| A | B |
|---|
| Alternating Current | Electrical current flows in both directions; positive and negative terminals continuously trade places (polarity). |
| Attenuation | The loss of a signal’s strength to its surroundings |
| Cancellation | The term for the reduction in noise as a result of twisting pairs of wires in the same cable |
| Circuit | Something composed of a source or battery, a complete path, and load or resistance |
| Collision | The result of two bits from different computers being on a shared medium at the same time |
| Conductor | A material that allows electrons to flow through it with great ease |
| Current | The flow of charges that is created when electrons move. |
| Ampere (Amp) | The measurement of current |
| Amplitude | Maximum value of an analog or digital waveform |
| Digital | Language of the computer comprising only two states, on or off which are indicated by a series of voltage pulses |
| Direct Current | Electrical current flows in one direction; negative to positive |
| Dispersion | The broadening of a signal as it travels down the media. |
| Electrons | Negatively charged particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom |
| Electrostatic Discharge | A flow or spark of electricity that originates from a static source such as a carpet and arcs across a gap to another object |
| EMF | Interference from lighting, electrical motors |
| Encoding | the process of converting information into a form that can travel on a physical link. |
| Full-Duplex | Communication where signals can flow in both directions at the same time |
| Ground | Electrically neutral contact point |
| Half-Duplex | Communication where signals can flow in both directions, but only one direction at a time |
| Hertz | Measure of frequency |
| Impedance | Total opposition to the flow of electrons. Equivalent to resistance but for AC and pulsed circuits. |
| Ohm | Measurement of Impedance |
| Insulator | A material that allows electrons to flow through it with great difficulty, or not at all |
| Jitter | caused by unsynchronized clocking signals between source and destination. |
| Latency | The delay of a network signal. |
| Manchester | A complex form of encoding where bits are encoded as transitions |
| Neutrons | Neutral particles in the nucleus of an atom |
| Next | Near end cross talk when two wires are near each other, energy from one wire can wind up in an adjacent wire and vice versa. |
| Noise | unwanted additions to the signal |
| Propagation | Time required for data to travel over a network, form source to destination |
| Reflection | When impedance is mismatched, the digital signal can “bounce back” (reflect) causing it to be distorted as bits run into each other. |
| Resistance | Property of a material that opposes, and can control the electrical flow |
| Ohm | Measurment of Resistance |
| Semi-conductor | carbon, germanium, silicon |
| Shielding | Foil that acts as a barrier to interfering signals |
| Voltage | Force or pressure caused by the separation of electrons and protons. |
| Volt | Mesurement of Voltage |
| TTL | Field in an IP header that indicates how long a packet is considered valid |
