B

 

B Channel:  In the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the B-channel is the channel that carries the main data. (The "B" stands for "bearer" channel.)  In ISDN, there are two levels of service: the Basic Rate Interface, intended for the home and small enterprise, and the Primary Rate Interface, for larger users. Both rates include a number of B- (bearer) channels and a D-channel. The B-channels carry data, voice, and other services. The D-channel carries control and signaling information. The Basic Rate Interface consists of two 64 Kbps B-channels and one 16 Kbps D-channel. Thus, a Basic Rate Interface user can have up to 128 Kbps service. The Primary Rate Interface consists of 23 B-channels and one 64 Kpbs D-channel in the United States or 30 B-channels and 1 D-channel in Europe.  [WhatIs.com]

Backbone:  1. The high-traffic-density connectivity portion of any communications network. 2. In packet-switched networks, a primary forward-direction path traced sequentially through two or more major relay or switching stations. Note: In packet-switched networks, a backbone consists primarily of switches and interswitch trunks.  [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Back Door: A back door is a means of access to a computer program that bypasses security mechanisms. A programmer may sometimes install a back door so that the program can be accessed for troubleshooting or other purposes. However, attackers often use back doors that they detect or install themselves, as part of an exploit. From WhatIs.com. A hidden software or hardware mechanism, usually created for testing and troubleshooting, that may be used to circumvent computer security. [2382-pt.8].    [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Balancing Bid - bid presented by the specific balancing market participant to the transmission system operator in reference to the balancing market, presenting the precisely defined trade and technical data. [Common Usage]

Balancing Market - A part of the electricity market where Market Participants must submit balanced schedules in advance of the settlement period in which the generation must match load. During the settlement period, the RTO/ISO operator balances the market through the use of ancillary services that have been bid into the market for that purpose.  [Common Usage]

Balancing Market Delivery Point - This is an agreed point in the network covered by the balancing market operation area, where the settlement of the energy flow between the scheduling units and the network takes place.  [Common Usage]

Bandwidth: Bandwidth has a general meaning of how much information can be carried in a given time period (usually a second) over a wired or wireless communications link. For example, a link with a broad bandwidth - that is, a broadband link - is one that may be able to carry enough information to sustain the succession of images in a video presentation.  More technically, bandwidth is the width of the range of frequencies that an electronic signal occupies on a given transmission medium. Any digital or analog signal has a bandwidth.  [WhatIs.com].

Bandwidth: 1. The difference between the limiting frequencies within which performance of a device, in respect to some characteristic, falls within specified limits. 2. The difference between the limiting frequencies of a continuous frequency band.    [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Banner Ads: A strip of web site real estate that entices visitors to click and go to a linked web site.  [Common Usage]

Bar Code: A code representing characters by sets of parallel bars of varying thickness and separation that are read optically by transverse scanning. Note: Bar code uses include identifying merchandise, sorting mail, and inventorying supplies.     [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Baseband: 1. The original band of frequencies produced by a transducer, such as a microphone, telegraph key, or other signal-initiating device, prior to initial modulation. Note 1: In transmission systems, the baseband signal is usually used to modulate a carrier. Note 2: Demodulation re-creates the baseband signal. Note 3: Baseband describes the signal state prior to modulation, prior to multiplexing, following demultiplexing, and following demodulation. Note 4: Baseband frequencies are usually characterized by being much lower in frequency than the frequencies that result when the baseband signal is used to modulate a carrier or subcarrier. 2. In facsimile, the frequency of a signal equal in bandwidth to that between zero frequency and maximum keying frequency.    [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Basic Encoding Rules (BER): One set of rules for encoding data defined  by ASN.1 into a particular representation (the actual bits and bytes) for transporting data across a communications link. Other sets of rules include the Packed Encoding Rules (PER) and the Light Encoding Rules (LER). [ISO]

Baud (Bd): 1. A unit of modulation rate. Note: One baud corresponds to a rate of one unit interval per second, where the modulation rate is expressed as the reciprocal of the duration in seconds of the shortest unit interval. 2. A unit of signaling speed equal to the number of discrete signal conditions, variations, or events per second. Note 1: If the duration of the unit interval is 20 milliseconds, the signaling speed is 50 bauds. If the signal transmitted during each unit interval can take on any one of n discrete states, the bit rate is equal to the rate in bauds times log ₂ n. The technique used to encode the allowable signal states may be any combination of amplitude, frequency, or phase modulation, but it cannot use a further time-division multiplexing technique to subdivide the unit intervals into multiple subintervals. In some signaling systems, non-information-carrying signals may be inserted to facilitate synchronization; e.g., in certain forms of binary modulation coding, there is a forced inversion of the signal state at the center of the bit interval. In these cases, the synchronization signals are included in the calculation of the rate in bauds but not in the computation of bit rate. Note 2: Baud is sometimes used as a synonym for bit-per-second. This usage is deprecated.     [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Bay: a substation consists of closely connected sub parts with some common functionality. Examples are the switchgear between an incoming or outgoing line, and the busbar, the bus coupler with its circuit breaker and related isolators and earthing switches, the transformer with its related switchgear between the two busbars representing the two voltage levels. The bay concept may be applied to 1½ breaker and ring bus substation arrangements by grouping the primary circuit breakers and associated equipment into a virtual bay. These bays comprise a power system subset to be protected, e.g. a transformer or a line end, and the control of its switchgear that has some common restrictions like mutual interlocking or well-defined operation sequences. The identification of such subparts is important for maintenance purposes (what parts may be switched off at the same time with minimum impact on the rest of the substation) or for extension plans (what has to be added if a new line is to be linked in). These subparts are called ‘bays’ and may be managed by devices with the generic names ’bay controller’ and have protection systems called ‘bay protection’. The concept of a bay is not commonly used in North America. The bay level represents an additional control level below the overall station level. [IEC61850-2]

BBS (Bulletin Board System): A bulletin board system (BBS) is a computer or an application dedicated to the sharing or exchange of messages or other files on a network. Originally an electronic version of the type of bulletin board found on the wall in many kitchens and work places, the BBS was used to post simple messages between users. The BBS became the primary kind of online community through the 1980s and early 1990s, before the World Wide Web arrived. [WhatIs.com].

bcc (blind carbon copy): A copy of an e-mail message sent to a recipient without the recipient's address appearing in the message. [Common Usage]

Bell 103: Asynchronous data transmission, full-duplex operation over 2-wire dialup or leased lines; 300-bps data rate. Comparable to ITU-T V.21.

Bell 212 A: Synchronous/ asynchronous data transmission, full-duplex operation over 2-wire leased or dialup lines; 1200-bps data rate. This versatile standard provides for efficient full-duplex operation over 2-wire dialup and leased lines. Comparable to ITU-T V.22.

BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): BGP  is a protocol for exchanging routing information between gateway hosts (each with its own router) in a network of autonomous systems. BGP is often the protocol used between gateway hosts on the Internet. The routing table contains a list of known routers, the addresses they can reach, and a cost metric associated with the path to each router so that the best available route is chosen.
Hosts using BGP communicate using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and send updated router table information only when one host has detected a change. Only the affected part of the routing table is sent. BGP-4, the latest version, lets adminstrators configure cost metrics based on policy statements. (BGP-4 is sometimes called BGP4, without the hyphen.) BGP communicates with autonomous (local) networks using Internal BGP (IBGP) since it doesn't work well with IGP. The routers inside the autonomous network thus maintain two routing tables: one for the interior gateway protocol and one for IBGP. BGP-4 makes it easy to use Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), which is a way to have more addresses within the network than with the current IP address assignment scheme.   [WhatIs.com].   Compare with RIP and OSPF. See Routing Protocols.

Bilateral Agreement: Written statement signed by a pair of communicating parties that specifies what data may be exchanged between them.  [DOE Glossary of Electricity Terms]

Bilateral Contract: A direct contract between the power producer and user or broker outside of a centralized power pool or power exchange.  [DOE Glossary of Electricity Terms]

Bilateral Table: Bilateral tables are derived from Bilateral Agreements, and used in the ICCP protocol for one entity to establish the sets of data that are available to one other entity to access. [IEC60870-6]

Binary: Binary describes a numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit: 0 and 1. The term also refers to any digital encoding/decoding system in which there are exactly two possible states. In digital data memory, storage, processing, and communications, the 0 and 1 values are sometimes called "low" and "high," respectively.  [WhatIs.com]

Binary File: A binary file is a file whose content must be interpreted by a program or a hardware processor that understands in advance exactly how it is formatted. That is, the file is not in any externally identifiable format so that any program that wanted to could look for certain data at a certain place within the file. A program (or hardware processor) has to know exactly how the data inside the file is laid out to make use of the file.  Binary files can be encoded (converted to ASCII) before being sent via email.  [WhatIs.com] 

BIND (Berkley Internet Name Domain): A Unix implementation of DNS.

BinHex: BinHex is a utility for converting (encoding) Macintosh files into files that will travel well on networks either as files or e-mail attachments. Like Uuencode, BinHex encodes a file from its 8-bit binary or bit-stream representation into a 7-bit ASCII set of text characters. The recipient must decode it at the other end. Older e-mail utilities sometimes can't handle binary transmissions so text encoding ensures that a tranmission will get to an older system. BinHex specifically handles both resource and data forks in Macintosh files (which Uuencode doesn't). BinHex files have a suffix of ".hqx". (Earlier versions have the suffix ".hex".)  [WhatIs.com] 

Biometrics: Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and statistically analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics usually refers to technologies for measuring and analyzing human body characteristics such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns, and hand measurements, especially for authentication purposes. Often seen in science-fiction action adventure movies, face pattern matchers and body scanners seem about to emerge as replacements for computer passwords. Fingerprint and other biometric devices consist of a reader or scanning device, software that converts the scanned information into digital form, and wherever the data is to be analyzed, a database that stores the biometric data for comparison with previous records. When converting the biometric input, the software identifies specific points of data as match points. The match points are processed using an algorithm into a value that can be compared with biometric data scanned when a user tries to gain access. Fingerprint, facial, or other biometric data can be placed on a smart card and users can present both the smartcard and their fingerprints or faces to merchants, banks, or telephones for an extra degree of authentication. There are privacy concerns about the gathering and sharing of biometric data, however. One suggestion to assuage those with privacy concerns is to encrypt biometric data when it's gathered and discard the original data to prevent identity theft.  [WhatIs.com].  

B-ISDN (Broadband ISDN):  An Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) offering broadband capabilities. Note 1: B-ISDN is an ITU-T proposed (originally a CCITT-proposed) service that may (a) include interfaces operating at data rates from 150 to 600 Mb/s, (b) use asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) to carry all services over a single, integrated, high-speed packet-switched network, (c) have LAN interconnection capability, (d) provide access to a remote, shared disk server, (e) provide voice/ video /data teleconferencing, (f) provide transport for programming services, such as cable TV, (g) provide single-user controlled access to remote video sources, (h) handle voice/video telephone calls, and (i) access shop-at-home and other information services. Note 2: Techniques used in the B-ISDN include code conversion, information compression, multipoint connections, and multiple-connection calls. Current proposals use a service-independent call structure that allows flexible arrangement and modular control of access and transport edges. The service components of a connection can provide each user with independent control of access features and can serve as the basis of a simplified control structure for multipoint and multi-connection calls. Such a network might be expected to offer a variety of ancillary information processing functions.    [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Bit Binary digIT: Abbreviation for binary digit. 1. A character used to represent one of the two digits in the numeration system with a base of two, and only two, possible states of a physical entity or system. 2. In binary notation either of the characters 0 or 1. 3. A unit of information equal to one binary decision or the designation of one of two possible and equally likely states of anything used to store or convey information.     [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Bit-Oriented Protocol: A protocol in which a frame is seen as a bit stream. [Common Usage]

BizTalk: Industry initiative started by Microsoft to accelerate the adoption of XML in a consistent manner. The goal of BizTalk.org is to provide resources for learning about and using XML for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and business-to-business (B2B) document exchange, both within the enterprise and over the Internet. http://www.biztalk.org. Competing solution to ebXML and RosettaNet.

Blackstart Capability Plan:  a documented procedure for a generating unit or station to go from a shutdown condition to an operating condition delivering electric power without assistance from the electric system. This procedure is only a portion of an overall system restoration plan. (NERC "Terms and Their Definitions As Used in the NERC Planning Standards")

Bluetooth:  A low-power, short-range, rf technology that allows the connection of intelligent communications devices or appliances in a household or an office in a short-range wireless network. Examples of Bluetooth applications are transferring data between cell phones, radios, pagers, personal digital assistants, notebook computers, video and still cameras, audio players, and local area networks.     [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

BNC: Bayonet Network Connector, Bayonet Nut Connector, British Naval Connector, or Bayone-Neill-Concelman. Coaxial cable connector used to connect a computer to a coaxial cable in a 10BASE-2 Ethernet network. 10BASE-2 is a 10 MHz baseband network on a cable extending up to 185 meters - the 2 is a rounding up to 200 meters - without a repeater cable. 10BASE-2 Ethernets are also known as "Thinnet", "thin Ethernet", or "cheapernets". The wiring in this type of Ethernet is thin, 50 ohm, baseband coaxial cable. The BNC connector in particular is generally easier to install and less expensive than other coaxial connectors.   [WhatIs.com] 

Bookmark: Using a World Wide Web browser, a bookmark is a saved link to a Web page that has been added to a list of saved links. When you are looking at a particular Web site or home page and want to be able to quickly get back to it later, you can create a bookmark for it. You can think of your browser as a book full of (millions of ) Web pages and a few well-placed bookmarks that you have chosen. The list that contains your bookmarks is the "bookmark list" (and sometimes it's called a "hotlist.").   [WhatIs.com] 

BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol): Application layer TCP/IP suite protocol that provides network configuration information. Defined in RFC951 and RFC1542 See UDP/IP. See also RFC1534, RFC2131.

Bot: A bot (short for "robot") is a program that operates as an agent for a user or another program or simulates a human activity. On the Internet, the most ubiquitous bots are the programs, also called spiders or crawlers, that access Web sites and gather their content for search engine indexes.   [WhatIs.com]  

Bounce: The return of a piece of mail because of an error in the way it was addressed or in its delivery. [Common Usage]

bps (bits per second):  In data communications, bits per second (abbreviated bps and, by some, bit/sec) is a common measure of data speed for computer modems and transmission carriers. As the term implies, the speed in bps is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second. Larger units are sometimes used to denote high data speeds. One kilobit per second (abbreviated Kbps in the U.S.; kbps elsewhere) is equal to 1,000 bps. One megabit per second (Mbps) is equal to 1,000,000 bps or 1,000 Kbps. [WhatIs.com].  

BRI (Basic Rate Interface): ISDN basic-rate service consisting of two 64 Kbps B Channels and one 16 Kbps D Channel. Overhead is 48 kbps which adds up to 192 kbps. See also 2B+D. Each B-channel carries data, voice, and other services. The D-channel carries control and signaling information. The Basic Rate Interface consists of two 64 Kbps B-channels and one 16 Kbps D-channel. Thus, a Basic Rate Interface user can have up to 128 Kbps service. The Primary Rate Interface consists of 23 B-channels and one 64 Kpbs D-channel in the United States or 30 B-channels and 1 D-channel in Europe.  [WhatIs.com].  

Brick: In the Utility Communication Architecture (UCA™), a Brick is a module made up of Data Objects that focus on one function. Device Models are built by aggregating a group of Bricks, which provide all the required functionality. [IEEE TR1550]

Bridge: 1. In communications networks, a device that (a) links or routes signals from one ring or bus to another or from one network to another, (b) may extend the distance span and capacity of a single LAN system, (c) performs no modification to packets or messages, (d) operates at the data-link layer of the OSI--Reference Model (Layer 2), (e) reads packets, and (f) passes only those with addresses on the same segment of the network as the originating user. 2. A functional unit that interconnects two local area networks that use the same logical link control procedure, but may use different medium access control procedures. 3. A balanced electrical network, e.g., a Wheatstone bridge. Note: A bridge may be used for electrical measurements, especially resistances or impedances. 4. See hybrid coil.   [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Broadband:  1. Synonym [in analog technology] wideband. 2. A descriptive term for evolving digital technologies that provide consumers a signal-switched facility offering integrated access to voice, high-speed data service, video-demand services, and interactive delivery services. [FCC]  From T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms.   In general, broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of frequencies is available to transmit information. Because a wide band of frequencies is available, information can be multiplexed and sent on many different frequencies or channels within the band concurrently, allowing more information to be transmitted in a given amount of time (much as more lanes on a highway allow more cars to travel on it at the same time). Related terms are wideband (a synonym), baseband (a one-channel band), and narrowband (sometimes meaning just wide enough to carry voice, or simply "not broadband," and sometimes meaning specifically between 50 cps and 64 Kpbs).   [WhatIs.com]  

Broadcast: In general, to broadcast (verb) is to cast or throw forth something in all directions at the same time. A radio or television broadcast (noun) is a program that is transmitted over airwaves for public reception by anyone with a receiver tuned to the right signal channel. The term is sometimes used in e-mail or other message distribution for a message sent to all members, rather than specific members, of a group such as a department or enterprise. On the Internet, certain Web sites deliver original or redistributed broadcasts from existing radio and television stations, using streaming sound or streaming video techniques, to Web users who visit the Web site or "tune it in" using a special program such as RealPlayer. Like publicly available radio and television broadcasts, Web broadcasts are available to anyone. The Web now offers live as well as prepackaged broadcasts and also plays back audio and video tapes. Some programming is scheduled and other prepackaged programs can be delivered on demand. Many Web users listen to music from a particular broadcasting site as they surf other sites on the Web. Broadcast should not be confused with unicast, a transmission to a specific receiver (like most e-mail messages); multicast, a transmission to multiple specific receivers (as in e-mail to a distribution list or a Web transmission over the MBone network to a specific group of receiving addresses); or anycast, a transmission to the nearest of a group of routers, used in Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) as a technique for chain-updating a group of routers with new routing information.   [WhatIs.com]  

Broker: An entity that arranges the sale and purchase of electric energy, transmission, and other services between buyers and sellers, but does not take title to any of the power sold.   [DOE Glossary of Electricity Terms]

Brouter: A combined bridge and router that operates without protocol restrictions, routes data using a protocol it supports, and bridges data it cannot route.     [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Browse: The activity of locating and displaying documents, primarily on the World Wide Web. Browsing is done with a browser. Browsing is frequently started by doing a search for a particular topic, only to find oneself hopping from one link to another just exploring the information available. Browsing is also called "Surfing the Net."  [Common Usage]

Browser: Any computer software program for reading hypertext. Note 1: Browsers are usually associated with the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Note 2: A browser may be able to access information in many formats, and through different services including HTTP and FTP.    [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]

Any computer software, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, that can be used to view documents on the Internet. Web browsers interpret the HTML computer language and display Web text and images. Not all Web browsers interpret HTML the same way. Thus, the exact same file may display differently when viewed on different Web browsers. Browsers are often referred to as “client software.” [Common Usage]

Buffer Overflow: A buffer overflow occurs when a program or process tries to store more data in a buffer (temporary data storage area) than it was intended to hold. Since buffers are created to contain a finite amount of data, the extra information - which has to go somewhere - can overflow into adjacent buffers, corrupting or overwriting the valid data held in them. Although it may occur accidentally through programming error, buffer overflow is an increasingly common type of security attack on data integrity. In buffer overflow attacks, the extra data may contain codes designed to trigger specific actions, in effect sending new instructions to the attacked computer that could, for example, damage the user's files, change data, or disclose confidential information. Buffer overflow attacks are said to have arisen because the C programming language supplied the framework, and poor programming practices supplied the vulnerability.   [WhatIs.com].  

Bus: a communication system connection between IEDs with communication facilities. [IEC61850-2]

Bus Topology: A network topology in which a single cable is used to carry the networks signals. Computing devices are attached to the central cable via taps. [Common Usage]

Business-to-Business (B2B): On the Internet, B2B (business-to-business), also known as e-biz, is the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. Although early interest centered on the growth of retailing on the Internet (sometimes called e-tailing), forecasts are that B2B revenue will far exceed business-to-consumers (B2C) revenue in the near future. According to studies published in early 2000, the money volume of B2B exceeds that of e-tailing by 10 to 1. Over the next five years, B2B is expected to have a compound annual growth of 41%. The Gartner Group estimates B2B revenue worldwide to be $7.29 trillion dollars by 2004. In early 2000, the volume of investment in B2B by venture capitalists was reported to be accelerating sharply although profitable B2B sites were not yet easy to find.   [WhatIs.com]  

Bypass: Bypass, in general, means either to go around something by an external route rather than going through it, or the means of accomplishing that feat. In network security, a bypass is a flaw in a security system that allows an attacker to circumvent security mechanisms to get system or network access. The actual point of entry is through a mechanism (either a hardware device or program, even just a piece of code) that enables the user to access the system without going through the security clearance procedures (such as authentication) that were set up by the system administrator. A bypass may be a mechanism put in place by an attacker, a flaw in the design, or an alternate access route left in place by developers. A bypass that is purposefully put in place as a means of access for authorized users is called a back door or a trap door. A crypto bypass is a flaw that allows data to circumvent the encryption process and escape, unencrypted, as plaintext.    [WhatIs.com]  

Byte: A sequence of contiguous bits (usually 8) considered as a unit. Note: In pre-1970 literature, "byte" referred to a variable-length bit string. Since that time, the usage has changed so that now it almost always refers to an 8-bit string. This usage predominates in computer and data transmission literature; when so used, the term is synonymous with " octet."   [T1 Glossary 2000: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms]