Query Basics
A query is simply a description of an information need. Your query input can be a single word, multiple words or a phrase. What this means is that your query — the description of your information need — can be as detailed as you like. Don't worry about providing too many words; the more words, the better. Additional words in your query will help the search engine refine your search and return the most relevant documents. On the other hand, it will do a pretty good job of figuring out what documents are interesting to you even if your query is vague.
For example, let's say you're searching the web site for documents about the Tellabs® 5500 digital cross-connect product. A good starting point would be
Tellabs 5500
If you're seeking information about a particular feature of the Tellabs 5500, like the OC-12 interface, you might choose a query like
Tellabs 5500 AND OC-12
The search results will only display documents containing both "Tellabs 5500" and "OC-12".
Advanced Query Tips
Here are some suggestions for getting the best results:
More or Less
Simply entering multiple words will be construed as a phrase — and the query will search for that specific phrase within documents, unless your phrase contains the terms 'and' or 'or', which are query operators. In which case, the query will search for either the combination of terms or at least one of the terms. To include 'and' or 'or' in a search phrase, enclose the entire phrase in double quote marks ("). To use multiple search terms, separate each with a comma between terms, which is treated like a logical 'OR'.
What Case?
Normally, queries are case-insensitive for search text entered in all uppercase or all lowercase, and case-sensitive for mixed-case search strings. You may be able to narrow your search by using "title case" (initial cap) for your keyword.
Singular or Plural?
Query results can differ greatly between using the singular or plural form of a search keyword. Although one or the other may return several documents, you may wish to use the singular form with a 'wildcard' character at the end.
Wildcard Characters
The question mark and asterisk, known as 'wildcard' characters, can help when you don't know the exact spelling of a word, or to retrieve broader query results if your first query doesn't succeed. The question mark '?' will match any single alphanumeric character, whereas the asterisk '*' will match zero or more alphanumeric characters. For example, entering
OC-*will return documents containing anything from OC-3 to OC-192.
Use AND, OR, AND NOT
You can use the AND, OR, and AND NOT operators to refine your search. These can be entered as either all lowercase or all uppercase characters.
AND - Documents found must contain all words joined by the AND operator. For example, to find documents that have all of the words cross-connect and system, you could enter:
cross-connect AND system
OR - Documents found must contain at least one of the words joined by OR. For example, to find documents that have either the words 5500 or 5300 you could enter:
5500 OR 5300
AND NOT - Documents found cannot contain the word after the term AND NOT. For example, to find documents that have the word 5500, but not the word 5300, you could enter:
5500 AND NOT 5300
The 
search engine is used to provide this search interface.
