Telecommunications Glossary Filled Cable: A telephone outside plant cable construction for direct buried installation in which the cable core is filled with a material that will prevent moisture from entering or passing through the cable. Flame Resistance: Measure of a material’s ability not to propagate flame once the source of heat is removed. Flammability: Measure of a material’s ability to support combustion. Foam Skin Cable: A cable utilizing a foamed polyolefin inner layer covered by a solid polyolefin skin as the conductor insulation. Frequency: The number of cycles, now expressed as hertz, by an alternating current in one second. The hertz is equivalent to the older unit cycles per second. Gauge: A term used to denote the physical size of a wire. Ground: 1) An electrical term meaning to connect to the earth or other large conducting body to serve as an earth thus making a complete electrical circuit; 2) A wire intended to be used for grounding (also called grounding conductor). Helical Stripe: A continuous, colored, spiral stripe applied over the outer perimeter of an insulated conductor for circuit identification purposes. Hygroscopic: Capable of absorbing moisture from the air. Impact Strength: A test designed to ascertain the abuse a cable configuration can absorb, without physical or electrical breakdown, by impacting with a given weight, dropped from a given height, in a controlled environment. Impedance: The total opposition that a circuit offers to the flow of alternating current at a particular frequency. It is a combination of resistance R and reactance X, measured in ohms. Inductance: The property of a circuit or circuit element that opposes a change in current flow, thus causing current changes to lag behind voltage changes. It is measured in henrys. Insulated Wire: A conductor of electricity covered with a non-conducting material. Insulation: A non-conductive material usually surrounding or separating two conductive materials. Often called the dielectric in a radio frequency cable. Insulation Resistance: That property of an insulating material which resists electrical current flow through the insulating material when a potential difference is applied. Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN): A digital data communications network providing full integration of data, voice and video. Interconnect Companies: Companies which sell, install and maintain telephone systems for end users. Interexchange Carrier (IXC): A long-distance telephone carrier authorized to carry transmissions between local access and transport areas. Internet Protocol (IP): The set of rules that defines how information is packaged and addressed for delivery across the Internet. Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company that offers consumers and businesses access to the internet and other related services. Interstices: In cable construction, the spaces, valleys or voids between or around the cable’s components. Jacket: A material covering over a wire insulation or an assembly of components. An overall jacket on a complex cable grouping. Also called a sheath. Lay: A term used in cable manufacturing to denote the distance of advance of one member of a group of spirally twisted members, in one turn, measured axially. Local Area Network (LAN): A network spanning a limited geographical area, providing data communications between computers and peripherals, and switching equipment. Local Exchange Carrier (LEC): A telephone company that provides the dial tone to the end consumer. Incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are the Bell Operating companies and smaller independent phone companies that originally provided local phone services to specific geographic communities on a regulated, monopoly basis. CLECs are competitive local carriers created out of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Local Number Portability (LNP): The practice of letting a customer switch service from one local company to another without having to change their telephone number. Longitudinal Wrap: A tape applied longitudinally with the axis of the core being covered, as opposed to a helical, or spiral, tape wrapped core. Marker Thread: A colored thread laid parallel and adjacent to the strands of an insulated conductor which identifies the cable manufacturer. It may also denote a temperature rating or the specification to which the cable is made. Mil: 1/1000 of an inch. Moisture Resistance: The ability of a material to resist absorbing moisture from the air or when immersed in water. Mutual Capacitance (Cm): The capacitance between two conductors when all other conductors, including the shield, are short circuited to ground. National Electrical Code (NEC): A consensus standard published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and incorporated in OSHA regulations. Network: 1) Series of points connected by communications channels; 2) Network of telephone lines normally used for dialed telephone calls; 3) Network of communications channels connected to the use of one customer. For purposes of data communications applications, components in a common geographical area, served by a common computer, or performing a common function may be defined as one network. Also defined as one or more interconnected data links. Ohm: A unit of electrical resistance, the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere. Outside Plant (OSP): All cables and wires extending outward from the network protectors on the main distribution frame to connect the terminal equipment to the Outside Plant. Pair: Two wires forming a single circuit, held together by twisting, binding, or a common jacket. Parallel: A construction in which two or more conductors are laid parallel and surrounded and separated by an insulating material. PASP: A cable sheath consisting of an inner polyethylene (P) jacket, corru gated aluminum (A) shield, corrugated steel (S) and an outer polyethylene (P) jacket. PIC: An abbreviation for Plastic Insulated Conductor: conductors covered with an extruded coating of plastic. Plasticizer: A chemical agent added in compounding plastics to make them softer and more flexible. Technical Information 33
