duty cycle

1. The proportion of time that a system, device, or component on intermittent duty is operating, rather than remaining idle. The duty cycle includes the time starting, running, stopping, and idling and generally is expressed as a percentage or fraction.A compressor, for example, that operates for 1 minute and then shuts off for 99 minutes, is said to have a duty cycle of 1⁄100, or 1 percent. 2. In pulse systems, such as digital fiber optic transmission systems (FOTS) or baseband digital electrical transmission systems, the ratio of the sum of all pulse durations to the total period, during a specified period of continuous operation, with the pulse duration, including the rise to peak power and the fall to zero power. See also baseband, digital, FOTS, and pulse.

• facsimile (fax)
• Facsimile over Internet Protocol (FoIP)
• fair use policy
• fallback modem
• Family Radio Service (FRS)
• fantail circuit
• far-end cross talk (FEXT)
• farther
• fast busy signal
• FAST (Framed ATM over SONET/SDH Transport)
• fast packet services
• fast retrain
• fat access point
• fat AP (fat Access Point)
• fat client
• FATE (Frame-based ATM Transport over Ethernet)
• fatware
• fault management
• fax emulation
• fax (facsimile)
• fax-on-demand (FOD)
• fax-on-demand (FOD)
• Fax over Internet Protocol (FoIP)
• Fax over Internet Protocol (FoIP)
• fax relay