| A | B |
|---|
| broadband | allows more than one computer to transmit data at the same time over the same medium |
| baseband | one piece of data can be sent on a wire at a time |
| medium | what the data is carried on physically |
| channels | broadband is divided into separate channels |
| attenuation | loss of electrical signal strength across time and distance |
| thicknet | form of coaxial cable with a large copper core; also called RG8 or RG11 |
| thinnet | smaller copper core; greater attenuation rate;also called RG58 |
| vampire tap | connector for thicknet cable |
| transciever | interface that can be attached directly to a network card |
| AUI | attachment unit interface |
| terminated | cable must have this done to prevent electrical signals from experiencing signal bounce |
| signal bounce | can cause loss of data and increase the number of data packet collisions |
| collisions | two data packets collide and do not get through |
| BNC | British Naval Connector; used to connect thinnet cable |
| twisted pair | twisted wires encased in plastic |
| unshielded twisted pair | cheapest form of wire; no shielding around wires; increased crosstalk and interference |
| shielded twisted pair | less common because it is expensive; has shielding around wires |
| fiberoptic cable | transmits pulses of light rather than electrical impulses; very expensive |
| cladding | plastic casing around the fiber |
| buffer | second layer of plastic around the cladding |
| plenum | space above the dropped ceiling in a building |
| OSI | Open systems Interconnection |
| MAC | media access control |
| LLC | logical length control |
| data collision | same as packet collision- two signals intercept each other at the same time and become garbled and useless |
| access method | the process of determining when it is safe to put data on a network |
| collision avoidance | one way to recognize that the network is safe to put data on it |
| collision detection | listens to the network to determine when it is safe to put data on it |
| CSMA/CA | carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance |
| CSMA/CD | carrier sense multiple access with collision detection |
| contention | type of method that includes collision avoidance and collision detection |
| carrier sense | each node must decide when it is safe to send data |
| MAU | same as MSAU; multi-station access unit |
| ARCnet | Attached resource computing network- designed in 1977 by DataPoint-first hardware protocol |
| Fiber-distributed data interface | FDDI; a ring topology but can be configured as a star also |
