Any time you start a new career, there’s a dictionary sized list of words you need to learn before you start to feel knowledgeable about the industry you work in. To make things even more intimidating, your coworkers are probably so used to wireless industry jargon that they use acronyms to keep things concise.

The problem? If you don’t know the acronym, how are you supposed to know what the heck they’re talking about? The wireless design industry has a whole slew of baffling acronyms that can look like gibberish to an outsider. Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of the most common wireless acronyms heard around the globe as well as a brief explanation on what they refer to. Next time your boss asks you which BTS and APs can be found on the BOM, you can reply with confidence!

Wireless Industry Acronyms:

AP: Access Points. Networking hardware that allows a Wi-Fi compliant device to connect to a wired network.

BTS: Base Transceiver Station. The network entity which communicates with the mobile station.

BOM: Bill of materials. A document outlining all the equipment necessary to install and deploy a wireless network.

DAS: Distributed Antenna System. A network of spatially separated antenna nodes connected to a common source that provides wireless service within a geographic area or structure. You can learn more about DAS here.

KPI: Key Performance Indicators. A performance indicator is a type of performance measurement. In the context of the wireless industry, it refers to metrics intended to measure the accuracy and capacity of wireless networks.

LTE: Long-Term Evolution. A standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals.

MAPL: Maximum acceptable path loss.

MIMO: Multiple-input and multiple-output. A method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link using multiple transmission and receiving antennas to exploit multi path propagation.

RF: Radio Frequency.

SINR: Signal to interference plus noise ratio. A quantity used to give theoretical upper bounds on channel capacity (or the rate of information transfer) in wireless communication systems.

WLAN: Wireless local area network.

Want more helpful wireless network design resources? Check out our wireless reference posters.

Have you seen or heard a wireless industry acronym that we didn’t list here? Ask us about it in the comments and we’ll explain it to you!