C

Cable Casting: The use of cable systems by federal, state, and local officials to disseminate information and television programming to their constituents.

 

Cable Head end:  This term has been widely "upgraded" to MTC (Master Telecommunications Center).  Much like a Central Office (CO) in the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) world, a head end or MTC acts as a serving wire center for a specific geographical region.  Subscriber services originate from their respective MTC.

 

Cable Modem: A communication device connected to a personal computer which offers customers access to the Internet over a cable system at speeds 50-100 times faster than a

telephone connection.

 

Cable Ready: Label for consumer electronic devices, such as television sets and VCRs, that are designed to allow direct connection to a cable television network.

 

Cable System: A localized communications network that distributes television, Internet, and telephone services by means of coaxial cables and/or fiber optics.

 

(CABS) Carrier Access Billing System: A software application also known as Integrated Access Billing System (IABS), that enables local exchange carriers (LECs) to measure minutes of use on access and thereby be able to bill LECs for it.

 

(CAP) Competitive Access Provider: Companies that provide connections to long distance providers while bypassing local telephone companies.

 

(CARS) Community Antenna Relay Service: Microwave facilities used to relay television, FM radio, and other signals from a cable television head end to a reception site for distribution over cable.

 

Cash Flow: A measure often used in the cable industry to assess a company’s financial performance. Generally, cash flow is a company’s earnings before non-cash expenses, such as depreciation and amortization, are taken into account.

 

(CATV) Community Antenna TV: Also known as Cable TV, it uses several TV units connected by cable to a common antenna to serve a community.

 

(CBR) Continuous Bit Rate: A transmission rate that is uniform.

 

(CCIS) Common Channel Interoffice Signaling: The basis for intelligent networks, it routes information to and from specialized databases stored in the network carriers' computers and uses

a separate data line to route interoffice signals, thereby providing a faster call set-up.

 

(CCITT) Consultative Committee International Telephony and Telegraphy: Presently known as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the ITU sets and develops standards for telecommunications.

 

(CDMA) Code Division Multiple Access: A digital cellular communications technology used as a multiplexing and multiple access technique in which multiple calls are individually coded for transmission over one channel simultaneously.

 

(CDPD) Cellular Digital Packet Data: Developed by IBM as a way to transmit short wireless data messages, such as credit card verification, over cellular providers' analog network. 

 

(CDR) Call Detail Record: A system feature that tracks details about calls, such as type, time, duration, originator and destination. CDRs can be used for network monitoring, accounting and billing purposes.

 

(CELP) Code Excited Linear Prediction: An analog to digital speech coding method that provides near toll quality audio by utilizing smaller samples that are processed faster.

 

Central Office:  A physical building/structure that acts as a serving wire center (physical connection) to subscribers in a geographic area.  It is the Hub of a Hub & Spoke network architecture.  Typically, a CO contains telecommunications equipment such as a switch, power generation equipment, and wire distribution frames.  Normally, a term used by Telephone Companies. 

 

OR

A telecommunications facility (generally serving 10,000 telephone lines) where local calls are switched.

 

(CENTREX) Central Exchange: This is an exchange system run from the central office that routes and switches calls for commercial and non-profit organizations, while providing them with comparable services provided by private branch exchanges.

 

CEVs:  Controlled Environment Vault.  Typically, an underground enclosure that safely and securely houses telecommunication or communications infrastructure components.  CEVs can be used in a whole host of applications.  Examples include signal regeneration points on fiber backbones, fiber distribution for FIOS (Fiber to the Home/Curb) applications, DSLAMs, and power generation/conditioning equipment.

 

(CG) Character Generator: Device that electronically displays letters and numbers on the television screen.

 

Channel Capacity: Maximum number of television channels that a cable system can carry simultaneously.

 

(CLASS) Custom Local Area Signaling Services: A number translation service available within a Local Access and Transport Area (LATA).

 

(CLEC) Competitive Local Exchange Carrier: A company that has been allowed to offer local telephone service, in competition with the regional Bell companies.

 

(CMIP) Common Management Information Protocol: The protocol used in order to manage remote systems through an application process that interchanges information and commands.

 

(Coax)Coaxial Cable: A transmission line 1/4 to 1 inch thick with an inner wire to conduct signals and an outer aluminum coating to act as a ground. The two metal layers are separated by insulation and may be wrapped in a protective plastic sheathing.

 

(CODEC) Coder/Decoder: A device that converts digital codes to analog and vice versa. 

 

Collocation: Placing a competitor’s communications equipment in one’s own facilities to allow efficient interconnection of different networks.

 

Committed Information Rate: The bandwidth committed by the carrier for the port connection that is assigned to a permanent virtual circuit in a frame relay network.

 

Common Carrier: A communications provider, such as a telephone company, which offers its services to all members of the public for a set fee (tariff). Common carriers are regulated by federal and state agencies and exercise no control over the content of the messages they carry.

 

Compression: A technique for reducing the number of bits that make up a digital television signal and reducing the amount of bandwidth required to carry it. By reducing the bandwidth necessary to carry compressed digital signals, cable companies and others can greatly increase the number of channels they offer to consumers.

 

Compulsory License: Statutory license (section 111 of the Copyright Act) which allows cable and MMDS operators to retransmit, for a prescribed fee, programming broadcast by television stations (see also SHVA).

 

Converter: Device which increases the number of channels that a TV set can receive by converting the large number of signals carried on a cable or satellite system to a single channel tuned by the TV set, e.g., channel 3 or 4.

 

Cross-Connection Box:  Behavior:  Houses devices that connect the telephone wires from a neighborhood to wires that run to a central office.  These gray-green metal cabinets are usually mounted on the ground, although they can be on utility poles.

 

How it works:  Inside a cross-connection box are hundreds of connection points where technicians connect the twisted pair of wires from each telephone line in a neighborhood to other wires that carry the telephone signals to the central office.  Often the wires running to the central office are carried underground.

 

Unique characteristics:  A cross-connection box may be mounted on a utility pole if it's in an area where there is a high chance for vandalism or where there isn't space on the ground for a box. This is called an aerial cross-connection box. You can identify it as a large metal cabinet with a platform in front of it  for a worker to stand on. The cable coming out of the top of the aerial cross-connection box might go directly into a splice box mounted on the telephone cable.  [ref: A Field Guide to Roadside Technology, Edwin J. C. Sobey, 2006, pg. 78]

 

(CPE) Customer Premise Equipment: The equipment at the customer's premises that connects with a carrier's communication network, such as terminals and inside wiring.

 

(CRIS) Customer Record Information System: A system that is used to maintain customers' usage records for billing purposes by many local exchange carriers (LECs).

 

(CSMA/CD) Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection: A protocol by which all nodes attached to the network contend for access and listen if another PC is transmitting. If not, it starts to transmit or it waits to retransmit if it detects another station’s jam signal.

 

(CSR) Customer Service Record: A detailed printout of a subscriber's monthly equipment and service charges billed by the local telephone company and uses corresponding USOC codes.