| Term |
Definition |
| N Connector |
A coaxial connector used for Ethernet 10Base5 thick coax segments. |
| N-AMPS |
Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Services. |
| NAND |
Not AND. |
| Nanosecond |
One billionth of a second. |
| Narrowband |
A transmission channel whose bandwidth (frequency range) is less than that of a typical voice channel. |
| Narrowband ISDN (N-ISDN) |
A network standard combining voice and data services up to 2.048Mb/s and including the Basic Rate (2B+D) and Primary rate (24B or 32B) interfaces supported via copper wire. |
| Native Mode |
The use of a communications protocol within the environment for which it was developed or optimized. |
| NC |
Not Connected. |
| NDFA |
Neodymium doped fiber amplifier. |
| Near End Crosstalk |
Transfer of energy (normally observed as transmission noise) between circuits at the source (near) end of a transmission link. |
| Near Instantaneous Companding |
The very fast quantizing of an analog signal into digital representation. |
| NEDA |
National Electronics Distributors Association. |
| NEMA |
National Electrical Manufacturers Association. |
| Network |
An interconnected group of devices utilizing a method or architecture which eliminates the need for having every device directly connected to every other device. |
| Network Interface |
The interface between a network (based on it's specific requirements) and a computational device. An example is an Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 controller which interfaces a specific computer (or other device ) to an Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 local area network. |
| Network Interface Module (NIM) |
The interface provided, up to two per carrier, for the public switched telephone network (PSTN) used by V.32 dial backup modules (DBMs) and dial/lease modems, and for the switched 56 kbps digital service used by the 2-wire and 4-wire switched 56 DBMs. |
| Network Layer |
The layer in a layered network architecture responsible for choosing routes or circuits for transmission and packet switching decisions if implemented. |
| Nibble |
A group of 4 bits, half a byte. |
| NICAM 728 |
A technique of implementing digital stereo audio for PAL video using another audio subcarrier. The bit rate is 728 kbps. It is discussed in BS.707 and ETS 300163. NICAM 728 is also used to transmit non-audio digital data in China. |
| NMI |
National Microelectronics Institute. |
| NMOS |
Negative-channel Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. |
| NMT |
Nordic Mobile Telephone. |
| Noise |
Portions of a signal in a transmission medium which are the result of external influences and are NOT part of the original transmission. |
| Noise Suppresser |
A device which is used in conjunction with, or built into, a receiver for the purpose of reducing or eliminating transmission noise. |
| Non-Adaptive Routing |
A routing method which cannot adapt to, or accommodate, changes in a network. |
| Non-Blocking Switch |
A switching system where a connection path always exists for each attached device. |
| Non-Linear Quantization |
Quantization in which the intervals are not all equal. This keeps the quantization distortion as low as possible. |
| Non-Routing Node |
A node in a network which cannot perform routing functions. May also be called an end node. |
| Non-Switched Line |
A transmission link between two devices which is permanently installed. This type of connection may also be referred to as a "hard wired" connection. |
| NPN |
Negative Positive Negative. |
| NSP |
Native Signal Processing. |
| NTC |
Negative Temperature Coefficient. |
| NTSC |
Abbreviation for National Television Standards Committee - The US television standard signal format. |
| Null Modem |
A device which connects two terminal (or computational) devices together by emulating the characteristics of a modem. Similar to a modem eliminator. |
| Null Suppression |
A data compression technique whereby streams of null characters are identified at a transmission source and replaced by two (or more) control characters. The first character indicates the null suppression and then one or more indicates the number of null characters removed. The receiver uses this information to replace the removed data. |
| NVRAM |
Non-Volatile Random Access Memory |
| N-Way |
Name originally used for the Ethernet "auto-negotiation" algorithm. |
| Nyquist Theorem |
A formula stating that two samples per cycle of a specific analog bandwidth signal are sufficient to characterize it. |
