16ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16-QAM), one of the forms of QAM, is a modulation scheme. In QAM, the constellation points are usually arranged in a square grid with equal vertical and horizontal spacing, although other configurations are possible. Since in digital telecommunications the data is usually binary, the number of points in the grid is usually a power of 2 (2,4,8...). Since QAM is usually square, the most common forms of QAM are 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 128-QAM and 256-QAM. By moving to a higher-order constellation, it is possible to transmit more bits per symbol. However, if the mean energy of the constellation is to remain the same (by way of making a fair comparison), the points must be closer together and are thus more susceptible to noise and other corruption; this results in a higher bit-error rate and so higher-order QAM can deliver more data less reliably than lower-order QAM.

1xEV-DO, also known as Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO), is a third-generation (3G) cellular data technology for GPRS-enabled cellular phones, networks and handheld devices. Its bandwidth is up to 3.1Mbps.

1xRTT is a cellular data technology for CDMA networks. RTT stands for Radio Transmission Technology. 1xRTT has a theoretical maximum of 144 Kbps of bandwidth, but achieves a practical throughput of only 50 to 70 Kbps in the real world.

2G stands for the second generation of mobile wireless communication technology, which uses the digital technologies for the mobile communication. 2G technologies can be divided into TDMA-based (GSM) and CDMA-based standards depending on the type of multiplexing used. It allows slow data communications, but its primary focus is voice.

The 3.5G generally refers to the technologies beyond the well defined 3G wireless/mobile technologies. Currently, HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is considered the primary 3.5G technology which is a software upgrade of WCDMA and provides high-speed broadband wireless access.

3GPP Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE), also known as Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA or EUTRA) or UMTS Long Term Evolution, is specified in the 3GPP release 8. It is a key 3G technology to ensure the competitiveness of UMTS and provide a high-data-rate, low-latency and packet-optimized system. Besides peak data rates of 100 Mbps in downlink and 50 Mbps in uplink, a significant increase in spectrum efficiency and capacity as well as a significant latency reduction are planned. Commercial aspects like costs for installing and operating the network form also part of the requirements.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December, 1998. It's a co-operation between ETSI (Europe), ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ATIS (North America) and TTA (South Korea). The scope of 3GPP was to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. 3GPP specifications are based on the evolved GSM specifications, now generally known as the UMTS system.

Third generation GSM (3GSM) is the combination of the 3G nature of the technology and the GSM standard. The core technology that enables the 3GSM is called Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

6lowpan is the IETF working group to define the standards of IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6lowpan is the paragon that is aimed at allowing IPv6 packets to be sent to and received from PANs, more specifically over IEEE802.15.4 (ZigBee) -standard based networks. Likewise, IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee devices provide sensing communication-ability in the wireless domain.

8802.11a is an extension to IEEE 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band. 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. 802.11a, actually newer than 802.11b, offers significantly more radio channels than the 802.11b and has a shorter range than 802.11g. It isn't compatible with 802.11b.

802.11e, an IEEE standard, is the quality-of-service specification over a LAN, in particular, the 802.11 WiFi standard. The standard is considered of critical importance for delay-sensitive applications, such as Voice-over-Wireless IP and Streaming Multimedia. The protocol enhances the IEEE 802.11 Media Access Control (MAC) layer.

802.11i, also called Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA 2), is the standard for WLAN security. WPA 2 supports the 128-bit-and-above Advanced Encryption Standard, along with 802.1x authentication and key management features. It also uses TKIP (Temporal Kye Integrity Protocol) which rotates key periodically to improve WLAN security.