• Application- a system, the transmission method of which is supported by telecommunications cabling, such as 100 base-TX Ethernet, or digital voice
• Unshielded Twisted Pair- is the most common kind of copper telephone wiring. Twisted pair is the ordinary copper wire that connects home and many business computers to the telephone company
• Shielded Twisted Pair- is a special kind of copper telephone wiring used in some business installations. An outer covering or shield is added to the ordinary twisted pair telephone wires; the shield functions as a ground
• Fiber Cable- is a cable containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed.
• Dark Fiber- refers to unused fiber-optic cable. Often time’s companies lay more lines than what's needed in order to curb costs of having to do it again and again. The dark strands can be leased to individuals or other companies who want to establish optical connections among their own locations
• Coax Cable- a transmission line that consists of a tube of electrically conducting material surrounding a central conductor held in place by insulators and that is used to transmit telegraph, telephone, and television signals —called also coax cable.
• Plenum- The air handling space between the walls, under structural floors, and above drop ceilings when used to circulate and otherwise handle air in the building
• Riser- a designation for a type of cable run between floors fire code rating for indoor cable that is certified to pass thru the vertical shaft from floor to floor
• Rip Cord- a length of string built into optical fiber cables that is pulled to split the outer jacket of the cable without using a blade
• Core- the central part of a single optical fiber in which the light signal is transmitted
• Attenuation- a general term indicating a decrease in power
• Noise- in a b=cable or a circuit, any extraneous signal that interferes with the desired signal normally present in or passing thru the system
• Headroom- the number of decibels by which a system exceeds the minimum defined requirements
• ANSI- The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States
• NFPA- the fire test method that measures flame spread, peak smoke optical density, and average smoke optical density
• FCC- the federal agency responsible for regulating broadcast and electronic communications the US
• NIST- is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a unit of the U.S. Commerce Department. Formerly known as the National Bureau of Standards, NIST promotes and maintains measurement standards.
• OSHA- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal organization (part of the Department of Labor) that ensures safe and healthy working conditions for Americans by enforcing standards and providing workplace safety training.
• Equipment room- is a room or space within a building for the storage or installation of mechanical or electrical/electronic devices. An equipment room can house telecommunication installations that serve the occupants of the building or multiple buildings in a campus environment.
• Topology- is a usually schematic description of the arrangement of a network, including its nodes and connecting lines. There are two ways of defining network geometry: the physical topology and the logical (or signal) topology