---
title: Glossary
id: "en:tpm:ROOT:glossary.adoc"
site: en
component: tpm
module: ROOT
version: 3.0
lang: en
url: "https://help.rtlscloud.io/en/tpm/3.0/glossary.html"
source_repo: "https://github.com/iot-invent/rtlscloud-tpm.git@3.0.x"
source_path: docs/en/modules/ROOT/pages/glossary.adoc
---

# Glossary

The terms of this application in the meaning they carry here. Where a term means something different in another application, it says so.

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Beacon | A BLE transmitter at a fixed place. If its position is recorded, every tag that sees it can be located from it. A beacon marked as [Gateway](#term-gateway) lends its position to the tags it sees itself. |
| Cell | A mobile network cell a tag is logged into. The **serving cell** is the one it is connected to; **neighbour cells** are the ones it can additionally receive. A cell covers a wide area, which is why it is the least precise source of a position. |
| Client | The credentials with which a third-party system collects positions and decisions. A client is authorized through tag groups: it receives the events of the groups assigned to it, and no others. |
| Custom location | A position you recorded yourself — for a cell, a WiFi access point or a beacon. Together they form your own position database, which is consulted before any chargeable external service. This application has no location tree; in [IoT Spaces](../../iot-spaces/3.0/glossary.md#term-location) "location" means a node of such a tree. |
| Decision event | The record of a single positioning decision: which sources were available, which one won, and what came out of it. The diagnostic view for the question of where a position came from. |
| Device | A cellular tag, or a BLE device a tag observes. Elsewhere: in [IoT Spaces](../../iot-spaces/3.0/glossary.md#term-device) a device is a piece of equipment installed in a space, such as an anchor or a gateway. |
| Gateway | A property of a beacon, not a device of its own. A beacon marked as gateway sees other tags and lends its own position to each of them. Elsewhere: in [IoT Spaces](../../iot-spaces/3.0/glossary.md#term-gateway) a gateway is an IoT gateway through which devices reach the cloud. |
| Ignored, Enabled, Disabled | The state of a recorded cell, WiFi access point or beacon. **Enabled** means it is used for positioning, **Disabled** that it is not. **Ignored** goes further: an entry so marked is removed from the message before anything is evaluated — the right setting for a mobile hotspot or a WiFi in a vehicle, which would otherwise place a tag wherever it last was. |
| IMEI, IMSI, ICCID | The three identifiers of a cellular device. The **IMEI** identifies the hardware, the **IMSI** the subscriber, and the **ICCID** the SIM card itself. They are used to find a tag and to match it with the connectivity provider’s records. |
| Position | Where an object is. Either a coordinate in a coordinate system or an identifier such as a location or an address. |
| Position cache | The memory of the positioning. It stores which position an online service returned for a given radio environment, so a tag reporting from an environment already known costs nothing. The cache applies across all tenants — a mobile network cell is at the same place for everyone — and its entries expire on their own after about a week. |
| Positioning | Deriving the position of a tag from what it observes: beacons, WiFi access points and mobile network cells. The sources are consulted in a fixed order, from the most precise to the coarsest. |
| Provisioning | Assigning a tag that is already reporting to a tenant and a group, together with the configuration sent to it. Unlike onboarding, this does not establish the connection: a cellular tag connects on its own, and its record is created on first contact. |
| Online positioning service | An external provider that determines a position from cells and WiFi access points. Its requests are chargeable, which is why it is asked only when your own recordings and the position cache have nothing to offer. |
| Tag | A cellular device that reports to the cloud on its own. Tags are not created here — a tag appears in the list as soon as it reports for the first time. It belongs to exactly one tenant and has no space. Elsewhere: in [Tracking](../../tracking/3.0/glossary.md#term-tag) and [IoT Spaces](../../iot-spaces/3.0/glossary.md#term-tag) a tag is a BLE tag attached to an asset. |
| Tag group | A grouping of tags within a tenant. Its purpose is authorization rather than organization: a client receives exactly the events of the groups assigned to it. |
| Telemetry | The state a tag reports about itself — battery, signal strength, temperature, movement. Not a position, but often the explanation for one that is missing. |
| Tenant | An isolated organizational unit. Users, groups, spaces, devices, assets and tags always belong to exactly one tenant, and no data is visible across tenants. |
| TPM | Tag Provisioning and Management, the name of this application. It terminates the network protocols of cellular tags, derives their position and records every decision. |
| Trigger | What made a tag report: the start or the end of a movement, or a schedule. The trigger is part of the message and explains why a position exists at that moment. |
| WiFi access point | A WiFi network a tag can see. Their set identifies a place well, even without measuring signal strength. Access points that move — a hotspot, a vehicle WiFi — should be set to **Ignored**. |