Acronyms. If you are in the world of tech, acronyms are a fact of life regardless of whether you focus on servers, storage, wireless, cellular, etc. The one thing I dislike most is when you sit through a presentation and the presenter fails to define what in the world the acronyms they are using mean. I’m not asking for every single one to be defined, since obviously there will be things like DHCP/DNS that are universally known, but at least help me out while listening to you so I’m not missing half the discussion looking things up.

With the blending of cellular and Wi-Fi moving forward with the release of 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) and 5G, I thought I should write a quick post of cellular terms (from our friends at Cradlepoint) that may help fellow Wi-Fi engineers as things like CBRS & private LTE begin to become commonplace in our daily lives. By commonplace I don’t mean that many of us are actively using this new technology, but I believe that as a technologist it is important for us to at least be familiar with some of these terms. Just think how impressive it will sound for a Wi-Fi person to be throwing around questions like, “So how many evolved node B’s will we need to handle the coverage and capacity?” when someone comes to you to talk about installing a CBRS overlay in your organization!

Glossary of Cellular Terms

• AMBR – Aggregated Maximum Bit Rate
• APN – Access Point Name
• ARP – Allocation and Retention Policy
• DL – Downlink
• DRB – Data Radio Bearer
• EBI – EPS (Evolved Packet System) Bearer Identity
• eNB – Evolved Node B
• EPS – Evolved Packet System
• E-RAB – E-UTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) Radio Access Bearer
• E-UTRAN – Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
• GBR – Guaranteed Bit Rate
• HSS – Home Subscriber Server
• IP – Internet Protocol
• IP-CAN – IP Connectivity Access Network
• LTE – Long Term Evolution
• MBR – Maximum Bit Rate
• MME – Mobility Management Entity
• PCC – Policy and Charging Control
• PCRF – Policy and Charging Rules Function
• PDN – Packet Data Network
• PF – Packet Filter
• P-GW – Packet Data Network Gateway
• QCI – QoS Class Identifier
• SDF – Service Data Flow
• S-GW – Serving Gateway
• SPR – Subscriber Profile Repository
• TFT – Traffic Flow Template
• UE – User Equipment
• UL – Uplink

While things are still evolving with CBRS, they are in fact moving forward. Feel free to check out the CBRS alliance page for more info on the progress being made.

And for more info on CBRS and just how it will affect our lives from my perspective, stay tuned to my blog next month for some exciting news!

-Scott

*Graphic courtesy of techplayon.com