List of Symbols and Abbreviations

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LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ms / Micro Seconds (1ms = 10-6 Second)
OFDM / Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA / Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed Access
DPA / Dynamic Packet Assignment
CTMC / Continuous Time Markov chain
DCA / Dynamic Channel Assignment
FBWA / Fixed Broadband Wireless Networks
WMAN / Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
MAC / Medium Access Control
WLAN / Wireless Local Area Network
DCF / Distributed Co-ordination Function
SRN / Stochastic Reward Net
HOL / Head of line
BSS / Basic Service Set
Effective Goodput / Ratio of successfully transmitted packets to the total admitted packets into the system
AMPS / Advanced Mobile Phone Service
TDMA / Time Division Multiple Access
CDMA / Code Division Multiple Access
GSM / Global System for Mobile Communication
DECT / Digital European Cordless Telephony
GPRS / General Packet Radio Service
EDGE / Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution
ITU / International Telecommunications Union
WCDMA / Wide-band CDMA
ETSI / European Telecommunications Standards Institute
CSMA / Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CSMA/CA / CSMA/Collision Avoidance
Wi-Fi / Wireless Fidelity (A certification that ensures interoperability of wireless devices with the same certification.)
AP / Access Point
WPAN / Wireless Personal Area Networks
PDA / Personal Digital Assistant
UWB / Ultra Wide-band
BS / Base Station
DSL / Digital Subscriber Link
MMDS / Multi-channel Multi-point Distribution Systems
ATM / Asynchronous Transfer Mode
LOS / Line of Sight
TDD / Time Division Duplexing
FDD / Frequency Division Duplexing
NLOS / Non-Line of Sight
HWN / Heterogeneous Mobile and Wireless Networks
MBWA / Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
MS / Mobile Station
MSU / Mobile Switching Unit
BSC / Base Station Controller
MSC / Mobile Station Controller
PSTN / Public Switched Telephone Network
HLR / Home Location Register
VLR / Visitor Location Register
AUC / Authentication Center
EIR / Equipment Identity Register
FDMA / Frequency Division Multiple Access
PN / Pseudo Noise
SSMA / Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
FHMA / Frequency Hopped Multiple Access
SDMA / Space Division Multiple Access
CSMA/CD / CSMA/Collision Detect
DAMA / Dynamic Assignment Multiple Access
PRMA / Packet Reservation Multiple Access
DAB/DVB / Digital Audio/Video Broadcasting
IDFT / Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform
ISI / Inter-symbol Interference
FH-OFDMA / Frequency Hopped OFDMA
BER / Bit Error Rate
FCA / Fixed Channel Assignment
MPA / Maximum Packing Algorithm
GSM PLMN / GSM Public Land Mobile Network
ACIS / Advanced Cellular Internet Service
PHY / Physical Layer
GPSS / Grant per Service Station
Ad-hoc Network / An Infrastructure-less, top-free Wireless Network
PCF / Point Coordination Function
DCF / Distributed Coordination Function
RTS / Request to send
CTS / Clear to send
NAV / Network Allocation Vector
ACK / Acknowledgement
BEB / Binary Exponential Backoff
DIFS / Distributed Inter-frame Space
SIFS / Short Inter-frame Spacing
EIFS / Extended Inter-frame Spacing
PIFS / PCF Inter-frame Spacing
CFP / Contention Free Period
CP / Contention Period
PC / Point Co-ordinator
SPN / Stochastic Petri-net
CTS / Clear To Send
CW / Contention Window
Atomic Sequence / A transmission of the following sequence
§  RTS (from Source)
§  CTS (from Destination)
§  Data (or MPDU from Source)
§  ACK (from the Destination)
FCFS / First Come First Serve
EDCF / Extended DCF
IBSS / Independent BSS
LAN / Local Area Network
maxMSDULifetime / A constant set in every station which tells how long to hold a MSDU in queue before dropping it in case it doesn’t get a chance to get transmitted.
MPDU / MAC PDU
MSDU / MAC Service Data Unit
GSPN / Generalized Stochastic Petri nets
ERG / Extended Reachability Graph
MRM / Markov Reward Model
PDF / Probability Density Function
PDU / Protocol Data Unit
QoS / Quality of Service
STA / Station
Super frame / Duration combining a CFP and a CP as scheduled by the hybrid coordinator.
WLAN / Wireless LAN