Glossary
2G (Second Generation Mobile Communications): Also known as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): A digital system for mobile communications that is based on a widely-accepted standard and typically operates in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands.
3G (Third Generation Mobile Communications): The third generation of mobile communications standards designed for carrying both voice and data generally using WCDMA or close variants. See also WCDMA.
3GPP (The Third Generation Partnership Project): A consortium comprising several standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. The initial goal was to develop a global technical specification for a 3G mobile phone system. Since then, the operations have been extended and today the main focus is on 5G networks.
4G (Fourth Generation Mobile Communications): The fourth generation of mobile communications standards based on LTE, offering IP data connections only and providing true broadband internet access for mobile devices. See also LTE.
5G (Fifth Generation Mobile Communications): The next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards. 5G is a complete redesign of network architecture with the flexibility and agility to support upcoming service opportunities. It delivers higher speeds, higher capacity, extremely low latency and greater reliability.
5G Advanced: The evolution of 5G enhancing and expanding the capabilities from immersive extended reality (XR) experiences to high-precision location, presence and timing technologies. 5G-Advanced also includes new AI/ML elements in order to improve overall performance and efficiency of the networks. The first 3GPP standardization release of the 5G-Advanced, Release 18, is due in 2024.
6G: The sixth generation standard currently under development for wireless communications technologies supporting cellular data networks. 6G networks are expected to exhibit even more heterogeneity (be even more diverse) than their predecessors and are likely to support applications beyond current mobile use scenarios. 6G is expected to be available around 2030 timeframe.
Access network: A telecommunications network between a local exchange and the subscriber station.
Airframe: Our 5G-ready, end-to-end data center solution that combines the benefits of cloud computing technologies with the requirements of the core and radio telecommunications world. It is available in Rackmount and Open Compute Project (OCP) form factors. This enables the solution to be very scalable: from small distributed latency-optimized data centers to massive centralized hyperscale data center deployment.
AirScale Radio Access: A 5G-ready complete radio access generation that helps operators address the increasing demands of today and tomorrow. The solution comprises: Nokia AirScale Base Station with multiband radio frequency elements and system modules; Nokia AirScale Active Antennas; Cloud RAN with Nokia AirScale Cloud Base Station Server and the cloud-based AirScale RNC (Radio Network Controller) for 3G; Nokia AirScale Wi-Fi; common software; and services which use intelligent analytics and extreme automation to maximize the performance of hybrid networks.
Anyhaul: Mobile transport solution for 5G networks covering microwave, IP, optical and broadband.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Autonomous and adaptive intelligence of machines, where machines have the ability to perform tasks in complex environments without constant guidance by a user and have the ability to improve performance by learning from experience.
Bandwidth: The width of a communication channel, which affects transmission speeds over that channel.
Base station: A network element in a mobile network responsible for radio transmission and reception to or from the mobile station.
Broadband: The delivery of higher bandwidth by using transmission channels capable of supporting data rates greater than the primary rate of 9.6 Kbps.
Carbon footprint: Greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, place, product, service. Expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Carbon handprint: Reduction of the carbon footprint of others, also called as avoided emissions. Expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Churn: A measure of the number of customers or subscribers who leave their service provider, e.g. a mobile operator, during a given time period.
Cloud: Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.
CloudBand: Our cloud management and orchestration solutions enabling a unified cloud engine and platform for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). See also NFV.
Cloud & Network Services: Our business group that creates value for both service providers and enterprise customers as demand for critical networks accelerates, leading the transition to cloud-native software and X as-a-service delivery models.
Converged core: Wireless and fixed access convergence within the core. As we move towards a 5G standalone core, service providers will be able to use a common set of control plane functions within the core to manage both wireless and fixed user plane functions. The ability of a unified control plane will simplify operations and provide independent location, scaling and lifecycle management capabilities.
Convergence: The coming together of two or more disparate disciplines or technologies. Convergence types are e.g. IP convergence, fixed-mobile convergence and device convergence.
Core network: A combination of exchanges and the basic transmission equipment that together form the basis for network services.
Devices & Services: Our former mobile device business, substantially all of which was sold to Microsoft.
Digital: A signaling technique in which a signal is encoded into digits for transmission.
Ecosystem: An industry term to describe the increasingly large communities of mutually beneficial partnerships that participants such as hardware manufacturers, software providers, developers, publishers, entertainment providers, advertisers and ecommerce specialists form in order to bring their offerings to market. At the heart of the major ecosystems in the mobile devices and related services industry is the operating system and the development platform upon which services are built.
Edge Cloud: Cloud deployment closer to end-user or a machine time application. Edge Cloud hosts applications which required low latency, like real time industrial applications or cloud gaming. Edge Cloud deployments also saves transport cost for the high volume data applications like video streaming.
eMBB: Enhanced Mobile Broadband
ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute): Standards produced by the ETSI contain technical specifications laying down the characteristics required for a telecommunications product.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA): Uses wireless networks to connect fixed locations such as homes and businesses with broadband services.
FRMCS: 5G railway system, evolution from GSM-R
Future X: A network architecture – a massively distributed, cognitive, continuously adaptive, learning and optimizing network connecting humans, senses, things, systems, infrastructure, processes.
GHG: Greenhouse gases are gases that cause the greenhouse effect
G.fast: A fixed broadband technology able to deliver up to 1Gbpsover very short distances (for example, for in-building use, also
called “Fiber-to-the-Building”). Launched in 2014, G.fast uses more frequencies and G.fast Vectoring techniques to achieve higher speeds.
GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network): A fiber access technology that delivers 2.5Gbps over a single optical fiber to multiple end points including residential and enterprise sites.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): A digital system for mobile communications that is based on a widely accepted standard and typically operates in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands. See also 2G.
GSM-R (GSM-Railway): An international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. A subsystem of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), it is used for communication between train and railway regulation control centers.
Internet of Things (IoT): All things such as cars, the clothes we wear, household appliances and machines in factories connected to the internet and able to automatically learn and organize themselves.
IP (Internet Protocol): A network layer protocol that offers a connectionless internet work service and forms part of the (Transmission Control Protocol) TCP/IP protocol.
IP (Intellectual Property): Intellectual property results from original creative thought, covering items such as patents, copyright material and trademarks, as well as business models and plans.
IPR (Intellectual Property Rights): Legal rights protecting the economic exploitation of intellectual property, a generic term used to describe products of human intellect, for example patents, that have an economic value.
IP/MPLS (IP Multiprotocol Label Switching): IP/MPLS is a routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from
one node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, thus avoiding complex lookups in a routing table and speeding traffic flows.
IPR licensing: Generally an agreement or an arrangement where a company allows another company to use its intellectual property (such as patents, trademarks or copyrights) under certain terms.
IP/Optical Networks: Our IP/Optical Networks business group provides the key IP routing and optical transport systems, software and services to build high capacity network infrastructure for the internet and global connectivity.
LTE (Long-Term Evolution): 3GPP radio technology evolution architecture and a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data. Also referred to as 4G.
Mission-critical networks/communications: One of the key elements of 5G. Mission-critical communications meets the needs of emergency responders such as emergency operations centers, fire departments, emergency vehicles, police, and search and rescue services, replacing traditional radio with new communications capabilities available to smartphone users.
Mobile broadband: Refers to high-speed wireless internet connections and services designed to be used from multiple locations.
Mobile Networks: Our Mobile Networks business group offers an industry-leading portfolio of radio access networks solutions, including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and Single-RAN, microwave radio links and cloud computing hardware platforms.
MPLS: Multiprotocol Label Switching, a routing technique for networks.
MSO: Multiple System Operators (MSO) are operators of multiple cable television systems. The majority of system operators run cable systems in more than one community and hence most of them are multiple system operators.
Networks segment: One of our three reportable segments until the end of 2020. As Nokia’s new operating model became effective on January 1, 2021, the reportable segments changed accordingly.
Network Infrastructure: Our business group that focuses on the building blocks and essential solutions of critical networks across all customer segments, using its technology leadership in IP Networks, Optical Networks, Fixed Networks, and Alcatel Submarine Networks to drive digitalization across all industries.
Net zero: Balance the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) released and the amount removed from the atmosphere.
NFV (Network Functions Virtualization): Principle of separating network functions from the hardware they run on by using virtual hardware abstraction.
Nokia Bell Labs: Our research arm engaged in discovering and developing the technological shifts needed for the next phase of human existence as well as exploring and solving complex problems to radically redefine networks.
Nokia Technologies: Our business group and a reportable segment focused on advanced technology development and licensing.
Non-Standalone (NSA): Network architecture that is built over an existing 4G network.
Nuage Networks: A Nokia brand, focused on creating Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions that simplify and automate communication service providers’ cloud networks and enterprise Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN).
Operating System (OS): Software that controls the basic operation of a computer or a mobile device, such as managing the processor and memory. The term is also often used to refer more generally to the software within a device e.g. the user interface.
Packet: Part of a message transmitted over a packet-switched network.
Platform: Software platform is a term used to refer to an operating system or programming environment, or a combination of the two.
PON (Passive Optical Network): A fiber access architecture in which unpowered fiber optic splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple end-points without having to provide individual fibers between the hub and customer.
Programmable world: A world where connectivity will expand massively, linking people as well as billions of physical objects – from cars, home appliances and smartphones, to wearables, industrial equipment and health monitors. What distinguishes the Programmable World from the Internet of Things (IoT) is the intelligence that is added to data to allow people to interpret and use it, rather than just capture it.
PSE-3: The PSE-3 chipset is the first coherent digital signal processor to implement Probabilistic Constellation Shaping (PCS), a modulation technique pioneered by Nokia Bell Labs.
RAN (Radio Access Network): A mobile telecommunications system consisting of radio base stations and transmission equipment.
ReefShark: Nokia brand for System-on-Chip family used in the baseband and radio products
SBT: Science Based Targets. Targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C
SDAN: Software Defined Access Network.
SDN (Software-Defined Network): Decoupling of network control and data forwarding to simplify and automate connections in data centers, clouds and across the wide area.
SD-WAN: Software-Defined Networking in a Wide Area Network (WAN) that simplifies and automates enterprise networks, seamlessly connecting users and applications, from branch office to cloud.
SEP (Standard-Essential Patent): Generally, patents needed to produce products which work on a standard, which companies declare as essential and agree to license on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Can be referred to as essential patent also.
SEP (Service Enablement Platform): Nokia cloud based product for developing radio domain applications with open standardized APIs.
Single RAN: Single RAN (S-RAN) allows different radio technologies to be provided at the same time from a single base station, using a multi-purpose platform.
Small cells: Low-powered radio access nodes (micro cells or picocells) that are a vital element in handling very dense data traffic demands. 3G and LTE small cells use spectrum licensed by the operator; Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum which is therefore not under the operator’s exclusive control.
Standalone (SA): Network architecture that allows independent operation of a 5G service without interaction with an existing 4G core and 4G radio network.
Technology licensing: Generally refers an agreement or arrangement where under certain terms a company provides another company with its technology and possibly know-how, whether protected by intellectual property or not, for use in products or services offered by the other company.
Telco cloud: Applying cloud computing, SDN and NFV principles in telecommunications environment, e.g. separating application software from underlying hardware with automated, programmable interfaces while still retaining telecommunications requirements such as high availability and low latency.
Transmission: The action of conveying signals from one point to one or more other points.
TXLE (Technical Extra-Large Enterprise): Technically sophisticated companies, such as banks, that invest heavily in their own network infrastructures to gain a key competitive advantage.
VDSL2 (Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line 2): A fixed broadband technology, the successor of ADSL. Launched in 2007, it typically delivers a 30Mbps broadband service from a street cabinet (also called a “Fiber-to-the-Node” deployment) over existing telephone lines.
VDSL2 vectoring: A fixed broadband technology launched in 2011, able to deliver up to 100Mbps over a VDSL2 line by applying noise cancellation techniques to remove cross-talk between neighboring VDSL2 lines.
Virtual Reality (VR): The simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.
VoLTE (Voice over LTE): Required to offer voice services on an all-IP LTE network and generally provided using IP Multimedia Subsystem, which is an architectural framework designed to deliver IP-based multimedia services on telecommunications networks; standardized by 3GPP.
WAN (Wide Area Network): A geographically distributed private telecommunications network that interconnects multiple local area networks.
WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access): A thirdgeneration mobile wireless technology that offers high data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices. Also referred to as 3G.
Webscale companies: Companies – such as Google, Microsoft, and Alibaba – which are investing in cloud technology and network infrastructure on an increasing scale to fulfill their needs for massive, mission-critical networks.
WING: Worldwide IoT Network Grid is a managed service that offers CSPs the ability to support their enterprise customers with global IoT connectivity across borders and technologies.
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network): A local area network using wireless connections, such as radio, microwave or infrared links, in place of physical cables.