To use the glossary, simply click below on the first letter of the term of interest:

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

B

B2B

Business-to-Business, an aspect of e-commerce over the Internet.

B8ZS

Bipolar with 8 Zeros Substitution. A method for 1's density control for bipolar transmission signals such as T1. See also D4.

B - Y

Blue minus luminance (Y). One of two color difference signals used in encoding NTSC composite television signals.

Bandwidth

The difference between the highest and lowest frequencies passed by an analog communications channel, device or system.

 

A data communication system's data transfer capacity.

BAS

Bit-rate Allocation Signal. In Rec. H.221, T.120 et al, a data word within the frame structure used to transmit commands, control and indication signals and capabilities.

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation.

BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem)

A low-overhead forward error correction technique often used for videoconferencing as in H.261 et al; especially effective for correcting single (non-burst) errors.

Bell System

A group of affiliated RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies) in the USA, which operate under consistent rules and specifications, many of which are set by AT&T.

BER

Bit Error Rate, the absolute number of errors that may be present, often expressed as FFx10^-y, where FF is a floating point value and y is an exponent. For example, 3.456x10^-8 See also Bit Error Rate.

Bit

BInary digiT, the smallest unit of data. In uncompressed or uncoded data, it represents a binary 1 or 0.

bps

Bits Per Second, a measurement of data rate, generally excluding the contributions or effects of error correction, encryption, framing, synchronization and similar such signals.

Bit Error Rate (BER)

A measure of quality of digital transmission systems. Expresses the ratio of correct bits to erroneous bits. To overcome transmission errors, many codecs include forward error correction, important for accurate recovery of transmitted, compressed data.

Bluetooth

A wireless system operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band; intended initially as a short-range cable replacement technology.

BNC

Bayonet Neill-Concelman. A type of bayonet-lock coaxial cable connector used for video and telecommunications.

BOC

Bell Operating Company.

BRA

European term for BRI

Breezeway

That portion of a composite video signal between the end of the trailing edge of each horizontal synchronization pulse and the beginning of the color reference burst signal (television communications usage).

BRI

ISDN Basic Rate Interface, 2B+D. In the US, B may equal 56- or 64-Kbps. The D or signaling channel is 16 Kbps.

BT

Bluetooth; also the product of: symbol rate, Gaussian filter and bandwidth; used in DECT and other Bluetooth devices.

 

British Telecom, the major telecommunications common carrier in the UK.

Byte

Originally coined as a data chunk of from 1- to 6-bits, later up to 9-bits, spelled with a "y" to avoid confusion with bit. In modern usage, a byte is 8-bits, like octet, the ITU term which has always represented 8-bits.

Disclaimer and Copyright © 1996-2010 HEI