Terminology
| IEEE 802.11ac | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 5 GHz ISM bands with combined channel rates up to 1Gbps (using MIMO). |
| IEEE 802.11ad | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 60 GHz band with combined channel rate up to 7 Gbps. |
| IEEE 802.11ax | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 2.4 and 5 GHz band with combined channel rates up to 11 Gbps. Planned to be released in the course of 2018. |
| IEEE 802.11a | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 5 GHz band at 54 Mbps maximum data rate |
| IEEE 802.11b | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 2.4 GHz band at 11 Mbps maximum data rate |
| IEEE 802.11d | It´s an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 specification with support for "regulatory domains" to support country specific frequency use. |
| IEEE 802.11g | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in the 2.4 GHz band at 54 Mbps maximum data rate |
| IEEE 802.11h | This standard addresses potential interference of Wi‑Fi products with military radar systems operating in 5GHz band. Interference mitigation is achieved by dynamic frequence selection (DFS) and transmit power control (TPC). A Wi‑Fi product supporting this feature will listen for radar systems before actively using a channel in 5GHz band. |
| IEEE 802.11n | A variant of IEEE 802.11‑based Wi‑Fi that operates in both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands at up to 600 Mbps maximum data rate (using MIMO). |
| IEEE 802.11p | This standard covers enhanced Wi‑Fi operation in radio bands protected for vehicular communications. The intent is to support Intelligent Transportation Systems |
| IEEE 802.11i | This standard covers encryption and authentication methods for IEEE 802.11 –based systems |
| IEEE 802.11r | This "fast‑roaming" standard sustains continuous connectivity of a moving devices by allowing seamless, fast, and secure handoffs from one accesspoint to another. |
| IEEE 802.11s | This standard defines the mechanisms for implementation and operation of mesh networking within IEEE 802.11‑based products |
| IEEE 802.11w | This amendment increases the security around management frames to protect against specific attacks using various methods e.g. protection against unauthorized disconnect frames. |
| IEEE 802.15.4 | This IEEE standard covers the operation of low‑power low‑rate personal area networks. Its specifies the physical layer and is the basis for the ZigBee, ISA100.11a, wirelessHART and Thread. |
| ADAS | Advanced driver‑assistance systems |
| ADR | Automotive Dead Reckoning: This technology provides postioning data in vehicles when GNSS signals are not available or obscured by, for example, buildings or within tunnels. The technology uses extrapolation of the position found by GNSS using data from external sensors. Sensors may include wheel rotation counters, electronic gyroscopes, and accelerometers. |
| antenna | The most important essential component of all u‑blox products. Antenna types used within u‑blox products are: patch, chip, PIFA. External antenna types suitable for use with u‑blox products: patch, active patch, chip, "monopole*" vertical, printed dipole, helical, PIFA. Other special‑case antenna types are loop, Yagi, fractal. The effectiveness of an antenna depends upon its ability to capture incoming RF power or radiate and focus outgoing RF power. Underlying all antenna design and implementation are fundamental laws of physics and electromagnetic fields. Critical parameters are adequate surface area to capture and radiate electromagnetic power, and inherent efficiency in converting EM fields between radiative medium (air, vacuum, etc.) and electro‑conductive medium (copper wires, etc.). Modules that have already an antenna integrated are the SAM‑M8Q and CAM‑M8 series. * The monopole is in reality a dipole antenna with the "pole" as one element of the dipole and the necessary ground plane as the other element of the dipole. |
| anti‑jamming | Technology used to diminish or detect the effect of undesired RF signals that interfere with the reception of desired signals. The function may be provided through use of band‑pass and band‑stop filters on receivers, transmitters, or both, and by digital signal processing techniques on receivers. |
| anti‑spoofing | Anti‑spoofing technology detects misrepresentation, falsification or substitution of the identity of the source of communications signals or messages. The concept covers the technology of GNSS, internet communications, wired and wireless links. Spoofing is usually deliberate with disruptive or malicious intent, but in some cases complex RF signals (e.g. HDTV), may inadvertently be interpreted as legitimate sources. |
| AssistNow | AssistNow accelerates calculation of position by delivering satellite data such as ephemeris, almanac, accurate time, and satellite status to the GNSS receiver via wireless networks or the internet. This aiding data enables u‑blox GNSS receivers to compute a position within seconds, even under poor signal conditions. |
| AssistNow Autonomous | AssistNow Autonomous is an embedded feature available free ‑of‑charge that accelerates GNSS positioning by capitalizing on the periodic nature of GNSS satellite orbits. |
| AssistNow Online | AssistNow using live orbit data. AssistNow Online and AssistNow Offline are u‑blox’s end‑to‑end AssistNow A‑GNSS services for OEM customers and their end users. These services boost GNSS acquisition performance for devices with or without network connectivity. AssistNow Online and AssistNow Offline can either be used alone or in combination. |
| AssistNow Offline | AssistNow using server‑calculated orbit predictions. AssistNow Online and AssistNow Offline are u‑blox’s end‑to‑end AssistNow A‑GNSS services for OEM customers and their end users. These services boost GNSS acquisition performance for devices with or without network connectivity. AssistNow Online and AssistNow Offline can either be used alone or in combination. |
| ATEX | An industry certification declaring that the referenced electronic device meets criteria allowing its use in an environment where there is risk of fire or explosion. |
| beacon | A periodic Wi‑Fi broadcast that announces the presence, status and SSID of a Wi‑Fi Access Point |
| BeiDou | A global navigation satellite system developed and controlled by the country of China. |
| Bluetooth | A standardized radio technology intended for continuous, moderate speed, short‑distance communications in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band . It was developed in the late 1990’s by Ericsson, Intel and Nokia. |
| Bluetooth class | Parameter indicating maximum transmit power capability. Class 1 = 20 dBm, Class 2 = 4 dBm, Class 3 = 0 dBm |
| Bluetooth SIG | The Special Interest Group formed by several manufacturers to standardize the protocols and air‑interfaces and expand the applications of Bluetooth technology. |
| Bluetooth 5 | An enhanced standard for Bluetooth low energy devices. Three main features extended range, increased data rate, and extended advertising capabilities (for more feature‑rich beacons). |
| Bluetooth BR/EDR | Bluetooth Basic Rate (BR) and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), which was previously referred to as Bluetooth Classic. Bluetooth BR/EDR is intended for audio connections and streaming applications and file transfers. |
| Bluetooth dual mode | Refers to a product that can operate concurrently or alternately within Bluetooth BR/EDR and Bluetooth low energy network environments |
| Bluetooth low energy | Bluetooth low energy technology is ideal for applications using periodic transfer of small amounts of data where ultra low power consumption is the focus. It uses a much faster connection mechanism than Bluetooth BR/EDR enabling the radio to be on only for very short period of time. This is why it is particularly useful for sensors in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. |
| Bluetooth mesh | Bluetooth mesh enables many‑to‑many Bluetooth low energy networking solutions. Bluetooth mesh is available as a software update to Bluetooth low energy and can be used with any of the Bluetooth low energy versions 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0. Mesh extends the coverage area significantly, even further than Bluetooth 5, as Bluetooth nodes can forward messages acting as relays in a cooperative network. |
| capillary network | In a capillary network, a short range (mesh) network is connected to the cloud via a gateway, typically using low bandwidth LTE cellular technologies. In an example of smart street lights, capillary networks let local authorities track the status of an entire network of street lights on the cloud, visualize the collected data on an online dashboard, and control the street lights from afar. Capillary networks are good options when data throughput is low and latency is secondary. They offer extensive geographical coverage, even into otherwise hard to reach locations, since data can flow across the network from node to node as long as internode distances are kept short. |
| concurrent | Chips or modules with concurrent reception are those that can receive from two or more Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) constellations at the same time. Because early GPS receivers tuned only one radio band, they could only receive the U.S. “Global Positioning System” satellite group. The u‑blox 7 products could receive either GPS or Russia’s GLONASS satellites – non‑concurrently since they had only a single channel radio receiver. The u‑blox M8 products contain two radio receivers to listen to two satellite groups in different frequency bands concurrently. In addition, using CDMA techniques, other non‑GPS satellites could also use the GPS radio band, thus increasing “concurrency” to more satellites. |
| correction service | A service provider monitors and distributes correction data to compensate for various error types in a GNSS system as a service. The service enables the accuracy of the positioning to be more accurate compared to an uncompensated system. |
| dead reckoning | The technique of estimating current position by extrapolating from a last known with additional measurement data from motion sensors. Motion sensors include wheel rotation counters, gyroscopes, accelerometers, altimeters. |
| dual‑band Wi‑Fi | Current Wi‑Fi technology is licensed to operated in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific Medical) radio bands. Early Wi‑Fi used only the 2.4G Hz band. Some products evolved to use only the 5 GHz band for less congestion. Dual band products operate alternatively between the two bands, and some products can operate concurrently in both bands. |
| dual‑mode Bluetooth | Refers to product than can operate concurrently or alternately within Bluetooth BR/EDR and Bluetooth low energy network environment. |
| functional safety | The capacity of a vehicle to safely respond to errors, either at the firmware or hardware level, while protecting those on board. Functional safety is a prerequisite for safe autonomous vehicles. It is, however, by no means sufficient. Functional safety is car‑centric in that it deals with errors that might occur on the vehicle. |
| high precision GNSS | The u‑blox name for the technology behind NEO‑M8P, ZED‑F9P, and the u‑blox F9 technology platform. High precision GNSS technology provides positioning accuracies down to the centimeter‑level. This is achieved by combining Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, with Real Time Kinematics (RTK) and multi‑band technology. |
| host‑based | Products where stacks and applications run on another microcontroller (host) are called host‑based products. The host must have a hardware interface that matches the communications products. At u‑blox, this term applies to some Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, Wi‑Fi and V2X products. |
| Iono‑free | A multi‑band receiver can estimate the effect of the ionosphere through a linear combination of measurements from the two bands, thus freeing itself from the effects of the ionosphere. The ionosphere effect is, together with multipath, the biggest contributor to the GNSS error budget. Eliminating this effect can allow a GNSS receiver operating in standalone (no correction services) to improve accuracy. |
| Levels of Driving Automation | The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) has defined six levels of driving autonomy. Level 0, no automation, though the system may issue warnings. Level 1, "hands on": Assisted driving system that still requires driver to carry out all lane holding and lane change maneuvers. Level 2, "hands off": Partly automated systems that carry out lane changing/holding actions autonomously in special application cases. Level 3, "eyes off": basic automated driving in which the driver will be able to let go of the wheel in special application cases but will have to be prepared to take over if necessary. Level 4, "mind off": Fully automated driving in which the driver will not be necessary for safe driving in defined areas and circumstances. Level 5, "steering wheel optional": Driverless vehicle in all use cases. For example, a robotic taxi whose passenger is unlicensed to drive. |
| multiradio | The concept where a u‑blox module includes multiple radios covering distinct features such as Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, cellular transceivers and GNSS receivers. |
| NIST | Nation Institute of Standards and Technology |
| OSR | Observation State Representation, used for GNSS correction data |
| SAE | Society of Automotive Engineers is a U.S.-based, globally active professional association that develops standards for engineering professionals in various industries. Among other standards, they have defined six levels of driving automation. |
| secure boot | This is a security technique for any programmable device (microcontroller and flash memory, for example) that prevents and/or detects if any changes are made to the software code contained in any changeable memory. The intent is to prevent unauthorized “hacking” of the embedded software. |
| SSR | State Space Representation, used for GNSS correction data |
| stand‑alone | u‑blox short range radio stand‑alone products include Bluetooth and Wi‑Fi modules that execute their own stack and have firmware managing the Bluetooth or Wi‑Fi hardware. This is as opposed to u‑blox host‑based products, which rely on an associated host microcontroller. In Positioning products, this means the receiver has all the vital components and technologies to achieve the desired performance on the chip. There is some ambiguity in some cases where it implies that the device operates without correction services. In some cases, it is used to imply that it does not require the host microcontroller to particpate in calculating its position. |
| TTFF | Time‑To‑First‑Fix This GNSS term refers to the time taken to achieve a position fix after a specifically configured startup event. For example, a ”cold start” TTFF for a GNSS product is the time from complete power‑off with no memory or external aiding to achieving a position fix, whereas a “hot start” TTFF is the time to achieve a position fix after a short duration power‑off with internal memory and timekeeping powered to maintain critical data and time information. Due to the randomness of events and inherent noise in decoding satellite signals, TTFF is a statistical metric where results must be qualified by a description of the test environment and procedure. |
| u‑center | The u‑blox u‑center GNSS Evaluation Software provides a useful platform for product evaluation, configuration, testing and real‑time performance visualization of u‑blox GNSS receiver products. |
| UDR | Untethered Dead Reckoning refers to a GNSS solution where local inertial sensors provide motion data that allows position computation to continue while GNSS signals are obscured or compromised. Unlike ADR, which uses data collected from the vehicle’s sensor network such as wheel ticks and forward or reverse direction, UDR requires no such connection to vehicle’s network. |
| Wi‑Fi | This is the marketing name (owned by the Wi‑Fi alliance) for short‑range wireless local area network following the IEEE standards IEEE 802.11 –xx. There are several different evolutions of 802.11‑based technology. Currently, Wi‑Fi operates in the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz ISM bands, whereas V2X operates in the protected 5.9 GHz DSRC band. |