In telecommunications, the term anisochronous refers to a periodic signal, pertaining to transmission in which the time interval separating any two corresponding transitions is not necessarily related to the time interval separating any other two transitions. It can also pertain to a data transmission in which there is always a whole number of unit intervals between any two significant instants in the same block or character, but not between significant instants in different blocks or characters.
In practice, anisochronous typically means that data packets are not arriving in the same order they were transmitted, thus dramatically altering the quality of a multimedia transmission (e.g. voice, video, music), or after processing to restore isochronicity, have had significant amounts of latency added. Isochronous and anisochronous are characteristics, while synchronous and asynchronous are relationships.
In telecommunications, asynchronous communication is transmission of data, generally without the use of an external clock signal, where data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. Any timing required to recover data from the communication symbols is encoded within the symbols.
In computing and telecommunications, a control character or non-printing character (NPC) is a code point in a character set that does not represent a written character or symbol. They are used as in-band signaling to cause effects other than the addition of a symbol to the text. All other characters are mainly graphic characters, also known as printing characters, except perhaps for "space" characters. In the ASCII standard there are 33 control characters, such as code 7, BEL, which rings a terminal bell.
ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data. It is maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988, with updates in 1991, 2000, 2004, and 2019, and an amendment in 2022. The standard provides a well-defined, unambiguous method of representing calendar dates and times in worldwide communications, especially to avoid misinterpreting numeric dates and times when such data is transferred between countries with different conventions for writing numeric dates and times.
In telecommunication, data signaling rate (DSR), also known as gross bit rate, is the aggregate rate at which data passes a point in the transmission path of a data transmission system.
The degree of isochronous distortion, in data transmission, is the ratio of the absolute value of the maximum measured difference between the actual and the theoretical intervals separating any two significant instants of modulation, to the unit interval. These instants are not necessarily consecutive. This value is usually expressed as a percentage.
In telecommunications, the term degree of start-stop distortion has the following meanings:
In telecommunications, effective transmission rate (average rate of transmission, effective speed of transmission) is the rate at which information is processed by a transmission facility.
In telecommunication, intersymbol interference (ISI) is a form of distortion of a signal in which one symbol interferes with subsequent symbols. This is an unwanted phenomenon as the previous symbols have a similar effect as noise, thus making the communication less reliable. The spreading of the pulse beyond its allotted time interval causes it to interfere with neighboring pulses. ISI is usually caused by multipath propagation or the inherent linear or non-linear frequency response of a communication channel causing successive symbols to blur together.
A sequence of events is isochronous if the events occur regularly, or at equal time intervals. The term isochronous is used in several technical contexts, but usually refers to the primary subject maintaining a constant period or interval, despite variations in other measurable factors in the same system. Isochronous timing is a characteristic of a repeating event whereas synchronous timing refers to the relationship between two or more events.
In telecommunications, a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) line code is a binary code in which ones are represented by one significant condition, usually a positive voltage, while zeros are represented by some other significant condition, usually a negative voltage, with no other neutral or rest condition.
A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter is a peripheral device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least significant to the most significant, framed by start and stop bits so that precise timing is handled by the communication channel. The electric signaling levels are handled by a driver circuit external to the UART. Common signal levels are RS-232, RS-485, and raw TTL for short debugging links. Early teletypewriters used current loops.
DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in February 1998. This system transmits compressed digital audio, digital video and other data in an MPEG transport stream, using coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing modulation. It is also the format widely used worldwide for Electronic News Gathering for transmission of video and audio from a mobile newsgathering vehicle to a central receive point. It is also used in the US by Amateur television operators.
In telecommunications, 8b/10b is a line code that maps 8-bit words to 10-bit symbols to achieve DC balance and bounded disparity, and at the same time provide enough state changes to allow reasonable clock recovery. This means that the difference between the counts of ones and zeros in a string of at least 20 bits is no more than two, and that there are not more than five ones or zeros in a row. This helps to reduce the demand for the lower bandwidth limit of the channel necessary to transfer the signal.
Modbus or MODBUS is a client/server data communications protocol in the application layer. It was originally designed for use with its programmable logic controllers (PLCs), but has become a de facto standard communication protocol for communication between industrial electronic devices in a wide range of buses and networks.
The RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) is a binary-encoded out-of-band signaling protocol that functions alongside the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). Its basic functionality and packet structure is defined in RFC 3550. RTCP provides statistics and control information for an RTP session. It partners with RTP in the delivery and packaging of multimedia data but does not transport any media data itself.
Continuous data protection (CDP), also called continuous backup or real-time backup, refers to backup of computer data by automatically saving a copy of every change made to that data, essentially capturing every version of the data that the user saves. In its true form it allows the user or administrator to restore data to any point in time. The technique was patented by British entrepreneur Pete Malcolm in 1989 as "a backup system in which a copy [editor's emphasis] of every change made to a storage medium is recorded as the change occurs [editor's emphasis]."
In a digitally modulated signal or a line code, symbol rate, modulation rate or baud rate is the number of symbol changes, waveform changes, or signaling events across the transmission medium per unit of time. The symbol rate is measured in baud (Bd) or symbols per second. In the case of a line code, the symbol rate is the pulse rate in pulses per second. Each symbol can represent or convey one or several bits of data. The symbol rate is related to the gross bit rate, expressed in bits per second.
An ABX test is a method of comparing two choices of sensory stimuli to identify detectable differences between them. A subject is presented with two known samples followed by one unknown sample X that is randomly selected from either A or B. The subject is then required to identify X as either A or B. If X cannot be identified reliably with a low p-value in a predetermined number of trials, then the null hypothesis cannot be rejected and it cannot be proven that there is a perceptible difference between A and B.
A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; at any given time it represents a real number within a continuous range of values.
This glossary of industrial automation is a list of definitions of terms and illustrations related specifically to the field of industrial automation. For a more general view on electric engineering, see Glossary of electrical and electronics engineering. For terms related to engineering in general, see Glossary of engineering.