN Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number
ARIB Association of Radio Industries and Businesses
AS Application Server
ASN Access Service Network
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
AuC Authentication Centre

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel
BCH Broadcast Channel
BG Border Gateway
B-ISDN Broadband ISDN
BS Base Station
BSC Base Station Controller
BSS Base Station System
BSSAP Base Station Subsystem Application Part
BTS Base Transceiver Station
BWA Broadband Wireless Access

CA Carrier Aggregation
CBCH Cell Broadcast Channel
CBS Cell Broadcast Service
CC Component Carrier
CC Country Code
CCCH Common Control Channel
CCH Control Channel
CCO Coverage and Capacity Optimization
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CDMA2000 American CDMA system based on cdmaOne™
CGF Charging Gateway Function
CGI Cell Global Identifier
CN Core Network
CoMP Coordinated Multi Point
CP Cyclic Prefix
CPE Customer Premises Equipment
CS Circuit Switched
CSFB Circuit Switched Fall Back
CSN Connectivity Service Network

D2D Device to Device
D-AMPS Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System
DB decibel
DCCH Dedicated Control Channel
DCS Digital Cellular Services
DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications
DMO Direct Mode Operation
DMT Discrete Multitone
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting

EARFCN EUTRA Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number
EC-GSM-IoT Extended Coverage GSM Internet of Things
EDGE Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution
E-GSM Extended-GSM
EHF Extra High Frequency
eICIC Enhanced Inter Cell Interference Coordination
EIR Equipment Identity Register
EM Electromagnetic
eMBMS Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service
eMTC Enhanced Machine Type Communications
eNB EUTRA Node B
EPC Evolved Packed Core
E-RAB E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer
ERMES European Radio Message System
ERTMSEuropean Railway Traffic Management System
ERTCS - European Train Control System 
 
ESM Energy Saving Management
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
EUTRA Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
EVDO Evolution Data Optimized

FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel
FCCH Frequency Correction Control Channel
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
FEC Forward Error Correction
FTTP Fibre To The Premises
FRMCS - Future Railway Mobile Communications System

GCSE Group Communication Service Enablers
GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network
GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node
GMM GPRS Mobility Management
GMSC Gateway MSC
GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
GSM-R - GSM for Railway

HCR High Chip Rate
HeNB Home eNodeB
HF High Frequency
HLR Home Location Register
HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access
HSPA High Speed Packet Access
HSS Home Subscriber Server
HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access

ICIC Inter Cell Interference Coordination
IDEN Integrated Digital Enhanced Network
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IFOM IP Flow Mobility
IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity
IMEISV IMEI Software Version
IMS IP Media Subsystem
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IMT-2000 International Mobile Telephony 2000
IMT-Advanced International Mobile Telephony - Advanced
IoT Internet of Things
IP Internet Protocol
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISIM IMS SIM
ISM Industrial Scientific and Medical
ISR Idle mode Signalling Reduction
ITU International Telecommunications Union
ITU-T ITU - Telecommunication Standardization Sector

Kc Cipher key
KcGPRS Cipher key GPRS
LAA Licensed Assisted Access
LAC Location Area Code
LAI Location Area Identity
LBT Listen Before Talk
LCR Low Chip Rate
LF Low Frequency
LIPA Local IP Access
LOS Line of Sight
LTE Long Term Evolution
LTE-A LTE Advanced
LTE-U LTE Unlicensed
LUREQ Location Update Request

M2M Machine to Machine
MAC Medium Access Control
MAHO Mobile Assisted Handover
MAP Mobile Application Part
MAPCON Multi-Access PDN Connectivity
MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multi Service
MBS Multimedia and Broadcast Service
MCC Mobile Country Code
MCM Multi-Carrier Modulation
MCPTT Mission Critical Push To Talk
MDT Minimization of Drive Tests
ME Mobile Equipment
MF Medium Frequency
MG Media Gateway
MGC Media Gateway Controller
MGCP Media Gateway Control Protocol
MGW Media Gateway
MGW/MGw Media Gateway
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
MLB Mobility Load Balancing
MME Mobility Management Entity
MMI Man Machine Interface
MNC Mobile Network Code
MO Mobile Originated
MPLS Multi Protocol Label Switching
MS Mobile Station
MSC Mobile-services Switching Centre
MSIN Mobile Subscriber Identification Number
MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN
MSRN Mobile Station Roaming Number
MT Mobile Terminated
MTC Machine Type Communications

N Normal
NAP Network Access Provider
NB-IoT Narrow Band Internet of Things
NCH Notification Channel
NDC National Destination Code
NFC Near Field Communication
NFV Network Functions Virtualisation
NGMN Next Generation Mobile Network
NLOS Non-Line of Sight
NRM Network Reference Model
NSAPI Network Service Access Point Identifier
NSP Network Service Provider
NSS Network Switching System

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
OTT Over The Top

PAMR Public Access Mobile Radio
PCH Paging Channel
PCM Pulse Code Modulation
PCRF Policy and Charging Resource Function
PCS Personal Cellular Services
PCU Packet Control Unit
PDC Personal Digital Cellular
PDCH Packet Data Channel
PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol
PDN Public Data Network
PDN-GW PDN Gateway
PDP Packet Data Protocol
P-GSM Primary-GSM
PHS Packet Header Suppression
PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
PMP Point to Multipoint
PMR Professional Mobile Radio
PoC Push-to-talk over Cellular
ProSE Proximity Services
PS Packet Switched
PSM Power Saving Mode
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
P-TMSI Packet TMSI
PtP Point to Point

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QoE Quality of Experience
QoS Quality of Service
QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

R4 Release 4
RA Routing Area
RACH Random Access Channel
RAN Radio Access Network
RAT Radio Access Technology
RB Radio Bearer
RF Radio Frequency
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
R-GSM Railway-GSM
RLC Radio Link Control
RNC Radio Network Controller
RNS Radio Network Subsystem
RRC Radio Resource Control
RRM Radio Resource Management

SACCH Slow Associated Control Channel
SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
SCH Synchronization Channel
SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol
SDCCH Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel
SDN Software Defined Networking
SFN Single Frequency Network
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
SGW Signalling Gateway
S-GW Serving Gateway
SHF Super High Frequency
SIM Subscriber Identity Module
SIPTO Selected IP Traffic Offload
SMS Short Message Service
SMSC Short Message Service Centre
SN Subscriber Number
SNR Serial Number
SON Self Organizing Network
SRNC Serving Radio Network Controller
SS Supplementary Services
SS7 Signalling System No 7
SSID Service Set Identifier
SwMI Switching and Management Infrastructure

TA Tracking Area
TAC Type Approval Code
TCH Traffic Channel
TD-CDMA Time Division CDMA
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TD-SCDMA Time Division Synchronous CDMA
TETRA Terrestrial Trunked Radio
T-GSM Trunked GSM
TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity
TRAU Transcoder and Rate Adaptation Unit

UE User Equipment
UHF Ultra High Frequency
UMB Ultra Mobile Broadband
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
UNB Ultra Narrow Band
USIM Universal SIM
UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

V2V Vehicle to Vehicle
V2X Vehicle to Everything
VAS Value Added Service
VGS Voice Group Service
VHF Very High Frequency
VLF Very Low Frequency
VLR Visitor Location Register
VoD Video on Demand
VoIP Voice over IP
VoLTE Voice over LTE

WCDMA Wideband CDMA
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLL Wireless Local Loop
WRC World Radiocommunications Conference