On-Line Encyclopedia - P

The Maui Communications Networks
On-Line Encyclopedia

Alphabetical List Of Definitions For Technical Terms

P
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P2P (Person-to-Person)
A P2P application is intended to allow a person to interact with another person. This is in contrast with a B2B application where a business interacts with another business (to place wholesale orders, for example) or a P2B application (where a person orders product from a business).

PAN (Personal Area Network)
Although some definitions of terms such as LAN, MAN, and WAN, depend on the geographical area covered by the network, we prefer a definition that also takes into account the technology used. In general, a PAN (Personal Area Network) covers an area of thirty feet. A PAN is typically mobile, and centered on a single person. The major PAN technology in use today is Bluetooth, although infrared could also be considered a PAN technology.

PBX (Private Branch Exchange)
A PBX is a small, privately-owned telephone switch to which in-building phones are connected. In essence, this is a smaller version of the telephone switches that the phone company uses in a central office location. The PBX allows switching between in-building phone extensions without using service of the phone company. 

PDA
PDA is an outdated term, now typically just referred to as a "mobile device" or "smart phone." The acronym stands for "personal data assistant", and is a device with many of the same computing and communication capabilities as a notebook computer, but build in a small, typically hand-held size. They are often designed to act as organizers, note takers, or communication devices. PDAs can be obtained with aural output for the hearing impaired, and with Braille displays and keyboards for the visually impaired. Many PDAs have options allowing them to connect to a Wi-Fi network for data exchange and Internet access. In addition, the convergence of PDA and cell phone technology brings the combination of Wi-Fi and cellular communication to the realm of the PDA.

PHY
The abbreviation for the Physical layer of device connectivity. A PHY standard defines cable types, connectors, electrical signals, radio frequencies, and methods for representing binary 1s and 0s through some type of "wiggling" of the electromagnetic (or electrical) signal.

POTS ("Plain Old Telephone Service")
The term (pronounced just like the metal cooking containers you find on a stove!) refers to legacy telephone service provided through a single twisted-pair telephone cable (as found in many residential installations). POTS can provide up to a 52 Kbps data transfer rate with modulated digitized data impressed on the voice circuit through a modem. Digital communication lines (such as ISDN) are not POTS.

PSTN ("Public Switched Telephone Network")
The PSTN is the phone system to which business and residential telephones connect worldwide. There are both analog and digital aspects to the PSTN with "POTS" (Plain Old Telephone Service) being used to refer to the legacy analog 2-wire phones and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) being used to refer to digital telephone services.
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