The Cable Center

This glossary of cable and telecommunications terms is intended to enhance your understanding of this dynamic industry. We are able to present this information with the generous help of CableLabs - consult their website for the most up-to-date information about cable technology.

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Ka-band
33 to 36 GHz (gigahertz) frequency band used by satellites. Orbital location of two-way satellite data services provided by DBS companies.

Kerberos
A secret-key network authentication protocol that uses a choice of cryptographic algorithms for encryption and a centralized key database for authentication.

Key handling epoch
The time interval within the application processing that starts with the delivery of a user interface (UI) event to the application and ends with the notification to the platform that the application has completed all actions that may either cause the platform to forward that same key to another application, or influence how the platform will handle the subsequent key. In the case of the execution engine, this notification consists of returning from a key handling callback.

Keys
Keys are numeric assignments for the various calling features an ISDN adapter supports, like call drop, transfer and hold. Also called buttons, keys get their names from the various feature buttons on an advanced multi-line voice phone. Or a mathematical value input into the selected cryptographic algorithm.

Key Distribution Center (KDC)
A network service that supplies tickets and temporary session keys.

Key Exchange
The swapping of public keys between entities to be used to encrypt communication between the entities.

Key Management
The process of distributing shared symmetric keys needed to run a security protocol.

Key Pair
An associated public and private key where the correspondence between the two are mathematically related, but it is computationally infeasible to derive the private key from the public key.

Keying Material
A set of cryptographic keys and their associated parameters, normally associated with a particular run of a security protocol.

Keyspace
The range of all possible values of the key for a particular cryptographic algorithm.

Kilo (K)
Meaning one thousand. Communications and computer terminology, however, uses the term K or Kilo differently. In communications terminology, one K is equal to 1000, but when measuring computer memory or disk space, one K is equal to 1024.

KiloBits Per Second (Kbps)
One Kbps is equal to 1000 bits transmitted in one second. See also K.

Kinescope Recording
A film recording made by a motion picture camera designed to photograph a television program directly from the front of a television tube. Often called a “kine.”

Ku-band
The group of microwave frequencies from 12 to 18 GHz; the band of satellite downlink frequencies from 11.7 to 12.2 GHz.