Specifications

Glossary
100-8004-102G Airborne Wireless LAN Node Module Data Book
Page 57
Quatech, Inc. Confidential
MPDU
MAC Protocol Data Unit, the unit of data exchanged between two peer MAC
entities using the services of the physical layer (PHY).
MSDU
MAC Service Data Unit, information that is delivered as a unit between MAC
service Access Points (SAPs).
Peer-to-peer network
A wireless or wired computer network that has no server, central hub, or
router. All the networked PCs are equally able to act as a network server or
client, and each client computer can talk to all the other wireless computers
without having to go through an Access Point or hub. However, since there is
no central base station to monitor traffic or provide Internet access, the
various signals can collide with each other, reducing overall performance.
RADIUS
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service. A backend server that performs
authentication using Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). This server is
required by the IEEE 802.1X security standard.
RS-232
An EIA standard that specifies up to 20 Kbps, 50 foot serial transmission
between computers and peripheral devices.
RSSI
Receiver Signal Strength Indicator, expressed in dBm.
RTOS
An operating system implementing components and services that explicitly
offer deterministic responses, and therefore allow the creation of real-time
systems. An RTOS is characterized by the richness of the services it
provides, the performance characteristics of those services, and the degree
that those performance characteristics can be controlled by the application
engineer
(to satisfy the requirements of the application).
Service Set Identifier
(SSID)
An identifier attached to packets sent over the wireless LAN that functions as
a "password" for joining a particular radio network (BSS). All radios and
Access Points within the same BSS must use the same SSID or their packets
will be ignored.
SPI
Short for Serial Peripheral Interface, a full-duplex serial interface for
connecting external devices using four wires. SPI devices communicate using
a master/slave relationship over two data lines and two control lines.
Telnet
A virtual terminal protocol used (e.g., with the Internet) to enable users to log
into a remote Host.
TKIP
Temporal Key Integrity Protocol and is used in encryption. TKIP is an IEEE
802.11i standard and an enhancement to WEP security.
Transceiver
A device for transmitting and receiving packets between the computer and
the medium.
Transmission
Control Protocol
(TCP)
A commonly used protocol for establishing and maintaining communications
between applications on different computers. TCP provides full-duplex,
acknowledged, and flow-controlled service to upper-layer protocols and
applications.
UDP
Short for User Datagram Protocol, UDP is a connectionless protocol that, like
TCP, runs on top of IP networks. Unlike TCP/IP, UDP/IP provides very few
error recovery services, offering instead a direct way to send and receive
datagrams over an IP network. It's used primarily for broadcasting messages
or sending streaming data (e.g., video) over a network.
Wide Area Network
(WAN)
A communication system of connecting PCs (and other computing devices)
across a large local, regional, national, or international geographic area. Also
used to distinguish between phone-based data networks and Wi-Fi. Phone
networks are considered WANs and Wi-Fi networks are considered wireless
LANs.