Exchange

1. Sometimes used to refer to a telephone switching center - a physical room or building. Outside North America, telephone central offices are called "Public Exchanges."

2. A geographic area established by a common communications carrier for the administration and pricing of telecommunications services in a specific area that usually includes a city, town, or village. An exchange consists of one or more central offices and their associated facilities. An exchange is not the same as a LATA (Local Access Transport Area), which defines the area, in a state served by a Bell telephone company, in which the company can provide service. A LATA consists of several adjacent exchanges. (More on that soon!)

3. A term that refers to one of the Fibre Channel "building blocks," composed of one or more non-concurrent sequences for a single operation. (More on that in a future month!)