ssion path between two or more points, provided by a common carrier. Glossary fading fading The reduction in intensity of the power of a received signal. In this phenomenon, which generally affects microwave or radio transmission, atmospheric, electromagnetic, or gravi- tational influences cause a signal to be deflected or diverted away from the target receiver. Fast Ethernet A standard for high-speed Ethernet that has a rate of 100Mbps. fast hopping A signal-processing scheme that supports high data rates with very low packet and delay losses (i.e., latencies) over a distributed all-IP wireless network. fast packet switching A packet-processing technology that has streamlined protocol han- dling, including Frame Relay and ATM. fault A condition that causes any physical component of a system to fail to perform in accept- able fashion. fault tolerance The capability of a program or system to operate properly even if a failure occurs. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) A regulatory agency established by the Communications Act of 1934 that is charged with regulating all electrical and radio communica- tions in the United States. FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) A full-duplex technique used when there is a signifi- cant contiguous spectrum allocated and when synchronization between the base stations is not possible. Each direction (incoming and outgoing) occupies a different portion of the frequency band, and a rather large portion of the spectrum is consumed. FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) A 100Mbps, fiber-based token-passing ANSI standard. FDDI consists of dual fiber-optic counter-rotating rings, each capable of supporting 100Mbps data rates. FDDI is defined for fiber-optic cable, but it has a twisted-pair alternative called CDDI. FDDI II is an enhanced version of FDDI that supports isochronous transmission (for voice and video) as well as the packet-oriented (both asynchronous and synchronous) traffic handling of FDDI. FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) A technique of dividing the bandwidth of a co