Glossary Terms - "F"

Facilities
Transmission lines, switches and other physical components used to provide telephone service.

Facility-based service providers
Telecommunication service providers that own and operate the physical facilities (also called plant). All ILEC, more than half the CLECs and a small portion of Long Distance service providers are facilities based providers. The alternative type of service is through Resale.

Fast Packet Switching
Packet Switching that supports both voice and data.

FCC (Federal Communications Commission
The regulatory agency established in 1934 for all interstate radio and electronic communications.

FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
An ANSI (American National Standards Institute) specified standard for fiber optic links with data rates up to 100 Mbps.

Feature Group A

1. Switched access service offered by a local exchange carrier.
2. A line-side access connection to an exchange carrier end office with an associated local telephone number. The objective is line access to and from any interexchange carrier.

Feature Group C
A trunk-side access to exchange carrier end-office switching systems and tandems for use in originating and terminating long-distance communications. Access is available for message telecommunications service to AT&T only.

Feature Group D
A trunk-side access to exchange carrier end-office switching systems and tandems. It provides the equal-access service that the former Bell operating companies must offer. For an interexchange carrier, Feature Group D offers call supervision, a uniform access code (10XXX), optional calling party identification, recording of access-charge billing details, and presubscription to a customer-specified interexchange carrier.

Fiber optic
A technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light waves. Fiber optics has several advantages over traditional metal communications lines: Fiber optic cables have a much greater bandwidth than metal cables. This means that they can carry more data. Fiber optic cables are less susceptible than metal cables to interference. Fiber optic cables are much thinner and lighter than metal wires. Data can be transmitted digitally (the natural form for computer data) rather than analogically.

The main disadvantage of fiber optics is that the cables are expensive to install. In addition, they are more fragile than wire and are difficult to split. Fiber optics. Fiber optics: is a particularly popular technology for local-area networks. In addition, telephone companies are steadily replacing traditional telephone lines with fiber optic cables. In the future, almost all communications will employ

56 Kbps A standard speed for V.35 interface, DDS service. and also the effective top speed of a robbed-bit 64 Kbps channel.

Firewall
Computer security that attempts to keep crackers out.

Four-Wire (Four-Wire Circuit)
A circuit or communications path consisting of two pairs of conductors (wires), one pair for transmitting and one pair for receiving.

Foreign Exchange (FX)
A service allowing for a company to provide a local appearance in an exchange other than the exchange the company is physically located in. All calls are carried from the local exchange area to the foreign exchange and originated to appear as if it originated at that location.

Fractional T1
A group of channels on a DS1 that are less than 24. The T1 must be channalized first.

Frame

1. The equipment in a common carrier office where the physical cross connections are made between circuits.
2. A logical transmission unit sent between data link layer entities that contains its own control information for addressing and error checking.

FX (Foreign Exchange)
A service that connects a customer’s location via leased lines to a remote exchange, providing the customer with local service at local rates.

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