About Us Glossary
AGA
The American Gas Association (AGA), founded in 1918, represents 202 local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the United States. AGA is an advocate for natural gas utility companies and their customers, and provides a broad range of programs and services for member natural gas pipelines, marketers, gatherers, international gas companies and industry associates. The AGA’s vision is to be the most effective and influential energy trade association in the United States while providing clear value to its membership.
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Analog
Analogue electronics (or analog in American English) are those electronic systems with a continuously variable signal. In contrast, in digital electronics signals usually take only two different levels. The term "analogue" describes the proportional relationship between a signal and a voltage or current that represented the signal.
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AO/AI
AO — Analog Output; AI — Analog Input
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API
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is a national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Members include producers, refiners, suppliers, pipeline operators and marine transporters, as well as service and supply companies. API serves many functions, including: advocating the industry, conducting industry research and producing statistics, and developing operation and equipment standards. API also offers industry certification programs and organizes seminars, workshops, conferences and symposia on public policy issues.
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Bluetooth
Bluetooth is an open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs).
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C Band
C band is a name given to certain portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as a range of wavelengths of light, used for communications. The IEEE C band and its variations, in particular, are microwave ranges used for certain satellite television broadcasts, and by some Wi-Fi devices, cordless phones, and weather radars. For satellite communications, the lower frequencies used by C Band perform better under adverse weather conditions than the Ku band or Ka band frequencies.
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Cry-Out Alarm
Cry-Out Alarm is a criteria in a SCADA system when an alarm alters the SCADA system; informing the SCADA system to divert its resources to the SCADA system.
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Data Base – Historian
An Historian Data Base is structured by organizing data sequentially based on the time data is recorded in the system.
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Data Base – Relational
A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model. The model in most common use today is the relational model.
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DCS
A distributed control system (DCS) refers to a control system usually of a manufacturing system, process or any kind of dynamic system, in which the controller elements are not central in location but are distributed throughout the system with each component sub-system controlled by one or more controllers. The entire system of controllers is connected by networks for communication and monitoring.
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Demand Scanning
Demand-Request a Poll
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DeviceNet
DeviceNet is a communication protocol used in the automation industry to interconnect control devices for data exchange. It uses Controller Area Network as the backbone technology and defines an application layer to cover a range of device profiles. Typical applications include information exchange, safety devices, and large I/O control networks.
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Digital
Digital electronics are electronics systems that use digital signals. Digital electronics are representations of Boolean algebra (also see truth tables) and are used in computers, mobile phones, and other consumer products. In a digital circuit, a signal is represented in one of two states or logic levels. The advantages of digital techniques stem from the fact it is easier to get an electronic device to switch into one of two states, than to accurately reproduce a continuous range of values.
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DO/DI
DO — Digital Output; DI — Digital Input
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DSL
DSL or xDSL, is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop, although in recent years, the term digital subscriber line has been widely adopted as a more marketing-friendly term for ADSL, which is the most popular version of consumer-ready DSL. DSL can be used at the same time and on the same telephone line with regular telephone, as it uses high frequency, while regular telephones use low frequency.
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Earth Station
A satellite earth station is a communications facility with a microwave radio transmitting and receiving antenna and required receiving and transmitting equipment for communicating with satellites.
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EDGE
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE is considered a 3G radio technology and is part of ITU's 3G definition,[1]. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003 — initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States.
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EFM
Electric Flow Meter (EFM) measures the fluid flow (liquid or gas). Usually, pressure transmitters and temperature transmitter measure the static pressure, temperature, and differential pressure across an office. The EFM calculates the fluid flows from temperature, static pressure, and differential pressure. Ultrasonic EFM is another meter that measures flow.
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Ethernet
Ethernet is standardized as IEEE 802.3. The combination of the twisted pair versions of Ethernet for connecting end systems to the network, along with the fiber optic versions for site backbones, is the most widespread wired LAN technology. It has been in use from around 1980[1] to the present, largely replacing competing LAN standards such as token ring, FDDI, and ARCNET.
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Fieldbus
Fieldbus (or field bus) is the name of a family of industrial computer network protocols used for real-time distributed control.
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Geosynchronous Orbit Satellites
A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period matching the Earth's sidereal rotation period. This synchronization means that for an observer at a fixed location on Earth, a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit returns to exactly the same place in the sky at exactly the same time each day. In principle, any orbit with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period is technically geosynchronous, however, the term is often used to refer to the special case of a geosynchronous orbit that is circular (or nearly circular) and at zero (or nearly zero) inclination, that is, directly above the equator. This is customarily called a geostationary orbit.
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GPRS (EGPRS)
GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE is considered a 3G radio technology and is part of ITU's 3G definition,[1]. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003 — initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States.
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Guided Tower
Guided Towers are towers with guide wires to increase the structural strength. Guide wires are usually determined by the manufacturer's specifications.
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Handshaking
Handshaking is an automated process of negotiation that dynamically sets parameters of a communications channel established between two entities before normal communication over the channel begins. It follows the physical establishment of the channel and precedes normal information transfer. It is usually a process that takes place when a computer is about to communicate with a foreign device to establish rules for communication.
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Hart
HART is a proprietary communication protocol with diagnostic functionality.
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HMI
Human Machine Interface is the aggregate of means by which people — the users — interact with the system — a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tool. The user interface provides means of:
• Input, allowing the users to manipulate a system
• Output, allowing the system to indicate the effects of the users' manipulation.
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Hot Spot
A Hot-spot, or Hot spot or HotSpot is a venue that offers internet access over a wireless LAN. It should not be confused with a Hot-zone, which is an internet-sharing wireless wide area network.
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IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (read eye-triple-e) is an international non-profit, professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity.
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IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards carrying out wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are implemented by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802).
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KU Band
The Ku band (pronounced "kay-yoo") is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to "K-under" (in the original German, "Kurz-unten", with the same meaning) — in other words, the band directly below the K-band. In radar applications, it ranges from 12 to 18 GHz according to the formal definition of radar frequency band nomenclature in IEEE Standard 521-2002. Ku band is primarily used for satellite communications, most notably NASA's Tracking Data Relay Satellite used for both space shuttle and ISS communications. Ku band satellites are also used for backhauls and particularly for satellite from remote locations back to a television network's studio for editing and broadcasting. The band is split into multiple segments that vary by geographical region by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). NBC was the first television network to uplink a majority of its affiliate feeds via Ku band in 1983.
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LAN
A local area network or (LAN) is a computer network covering a small to medium sized physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic place, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.
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LEO Satellites
A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 – 2,000 km, or 100 – 1,240 miles above the Earth's surface.
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Licensed Radio
Licensed Radio is an RF system that broadcasts signals that are greater than 1 Watt.
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Line of sight
Line-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation including light emissions traveling in a straight line. The rays or waves are diffracted, refracted, reflected, or absorbed by atmosphere and obstructions with material and generally cannot travel over the horizon or behind obstacles.
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Master-Slave
Master/slave is a model of communication where one device or process has unidirectional control over one or more other devices. In some systems a master is elected from a group of eligible devices, with the other devices acting in the role of slaves.
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MMSCFD
Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day
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ModBus
Modbus is a serial communications protocol published by Modicon in 1979 for use with its programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
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Modem
Modem (from modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio.
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Mono-pole Tower
A tower made up of pole (or a series of poles).
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MSCFD
Thousand Standard Cubic Feet per Day
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Multi-Variable Sensor/Transmitter (MVT/MVS)
Multivariable Transmitters are instrumentations that measure pressure and temperature.
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NEMA
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association or NEMA is a U.S.-based association, which was created on September 1, 1926, when the Associated Manufacturers of Electrical Supplies and the Electric Power Club merged. It is headquartered in Rosslyn, Virginia. It sets many common standards used in electrical products among its over 400 members, and helps to develop and promote the International Electrotechnical Commission's standards in the U.S. NEMA has established a range of standards for electrical equipment enclosures. For more detailed and complete information, see the NEMA Standards Publication 250. NEMA defines standards for many commonplace electrical interconnects, as well as outlining manufacturing standards for electrical products, such as various grades of electrical enclosures.
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NOC
Network Operations Center
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Node
A node may either be a data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE) such as a modem, hub, bridge or switch; or a data terminal equipment (DTE) such as a digital telephone handset, a printer or a host computer (for example a router), a workstation or a server.
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Omni Antenna
Omni Antenna is an antenna system that transmits information uniformly in one plane with a directional pattern in the perpendicular plane. They are usually used to exchange information from one distinct point to many points.
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PC
Personal Computer (also Laptop)
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PCN
Process Control Network
A process control network (PCN) is a communications network used to transmit instructions and data between control and measurement units and SCADA equipment. PCNs have specific requirements in order to be acceptable, including robustness, determinacy and compatibility. Robustness requires the system to have connection redundancy, reduced sensitivity to electromagnetic interference, and good error checking and correction. Determinacy assures that each device has guaranteed access to the network, and compatibility allows SCADA and distributed control systems to communicate with control and measurement equipment from other units.
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PLC
Programmable Logic Controller
A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a digital computer used for automation of electromechanical processes. A PLC is a real-time system, since output results must be produced in response to input conditions within a bounded time. PLCs are designed for multiple input and output arrangements, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise and resistance to vibration and impact.
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Polling
Polling is requesting information from nodes (meters) in the field (area of interest), usually on a predetermine schedule.
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PSIA
Pounds per Square Inch Absolute
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PSIG
Pounds per Square Inch Gauge
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RS232
RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232) is a standard for serial binary data signals connecting between a DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) and a DCE (Data Circuit-terminating Equipment). It is commonly used in computer serial ports.
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RS485
RS-485 or RS485 (EIA-485) is an electrical specification of a two-wire, half-duplex, multipoint serial communications channel. Since it uses a differential balanced line over twisted pair (like EIA-422), it can span relatively large distances (up to 4,000 feet (1,200 m)).
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RTU
Remote Terminal Unit
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SCADA
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) generally refers to an industrial control system — a computer system monitoring and controlling a process.
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Self Supporting Tower
Lattice steel structure
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Serial
Serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at one time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent together, on a link with several parallel channels. Serial communication is used for all long-haul communication and most computer networks, where the cost of cable and synchronization difficulties make parallel communication impractical. At shorter distances, serial computer buses are becoming more common because of a tipping point where the disadvantages of parallel busses (clock skew, interconnect density) outweigh their advantage of simplicity (no need for serializer and deserializer (SERDES)). Improved technology to ensure signal integrity and to transmit and receive at a sufficiently high speed per lane have made serial links competitive. The migration from PCI to PCI-Express is an example.
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SG
Specific Gravity of gas
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Spread Spectrum Radio
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. It is utilized as a multiple access method in the frequency-hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA) scheme.
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SQL
SQL is a programming language for querying and modifying data and managing databases. SQL was standardized first by the ANSI and later by the ISO. Most database management systems implement a majority of one of these standards and add their proprietary extensions. SQL allows the retrieval, insertion, updating, and deletion of data. A database management system also includes management and administrative functions. Most — if not all — implementations also include a command-line interface (SQL/CLI) that allows for the entry and execution of the language commands, as opposed to only providing an application programming interface (API) intended for access from a graphical user interface (GUI).
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Switch
Switch refers to a variety of digital active devices such as transistors and logic gates whose function is to change their output state between two logic levels or connect different signal lines, and even computers and network switches (whose function is to provide connections between different ports in a computer network). The term 'switched' is also applied to telecommunications networks, and signifies a network that is circuit switched, providing dedicated circuits for communication between end nodes, such as the public switched telephone network. The common feature of all these usages is they refer to devices that control a binary state: they are either on or off, closed or open, connected or not connected.
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Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows the remote measurement and reporting of information of interest to the system designer or operator.
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Twisted pair cable
Twisted pair cabling is a form of wiring in which two conductors (the forward and return conductors of a single circuit) are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs.
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Unlicensed Radio
Unlicensed Radio is a low power radio (under 1 Watt) that can be used by operators for radio communication.
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Ultrasonic EFM
Ultrasonic Electronic Flow Meter measures fluid flow (liquid or gas). An ultrasonic EFM consists of an ultrasonic meter, pressure transmitter, and temperature transmitter. The ultrasonic meter measures the speed of gas by measuring the speed of ultrasound travels through the gaseous medium.
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WAN
Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries), in contrast with personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs), which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet.
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WiFi
Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance for certified products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards (also called Wireless LAN (WLAN) and WiFi). The term Wi-Fi often is used by the public as a synonym for wireless Internet (WLAN); but not every wireless Internet product has a Wi-Fi certification, which may be because of certification costs that must be paid for each certified device type.
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WiMAX
WiMAX, meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access. The technology provides up to 3 Mbit/s broadband speed without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access). The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL."
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WLAN
A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless local area network that links two or more computers or devices using spread-spectrum or OFDM modulation technology to enable communication between devices in a limited area. This gives users the mobility to move around within a broad coverage area and still be connected to the network.
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WWAN
A WWAN differs from a WLAN (wireless LAN) in that it uses Mobile telecommunication cellular network technologies such as WIMAX (although it's better applied into WMAN Networks), UMTS, GPRS, CDMA2000, GSM, CDPD, Mobitex, HSDPA or 3G to transfer data.
It can use also LMDS and Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet. These cellular technologies are offered regionally, nationwide, or even globally and are provided by a wireless service provider, typically on paid basis. WWAN connectivity allows a user with a laptop and a WWAN card to surf the web, check email, or connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from anywhere within the regional boundaries of cellular service. Various computers now have integrated WWAN capabilities (Such as HSDPA in Centrino). This means that the system has a cellular radio (GSM/CDMA) built in, which allows the user to send and receive data.
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XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements. XML's purpose is to aid information systems in sharing structured data, especially via the Internet, to encode documents, and to serialize data; in the last context, it compares with text-based serialization languages such as JSON, YAML and S-Expressions.
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Yagi Antenna
Yagi Antenna is a directional antenna used for transmitting signal from one distinct location to another distinct location.
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