# Information element

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An '''information element''', sometimes informally referred to as a '''field''', is an item in [Q.931](/source/Q.931)<ref>[http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-Q.931/en/ ITU-T Recommendation Q.931] Digital subscriber Signalling System No. 1: ISDN user-network interface layer 3 specification for basic call control</ref> and [Q.2931](/source/Q.2931)<ref>[http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-Q.2931/en ITU-T Recommendation Q.2931] Digital Subscriber Signalling System No. 2 – User-Network Interface (UNI) layer 3 specification for basic call/connection control</ref> messages, [IEEE 802.11](/source/IEEE_802.11) management frames,<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[IEEE-SA](/source/IEEE-SA) |title=IEEE 802.11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications |date=14 December 2016 |doi=10.1109/IEEESTD.2016.7786995 | version=(2016 revision)|isbn=978-1-5044-3645-8 }}</ref> and [cellular network](/source/cellular_network) messages sent between a [base transceiver station](/source/base_transceiver_station) and a mobile phone or similar piece of [user equipment](/source/user_equipment).<ref>[http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/124000_124099/124007/13.00.00_60/ts_124007v130000p.pdf 3GPP Technical Specification 24.007 as published by ETSI], Section 11.2.1</ref> An information element is often a [type–length–value](/source/type%E2%80%93length%E2%80%93value) item, containing 1) a type (which corresponds to the label of a field), a length indicator, and a value, although any combination of one or more of those parts is possible. A single message may contain multiple information elements.

The abbreviation '''IE''' is found in many technical specification documents from [3GPP](/source/3GPP). It is not uncommon for a single specification document to contain thousands of references to '''IE'''s.

==See also==
* [Mobile telephony](/source/Mobile_telephony)

== References ==
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Category:Telecommunications

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