Glossary - W
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Waveform - A graphical representation of the rise and fall of the electrical potential (voltage) on a pair of wires or some other signal over time. A classic example of a waveform is the spiky line displayed on a cardio-graph machine used to analyze the electrical activity created as the heart beats. In telephony, analog waveforms are translated into a series of binary values, called samples. These samples are taken 8,000 times a second, sent on to their destination, where they are translated back into a series of 8,000 changes in voltage that almost resembles the original analog signal.
Web Page - An HTML document accessible on the World Wide Web using a web browser.
Wide Area Network (WAN) - A computer network which usually spans larger geographic area, such as cities, counties, states, nations and planets. WAN's usually employ telephone-type topologies, like T1, T2, T5, ATM, etc. The Internet is held together by lots of WANs which hold together LANs, which network computers.
Wide Area Telecommunications Service (WATS) - WATS permits customers to make (OUTWATS) or receive (INWATS) long distance voice or data calls and to have them billed on a bulk rather than individual call basis. The service is provided within selected service areas, or bands, by means of special private-access lines connected to the public telephone network via WATS-equipped central offices. A single access line permits inward or outward service, but not both.
Wideband - Typically, the term wideband represents a medium intermediate between narrowband and broadband. Wideband is capable of transmitting at more than 64Kbps and less than 1.5Mbps.
Windshield Wiper Effect - Onset of overload in multichannel cable television systems caused by cross-modulation, where the horizontal sync pulses of one or more TV channels are superimposed on the desired channel carrier. Both black and white windshield wiping are observed and are caused by different mechanisms.
"Wired City" - The concept of television and other communications data, educational material, instructional television and information retrieval service that wired services can provide. Broadcast services must, of necessity, be limited by scarce spectrum space; wired services have theoretically unlimited channel capacity.
Wireless Cable - Uses microwaves frequencies to transmit programming to a small antenna at a subscriber's home.
World Wide Web (WWW) - The name given to all HTML documents which exist on all of the interconnected HTTP servers around the world. Originally developed in 1989 for the European Laboratory for Particle Physics to enable its users to share documents in a more graphical fashion.
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