Registration
The procedure that a cellular phone initiates to a base station to indicate that it is now active.
RF
Radio Frequency
IS-95
CDMA Interim Standard 95
ITU
International Telecommunication Union
ITU-T
The telecommunication standardization sector of the International Telecommunication Union
MTSO
Mobile Telephone Switching Office. The central switch that controls the entire operation of a cellular system.
NAM
Number Assignment Module (NAM) is the cellular phone memory that stores the telephone number. Phones with dual- or multi-NAM features offer users the option of registering the phone with a local number in more than one market.
PCN
Personal communication network. This standard corresponds to a high-frequency version of the GSM standard.
PCS
Personal Communication Services. PCS and cellular are sometimes interchanged. Officially, PCS is a digital cellular service in the 1900 MHz band only. In practice, some providers have used part of their AMPS 800 MHz allocation to offer PCS services.
PDC
Personal Digital Cellular (Japan)
Handoff
The process by which the MTSO passes a cellular phone conversation from one radio frequency in one cell to another radio frequency in another.
IMT
International Mobile Telephone
IP
Internet Protocol
IS-136
TDMA Interim Standard 136
FCC
Federal Communications Commission
FDMA
Frequency Division Multiple Access
Frequency Reuse
The ability to use the same frequencies repeatedly across a cellular system, made possible by the basic design approach for cellular. Since each cell is designed to use radio frequencies only within its boundaries, the same frequencies can be reused in other cells not far away without interference. The reuse of frequencies enables a cellular system to handle a huge number of calls with a limited number of channels.
GSM
GSM's air interface is based on narrowband TDMA technology, where available frequency bands are divided into time slots, with each user having access to one time slot at regular intervals. Narrow band TDMA allows eight simultaneous communications on a single radio multiplexer and is designed to support 16 half-rate channels. GSM also is the only technology that provides incoming and outgoing data services, such as email, fax, and internet surfing. GSM makes use of a SIM card that allows memory portability between 'dumb' GSM phones.
ETSI
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
ESN
Each cellular phone is assigned a unique Electronic Serial Number (ESN), which is automatically transmitted to the cellular base station every time a call is placed. The MTSO validates the ESN with each call.
