This is the official list of terms and abbreviations used in BPL Today.  It's part of our commitment to deliver the most concise, easy to read news possible.  Not everyone knows them all -- so we put a link to this page at the end of every issue.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

3G or 4G:  See G1-G4 below

911 service:  We expect just about every child in America knows this one, but we use it to refer to the traditional emergency service as compared to E-911.

A

ADSL:  Asymmetric digital subscriber line, a widely-used version of DSL broadband technology. ADSL offers differing upload and download speeds and can be configured to deliver up to six mbps.

AES:  Advanced encryption standard, a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), specifically, FIPS Publication 197, that specifies a cryptographic algorithm for use by US Government organizations to protect sensitive, unclassified information. Much more from the US National Institute of Standards & Technology here: http://csrc.nist.gov/CryptoToolkit/aes/aesfact.html.

AMR:  Automated or advanced meter reading, collecting utility meter data via PLC, radio or other networking technology

AMI:  Automated or advanced metering infrastructure, utility infrastructure with two-way communications for metering and associated systems allowing delivery of a wide variety of services and applications to the utility and customer

API:  Application programming interface -- a piece of software that lets applicationns interact with the functions of an operatring system or other piece of software

ARRL:  The American Radio Relay League is the US organization of licensed amateur radio operators that use short wave radios to communicate with other such operators.  In times of emergency such as floods, the aftermath of storms and other events that disrupt conventional communication, hams as they call themselves can offer a vital communication link to those in need and to those responding to the emergency.  BPL can potentially interfere with short-wave radio communications and mitigating that interference was the goal of the FCC's 2004 report and order.

AV or A/V:  Audiovisual or audio/video, such as the department in a hotel conference facility that supplies microphones and slide projectors. In broadband networking it refers to audio and video content that by its very nature requires higher bandwidth networks than pure data. Also see HomePlug AV.

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B

B2B:  Business-to-business, marketing or selling products or services to businesses rather than to consumers

Bake-off:  In technology circles its a process used to compare competing technologies and choose one

Big iron:  Used in the electric utility industry to mean electric generation facilities

Bit:  Binary digit, the "0s" and "1s" of the digital world and the smallest increment of data thus used in measurements of data transmission such as kbps, mbps or gbps

BPL:  Broadband over power lines, the technology at the heart of the power line networking industry

Bps:  Bits per second, a measurement of data transmission speed -- for example the speed of a particular internet connection.  Bit stands for "binary digit," the "0" and "1" that are the basic building block of computer data (see also mbps)

Bridge:  A term often used to identify the device in a BPL network that inserts the internet signal onto the power lines -- hence "bridging" two infrastructures

Broadband:  General term for IP or internet connections faster that dial-up.  FCC says its anything over 300 bps, but a generally accepted definition might be the 500 kbps up to three mbps offered by BPL, cable and DSL

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C

CAIFI:   Customer average interruption frequency index, a measure of electric utility reliability

CALEA:  The Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act that allows law enforcement officials to tap phone and record phone calls

Cam:  Camera, from the common term "web cam" or "webcam"

Cap-ex:  Capital expense or expenditure

Carrier's carrier:  A telecom industry business model or deal structure where a firm sells or leases bandwidth or network capacity on its own infrastructure to another, often competitive network firm or telecom carrier

Cat5:  Category 5 Ethernet cable -- the basic standard of Ethernet network cabling

CCTV:  Closed circuit TV, a term long used to describe surveillance and security camera systems

CD-ROM:  Compact disk (read-only media), formated to hold computer data as compared with an audio CD

CE:  Consumer electronics

CES:  Consumer Electronics Show, held annually in early January as the definitive demo of the world's latest and upcoming CE products (www.cesweb.org)

Cell:  As in "cell phone" or "cellular" mobile wireless telecom service -- a cell is the area of connectivity from each wireless base station

CEPCA:  Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance, a PLC group that formed to promote the PLC chip design from Panasonic (Matsushita) and who's members include leading Japanese consumer electronics firms.

CFO:  Chief financial officer

CIO:  Chief information officer

CLEC:  Competitive local exchange carrier ("SEE-lec"), a telephone firm that competes with one or more ILECs

Coax:  Short for coaxial, a standardized, shielded cable used mostly by the cable TV inustry

Codec:  Technology that encodes and decodes information such as digital video and audio

COO:  Chief operating officer

Co-op:  Cooperative electric utilities, member owned utilities that formed mostly in the 1930s to get electricity to areas where larger utilities couldn't make a business case for rolling out power lines

Config:  Short for "configuration"

CPE:  Customer premises equipment such as phones, modems and routers

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D

DB:  Decibels, a measure of sound volume or amplitude of sound or radio waves

dba:  Doing business as

DS2:  Design of Systems on Silicon, a leading BPL chipmaker

DSL:  Digital subscriber line, a broadband delivery technology used mostly by telecom firms

DSM:  Demand side management, a type of utility program designed to cut power demand on the utility by 1) using technology or 2) changing power use behavior within the customer's premises

DVR:  Digital video recorder, made famous by TIVO and soon became a standard technology for digital TV services from cable, satellite and telecom operators

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E

E-911:  Enhanced 911 service that sends more data to the dispatcher and emergency responders and in some wireless applications can determine and send a caller's location

EIA:  Energy Information Administration, an office of the US Dept of Energy (www.eia.doe.gov)

EMC:  Electromagnetic compatibility, the condition where communications equipment is running without causing or suffering unacceptable degradation due to unintentional electromagnetic interference to or from other equipment in the same environment

EMEA:  Europe, Middle East & Africa, often treated as a single region for marketing and distribution

EPRI:  Electric Power Research Institute

Ethernet:  A family of LAN products covered by the IEEE 802.3 standard (Cisco Systems has more detailed info here)

ETSI:  European Telecommunications Standards Institute, a key standards body

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F

Fabless:  Non-manufacturer, used by semiconductor firms to explain their role as a chip designer but not a factory

Facilities-based competition:  Competition between providers of the same or similar service delivered by different, proprietary means or networks, such as a BPL provider competing with a telecom and or cable TV firm to provide broadband service

FCC:  US Federal Communications Commission (www.fcc.gov

Firmware:  Software that's embedded in a hardware device including in the computer chips themselves

Fixed wireless:  Point-to-point or point-to-multipoint wireless networking where the antennas on both sides of the network are fixed to a permanent location (see mobile wireless and nomadic wireless)

Flash memory:  Random access computer memory (RAM) that can be written and erased in blocks of bytes rather than one byte at a time making it faster

FTTx (FTTH, FTTP, FTTC):  Fiber-to-the-home/premises or curb -- broadband access networks using optical fiber

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G

G1-G4:  Generations one, two and three of any technology including BPL.  Like other communications technologies such as wireless telecom, the state-of-the-art when the technology first hits the street is called G1 and each significant technological advancement gets a sequential number to set it apart from previous versions.  In BPL, the state-of-the-art is generally measured by the bandwidth it can carry.  G1 generally refers to around 500 kbps, G2 spans between 14 and 85 mbps and G3 is 200-214 mbps. G4 is a ways off (at the time this definition was written) and is predicted to double G3 but that's not been confirmed by any BPL chipmakers.

GAAP:  Generally accepted accounting principles, defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as encompassing "the conventions, rules and procedures necessary to define accepted practice in the preparation of financial statements in the US"

Gateway:  A network management device usually within a home or business that distributes throughout the premises the variety of available broadband services such as internet, voice and video

Gbps: Gigabits per second, a measure of broadband speed or bandwidth that translates to one billion bits per second --1,000 times faster (or more data per second) that 1 mbps.  The latter speed was once considered lightening fast but has been outpaced by BPL, cable modems and DSL.

G.hn:  Pronounced "G-dot-H-N," it's a networking technology standard under development at the ITU-T with two primary goals: working on all three of the most common home networks -- power line, coaxial and phone lines -- and delivering 1 gbps bandwidth. The HomeGrid Forum was created as a private sector organization meant to help the development of G.hn (http://www.homegridforum.org).

Ghz:  Gigahertz, a bandwidth measure meaning billions of bits/second, thus 1 ghz = one billion bits/second

GIS:  Geographic information system used by utilities and other entities to keep a record of the location of every peice of infrastructure they own or use

GPRS:  General Packet Radio Service, a cell phone technology

GPS:  Global positioning satelite, a technology that lets the user know exactly where they are on the surface of the Earth within a few feet or meters

Gw:  Gigawatt

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H

Ham operators:  A nickname for licensed amateur radio operators ued within their community (see ARRL)

HAN:  Home area network, the network in the home created by BPL or another technology and that may need to be able to interact with a DR, AMR or other external application, service or system

HDTV:  High definition television -- with a higher resolution a thus a clearer, crisper image than traditional TV

Headend:   The originating point of TV signal in a cable television system

HFC:  Hybrid-fiber/coaxial, the second-generation connection technology used by the cable TV industry to bring higher bandwidths to its original coaxial cable networks. The fiber is optical fiber that brings high-speed connections into neighborhoods and makes delivering suitable bandwidth for digital TV, HDTV and cable modem service possible.

Homeplug:  A leading PLC specification originally created for in-home networking and now used for access BPL networking, too

Homeplug AV:  HomePlug's 200 mbps specification designed with audio and video streaming in mind and thus with appropriate QoS

HVAC:  Heating, ventilation and air conditioning -- the systems used to condition the air in office and commercial buildings and the industry that creates, installs and maintains those systems

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I

IBEC:  International Broadband Electric Communications (www.ibec.net)

IC:  Integrated circuits, also called computer chips

IEEE:  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (often pronounced "EYE-triple-E") -- creates technology standards among a variety of activities

ILEC:  Incumbent local exchange carrier ("EYE-lek"), a telecom firm that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted

Internal apps:  Internal utility applications.  A wide and growing array of devices -- and the services those devices perform -- for utilities, including advanced metering, remote monitoring and control of electricity distribution systems and many other inventive systems

IOU:  Investor owned utility

IP:  Internet protocol, the universal computer language that made the internet possible

IPTV:  Internet protocal television, digital audio/visual content that's delivered through any IP network

Iron (in the ground):  See big iron

ISP:  Internet service provider, the firm that leases and manages connections to the internet for almost all homes and businesses

IT:  Information Technology

J

Joint use:  A legal term describing the sharing of utility poles by mutual agreement between pole-owning utilities, typically the local ILEC and the electric utility

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K

Kbps:  Kilobits or thousand bits per second, a measure of data transsmission speed

Kilobit:  Thousand bits

Kv:  Kilovolt

Kwh:  Kilowatt hours, a measure of the amount of electricity used by a utility customer

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L

LAN:  Local area network, usually connecting computers and related devices in a single office, building or home

LV:  Low voltage, describing the power lines utilities use to carry power from the transformer into homes and small businesses

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M

MAC:  Medium access controler, a key "layer" of BPL and various other communications technology protocols -- often refered to with PHY, the physical layer

Mbps:  Megabits per second, a measurement of the speed data travels in a network -- such as through a home or business internet connection

MDU:  Multi-dwelling unit (also multi-tenant unit or MTU), a segment of the real estate industry with buildings such as apartment complexes, condos, hotels and resorts -- with multiple occupants and delivering a variety of services such as broadband to those occupants

Megabit:  A million bits

Mesh:  A network technology where each node or end-device communicates with nearby devices to create "smart" data routing

Mhz:  Megahertz, a million hertz, a measure of radio wave frequency

Mobile wireless:  Used for mobile phones (also known as cell phones), a network technology where a provider's fixed antennas communicate with customers' mobile antennas on devices that can travel from one antenna's range into another's seamlessly (see also fixed wireless and nomadic wireless)

MOU:  Memorandum of understanding, an agreement between entities with clearly defined goals, roles and responsibilities

MSRP:  Manufacturer's suggested retail price

Munis:  Municipal electric utilities, owned by the town or city they serve

MV:  Medium voltage, describing the power lines utilities use to carry power from a substation out into neighborhoods, also known as the distribution grid

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N

NARUC:  National Assn of Regulatory Utility Commissioners

NDA:  Non-disclosure agreement

NOC:  Network operations center, where monitoring and control devices manage a communications network often located far from the network and may serve multiple networks at once

Nomadic wireless:  A network technology -- such as WiFi -- that delivers connectivity within a limited range thus letting the provider's fixed antenna or antennas communicate with an end-user's antenna on a device, but only ewitythin the limited range of the local antennas (see also fixed wireless and mobile wireless)

NRECA:  National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn, the trade association representing rural electric cooperatives (www.nreca.org)

NRTC:  National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative -- a co-op for co-ops, using the combined buying-power of its 1,300 co-op members to get good deals on services and products for rural electric and telecom cooperatives (www.nrtc.coop)

NTIA:  The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, an agency of the US Commerce Dept, the office is the Executive Branch's principal voice on domestic and international telecommunications and information technology

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O

ODM:  Original design manufacturing
OEM:  Original equipment manufacturer, a firm that assembles components made by other firms and sells the products under its own brand

OPERA:  Open PLC European Research Alliance, the European Union's BPL effort to find and perfect a BPL technology for Europe

OET:  Office of Engineering & Technology -- the FCC office charged with certifying BPL gear, and that played a key role in guiding the commission's BPL rules (www.fcc.gov/oet)

Op-ex:  Operating expenditures -- a financial term meaning the money it costs to run a company or an operation within a company such as a network

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P

Pole attachments:  Originally by mutual agreement and later by federal statute and regulation, provide non-pole-owning firms such as cable TV and CLECs with access to a utility's distribution poles, conduits and rights of way. Thanks to EEI for this definition

POP:  Point of presence, where the local network connects to national networks

POTS:  Plain old telephone service, the dial-tone service offered for a century that's now incrementally being replaced by IP-based telephony called VOIP

Powerband:  Another name for BPL or high-speed PLC

PSC:  Public Service Commission

PUC:  Public Utilities Commission

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Q

Q1-Q4:  Q1 is shorthand for the first quarter of a year and the other three follow the pattern

QoS:  Quality of service, in an IP network it's the technique of prioritizing packets carrying voice data over those carrying other data to improve the quality of VOIP and video service

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R

RBOC:  Regional Bell operating company -- the regional local-service telecom firms AT&T was broken up into in 1984. They were were Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesys, SBC Corp and USWest. AT&T remained as a long distance service firm. SBC soon bought Pacific Telesys and Ameritech. USWest became Quest. Bell Atlantic and NYNEX merged to become Verizon. More recently SBC bought AT&T Long Distance and the AT&T name. SBC and BellSouth joined their wireless operations into Cingular and the latter firm bought AT&T Wireless though SBC retained rights to the name. As of October 2006 the RBOCs are BellSouth, Broadwing, Qwest, SBC and Verizon. These firms are also called ILECs.

R&D:  Research and development

REMC:  Rural electric membership cooperative/corporation -- a term commonly used in the name of an electric co-op such as the South Central Indiana REMC

Regenerator:  A device that boosts the distance a BPL signal can travel by decoding the message, filtering the message content from any noise on the lines, then recoding and transmitting the message.

Repeater:  An outdated approach to boosting a BPL signal. A repeater re-ampliphies the signal plus any noise the signal picked up ultimately causing the degradation of the signal (see regenerator).

RF:  Radio frequency, used as a generic term in many industries to describe radio signals that cause interference

RFP:  Request for proposal

ROI:  Return on investment, a financial term referring to the revenue generated by an investment. In the world of networks it usually refers to revenue generated by investing in network infrastructure.

ROW:  Right of way, a legal term referring to access by utilities to private and public property

RTU:  A remote terminal unit that collects data from grid ware such as meters in real time

RUS Loans:  Rural utility service loans -- low-cost loans for broadband and other telecom service offered by the USDA and authorized by Congress

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S

SAIDI:  System average interruption duration index - a measure of the duration of outages at an electric utility

SAIFI:   System average interruption frequency index, a measurement of electric utility reliability

Smart grid:  A nickname for an ever widening palatte of utility applications that enhance and automate the monitoring and control of electrical distribution networks for added reliability, efficiency and cost effective operations

SO/HO:  Small office/home office industry, a key target market for technology vendors

SCADA:  Supervisory control and data acquisition, a system used by power utilities so send and collect supervisory controls and monitor data through power lines

Symmetrical:  Service with the same upload speed as download -- typical with BPL and possible with most networks but almost unheard-of outside the BPL world. Upload speed was always lower priority until real-time video gaming, VOIP and video communications and video sharing brought attention to the need for upload bandwidth. Symmetrical service is one of BPL's biggest selling points.

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T

T1/T3:  The T1 and later T3 are standard connections to the internet originally used by universities, institutions and other ISPs. Once considered super-fast, the T1 delivers about 1.5 mbps or about half the bandwidth many end-users get with a cable modem today. Both are still widely used

Take rate:  Also called take-up rate, it's the percetage of potential customers that sign up for a service. For BPL it's an important percentage for business models and to track the success of marketing

TCP, TCP/IP:  Transmission control protocol, usually written with internet protocol as TCP/IP and the two make up the suite of protocols that defines the internet

T&D:  Transmission and distribution. The former brings power from the generation source usually through HV lines to the substation where the latter -- MV distribution lines -- carry the power into neighborhoods.

Telco:  Telecommunications company -- or what we call a " P quotes< verbatim in except firm? telecom>

Tier 1:  A Tier 1 firm provides services on an international scale. The term is used for telecom firms and ISPs. Tier 2 is regional and Tier 3 is local

Triple play:  The bundle of three services (TV, telephone and high-speed internet) originally delivered over proprietary networks usually by separate firms.  IP technology allows such services to be delivered digitally over any single broadband connection by one provider on one invoice.

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U

UPA:  United Powerline Association -- dedicated to PLC coexistance, interoperability and the DS2 chipset (www.upaplc.org)

UPLC:  United Power Line Council, trade assn of the BPL world (www.uplc.utc.org

USB:  Universal serial bus, a cable system with rectangular plugs used to connect a wide variety of devices to computers and computer peripherals

USDA:  US Dept of Agriculture (www.usda.gov)

UTC:  United Telecom Council, sister organization of UPLC

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V

VAR:  Value added reseller, a firm that goes beyond selling hardware to installing, integrating and/or customizing it for the buyer

VC:  Venture capital

VDSL & VDSL2:  Very high bit-rate DSL. VDSL delivers up to 26 mbps over distances up to 50 meters on short loops such as from fiber to the curb, and VDSL2 is the 2nd generation of VDSL and can hit 100 mbps on loops about 100 meters long using a bandwidth of 30 mhz.

VLAN:  Virtual local area network, a method of segmenting traffic from individual users on an IP network so that those within the VLAN "see" each other on the network and can communicate and share files, printers and other peripherals locally -- while blocking interaction from others on the network

VOD:  Video on demand

VOIP:  Voice over internet protocol

VP:  Vice president

VPN:  Virtual private network -- a method of keeping the presence of and network devices belonging to particular users secure and hidden from other users on the same network infrastructure. The name referrs to simulating private networks within a network pipe that carries data to and from multiple users.

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W

WAN:  Wide area network, a computer network connecting all the buildings in a building complex to each other or all the homes and businesses in a neighborhood, town or city to the internet

White goods:  Large home appliances such as refrigerators and washers and dryers -- traditionally colored white

WiFi:  Wireless fidelity -- a standard for sending and receiving data -- such as in a home or small office network or LAN (or even an entire city).  The standard includes a number of sub-standards under the IEEE's 802.11 standards.

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X

XML:  Extensible markup language, like the HTML protocol that makes web pages possible, XML makes more advanced applications possible over IP networks. Find lots more information from Sun Microsystems.