Appendix A
Glossary
Category 5e (Cat5e)
A high-quality type of cable, used for gigabit
Ethernet (1000BaseT) connections. When
purchasing Ethernet cables, always look for
Category 5e cable or higher.
Coaxial cable (coax)
A thin wire, used to connect your television and
Telephony Modem to the cable TV system. You
can buy coax from any electronics retailer and
many discount stores.
CPE
Customer Premise Equipment. This is the
equipment that is plugged in to the Telephony
Modem; typically a computer or hub.
Cross-over
An Ethernet cable used to connect two hubs (or
a hub and a cable modem) together. Also, some
Ethernet hubs may have built-in cross-over on
one or more ports (which eliminates the need
for a cross-over cable).
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. An IP
protocol used to provide an IP address and
location of services (such as DNS and TFTP)
needed by a device connecting to the network.
DHCP allows the service provider to configure
your computer's networking software for you.
DNS
Domain Name Service (Server). An IP service
that associates a domain name (such as
www.example.com) with an IP address.
DOCSIS
Data Over Cable System Interface Specification.
The interoperability standards used for data
communications equipment on an HFC network.
Downstream
In an HFC network, the direction from the
head-end to the subscriber. Some older cable
documentation may refer to this as the forward
path.
EMTA
Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapter. An
MTA device that is integrated with a cable
modem.
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