DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms were used in the documentation:

Antenna – a conductor or set of conductors used to radiate RF energy into space or to collect if energy
from space or to do both.

Antenna Gain – refers to the directivity gain of an antenna compared to a reference antenna (isotropic
antenna).

Attenuation – progressive decrease of power density or signal power as distance increases.

Azimuth angle – the horizontal pointing angle of an earth station antenna.

Bandwidth – The difference between the highest usable frequency of a device (upper frequency limit)
and the lowest usable frequency of the device (lower frequency limit).

Bit Error Rate (BER) – empirical (historical) record of a system’s actual bit error performance.

Bit Error – empirical (historical) record of a system’s actual bit error performance.

Channel – refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire or to a logical connection over
a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel.

Clutter Loss – attenuation due to trees and buildings in the front of the antenna be propagated and back
by the ionosphere.

Communication System – the totality of mechanism that provides information link between source and
destination.

Contour Lines – curves that connect contiguous points of the same altitude, in other words, every point
on the market line 100m elevation is 100m above mean sea level.

Decibel (symbol dB) – means of expressing change of power level with respect to specific reference
power level: dBm, dBk, dBµ, dBW.

Diffraction – the ability of two electromagnetic transmissions to intermix when they cross each other’s
path.

Directional Antenna – an antenna that radiates most effectively on only one direction.

Directivity – the ability of an antenna to radiate or receive more energy in some directions than in
others.

Dispersive Fade Margin – gains in the equipment which are factored in because of technical
improvements on the system and how they improved the information signal itself.

Distortion – signal alteration due to imperfect response of the system.

Diversity Technique – the techniques used to improve the overall performance of the system.

Earth Bulge – refers to equivalent sea level height.

Fading – the fluctuation in signal strength at a receiver due to the interference between two waves
which generally left the same source but arrived at the destination by different paths.

Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) – the output power on the transmitter side. Especially signal
reflections from the terrain and beam banding due to variations in the atmosphere.

Fade Margin – measure of how much signal attenuation due to the multipath and rain fading can be
accommodated by the radio system without exceeding a minimum level of performance.

Free Space – space that does not interfere with the normal radiation and propagation of waves.

Free Space Loss – radio transmission loss disregarding variable factors (a theoretical condition). Free
Space Propagation Model – used to predict the received signal strength when the transmitter and
receiver have a clear and unobstructed Line-of-Sight between them.

Frequency – the number of times a periodic action occurs in a unit of time, expressed in Hertz.

Fresnel Clearance – is the criterion to determine whether the earth is sufficiently removed from the
radio horizon of signal to allow free space propagation.

Fresnel Zone – series of concentric ellipsoid surfaces which surrounds the straight line path between the
antennas.

Full Duplex – ability to transmit and receive signals at the same time.

Half-Duplex – transmission can occur in both directions but not at the same time.

Hertz (symbol Hz) – measure of frequency equal to one cycle per second; named after Heinrich Rudolph
Hertz (1857-1894), a German physicist who studied electromagnetism.

Hop – a single transmission path from transmitter to receiver.

Improvement Threshold – this is the point at which the RF carrier-to-noise ratio is equal to 10dB.

Interference – contamination by extraneous signals usually man-made or a form similar to the desired
signal.

Isotropic Receive Level – output power on the receiver side.

K Factor – ratio of a hypothetical effective earth radius over 6470km.

Line-of-Sight (symbol LOS) – straight line from a radar antenna to a target.

Major lobe – the maximum lobe in the radiation pattern in which the greatest amount of radiation
occurs.

Mean-Time-Before-Failure (MTBF) – The average length of time that a component or system will
perform before failure occurs.

Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) – the time required to get a system up and running after failure.

Microwave – are generally described as electromagnetic waves with frequencies that range from
500MHz to 300GHz or more.
Microwave Communication – high radio frequency link specifically designed to provide signal connection
between to specific points.

Microwave Radio – propagates signal through Earth’s atmosphere between transmitters and receivers
often located on top of towers.

Multi-path Fading – the result of signal attenuation due to the influence of climate and terrain.

National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) – is a government agency that exercises jurisdiction

over the supervision, adjudication and control over all telecommunications services throughout the
Philippines.

Net Path Loss – the sum of all the gains and losses within the path length. Path Analysis – means of
determining the system performance as a function of the desired path length, required configuration,
and prevailing climate and terrain characteristics of the area under consideration.

Path Profile – graph showing the path of the beam relative to the Earth’s surface indicating high and low
contours taken from a set of topographical maps.

Path Unavailability – percent of time that the system is expected to operate without outage.

Point-to-Multipoint – a communication link from a certain station towards two or more stations.

Point-to-Point – a communication link between two stations.

Power Output – the power of the radio signal as it leaves the RF unit.

Propagation – movement of electromagnetic front as it moves away from the source.

Propagation Models – used in predicting the average received signal strength at a given distance from
the transmitter.

Radio Frequency (symbol RF) – any frequency of electromagnetic energy capable of propagation into
space

Radio wave – generally called an electromagnetic wave because it is made up of a combination of both
electric and magnetic fields.

Radome – a dome-shaped cover made from a material through which radio waves can pass used to
protect antenna.

Receive Signal level (RSL) – is the magnitude of the signal receive by a receiving antenna. Receiver – an
electronic device that converts a radio signal from a modulated radio wave into usable information.

Receiver Sensitivity – the minimum signal level required for proper receiver operation.

Receiver Thermal Noise – absolute noise threshold. Receiving Antenna – the device used to pick up the
RF signal from space.

Reflection – the ability of electromagnetics or transmission to bounce off on a relatively smooth surface.
Refraction – is the change in direction of wave propagation due to a change in its transmission medium.

Reliability – the assurance that a component will perform in a specified manner for a specified time
under a set of specified conditions.

Repeater – is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher
power, or onto other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.

Signal – time-varying quality such as voltage and current.

Space Diversity – This is the two separate antenna and receivers are used for each single transmitter.

Surface Wave – radio waves that travel along the contours of the earth there by being highly attenuated.

Super high frequencies (SHF) – are signals in the 3 GHz to 30 GHz range and are include the majority of
the frequencies used for microwave ad satellite radio communications systems.

System Gain – the sum of the transmitter power output and the receiver sensitivity.

Topographic Maps – also called contour maps, topo maps or topo quads (for quadrangles), are maps
that show topography, or land contours, by means of contour lines.

Transmission line – cable that connects the transmitter to the antenna or the antenna to the receiver.

Transmission Line Loss (TLL) – the power loss that occurs the signal travels in a bounded medium.

Transmission Medium – a means of transferring intelligence from point to point, includes light, smoke,
sound, wire lines, and radio frequency waves.

Transmitter – a collection of electronic components and circuits designed to convert the information
into a signal suitable for transmission over a given communication medium.

Transmitted Power – it is the amount of microwave carrier output, usually expressed in dBm (decibel
reference 1milliwatt).

Transmission Medium – a means of transferring intelligence from point to point, includes light, smoke,
sound, wire lines, and radio frequency waves.

Transmitting Antenna – the device used to send the transmitted signal energy into space.

Unavailability – expression of the degrees to which a system, subsystem, or equipment is not operable.

Unfaded Received Signal – signal entering the receiver in the absence of multipath and rain fading.

Unidirectional – describes a device which radiates or receives energy more efficiently from a single
direction than from all other directions.

Waveguide – a single hollow metallic conductor, either rigid or flexible, which transfers microwave
energy from the RF unit to the antenna.

Waveguide Loss – it is the amount of loss, usually expressed in dB per unit length (dB/ft. or dB/m) of
signal as it travels in the waveguide.
Watt – the scientific unit of electrical power, rate of doing work at the rate of one joule per second;
named after a Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt (1736-1819).

Wavelength (symbol λ) – length or distance between successive points of equal amplitude and phase on
a wave.

Wide band – digital channels having high speed transmission.

Wireless Communication – the transfer of information in a short or long distances without the use of a
wire or simply wireless.