Glossary
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Telephony Acronyms words and phrases
AAN - Application Assurance Networking
ACD - Automatic Call Distribution – Used in the process
of evenly distributing calls to individual extensions or groups of extensions and
for queuing callers if all extensions are busy.
AES - Application Enablement Services - Provides an enhanced
set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), protocols and web services that
expose the functionality of Avaya communication solutions to corporate application
developers, 3rd party Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and system integrators.
API - Application Programming Interface – The interface
(calling conventions) by which an application program accesses operating system
and other services.
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode – A high bandwidth, high
speed (up to 155 Mbps), controlled-delay fixed-size packet switching and transmission
system integrating multiple data types (voice, video and data). Uses fixed-size
packets also known as "cells" (ATM is often referred to as "cell relay").
BCMR - Basic Call Management System Reporting.
BHCC - Busy Hour Call Completion – A measure of dynamic traffic
calls that can be completed in an average Busy Hour.
CAT5 - Category 5 is a description of network cabling that
consists of four twisted pairs of copper wire terminated by a RJ-45 connector.
CMAPI - Communication Manager Application Programme Interface
– A software-only connector that provides connectivity between applications and
Communication Manager™ This connector provide an open, standards-based, Java™ and
XML programming interface for developing applications that take advantage of the
rich feature set of Avaya Communication Manager™ software.
CMS - Call Management System – A database, administration,
and reporting application designed for enterprises that receive a large volume of
telephone calls and have complex contact centre operations.
CVLAN - Callvisor LAN (CVLAN) is a client/server implementation
of the callvisor API. It is the successor to callvisor PC. CVLAN consists of a client
component and a server component. The CVLAN server provides LAN connectivity to
remote work stations that require access to the callvisor PC API. CVLAN provides
LAN connectivity in both Unix and Windows based applications. The CVLAN client can
be installed on a server or on a client workstation. It provides client with access
to Communication Manager™ via the CVLAN server.
DAL1 - Dedicated Access Line
DECT - Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications is a
digital wireless technology that is being used for local cordless coverage in both
home and corporate phone systems. A very flexible standard, it can be applied to
cordless PBX, wireless local loop, and dual mode GSM/DECT systems.
Dongle - A dongle is a small hardware device that connects
to a computer to authenticate some piece of software.
Gigabit - In data communications a gigabit is one billion bits,
or 1,000,000,000 bits. It’s commonly used for measuring the amount of data that
is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. For example, Gigabit
Ethernet is a high speed form of Ethernet (a local area network technology) that
can provide data transfer rates of about 1gigabit per second. Gigabits per second
is usually abbreviated Gbps.
HTTPS - Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer,
or HTTP over SSL is a Web Protocol developed by Netscape and built into its browser
that encrypts and decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned
by the Web server.
IPSI - IP Server Interface
IPSEC - Internet Protocol Security (also abbreviated to IP
Security) – Encrypts TCP/IP traffic to secure communications within an intranet
and provide the highest levels of security for VPN traffic across the Internet.
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network – Digital modem
line. Provides higher speeds than K56/V90. Single channel ISDN provides speeds of
56K to 64K. Dual channel ISDN provides speeds of 110K to 128K.
IVR - Interactive Voice Responder – A system for allowing
telephone callers to interact with a computer through speech or touch tone dialing.
JAVA - Java is a high level, object-oriented programming
language developed by Sun Microsystems. It is similar to C++, but it has been simplified
to eliminate language features that cause common programming errors. Java is a general
purpose programming language with a number of features that make the language well
suited for use on the Web.
JTAPI - The Java Telephony API (JTAPI) supports telephony
call control. It is an extensible API designed to scale for use in a range of domains,
from first-party call control in a consumer device to third-party call control in
large distributed call centers.
LAN - Local Area Network – A collection of computers linked
together by an enclosed network.
LCS - Microsoft™ Live Communication Server
L2TP - Layer Two Tunnelling Protocol – A standard (RFC2661
and RFC3193) for the connections of private network connections across the Internet.
MAPI - Messaging Application Programming Interface – part
of Microsoft’s Window’s Open Service Architecture (WOSA). Allows programs and devices
to send emails via email clients if those clients support MAPI.
MOC - Microsoft™ Office Communicator
ODBS - Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard or
open application programming interface (API) for accessing a database.
O/S - In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system
software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic
system operations. Additionally, it provides a foundation upon which to run application
software such as word processing programs and web browsers.
PBX - A Private Branch eXchange (also called Private Business
eXchange or PABX for Private Automatic Branch eXchange) is a telephone exchange
that serves a particular business or office, as opposed to one a common carrier
or
telephone company operates for many businesses or for the general public.
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
This organisation produced a series of standards that define the physical, electrical
and software characteristics of small credit card-sized devices that can contain
memory, modems, network adapters and more. Also known as PC Cards, these devices
are mainly used in lap top computers (although some desktop systems can use PCMCIA
cards too).
PoE - Power over Ethernet – Describes a system to transmit
electrical power, along with data, to remote devices over standard twisted-pair
cable in an Ethernet network.
PPP - Point-to-Point Protocol - Provides a standard means
of encapsulating data packets sent over a single-channel WAN link. It is the standard
WAN encapsulation protocol for the interoperability of bridges and routers. PPP
is
also supported in workstations, allowing direct dial-up access from a personal computer
to a corporate LAN or Internet Service Provider. Using PPP ensures basic compatibility
with non-Ascend devices. Both the dialling side and the answering side of the link
must support PPP.
P2P - Peer-to-Peer networking (P2P) is an application that
runs on a personal computer and shares files with other users across the internet.
P2P networks work by connecting individual computers together to share files instead
of having to go through a central server.
RFA - Remote Feature Activation is the Avaya web-based application
used to generate licence and authentication files.
SDAP - Subscriber Data Access Point
SDK - Software Development Kit. A set of programs that allows
software developers to create products to run on a particular platform or to work
with an API.
SES - SIP Enablement
SIP - Session Initiation Protocol – Used for setting up
communications sessions on the internet, such as instant messaging, conferencing,
telephony or whiteboarding.
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol. The network management
protocol used almost exclusively in TCP/IP networks. SNMP provides a means to monitor
& control network devices, and to manage configurations, statistics collection,
performance and security.
SOE - Small Office Edition
SSA - System Status Application – a diagnostic tool for
system managers and administrators to monitor and check the status of IP Office
systems.
TAPI - Telephony Application Program Interface
TDM - Time Division Multiplexing is a scheme in which numerous
signals are combined for transmission on a single communications line or channel.
Each signal is broken up into many segments, each having very short duration.
Trunk - A trunk is a general-use circuit, which spans from
the CO to the PBX to establish a connection between the two switching devices. SIP
Trunks enable organisations to carry voice over a pure IP connection to carrier
clouds, rather than through separate fixed line circuits.
TSAPI - Telephone Server Application Programming Interface
is a standards-based API for call control, call/device monitoring and query, call
routing, device/system maintenance capabilities and basic directory services.
TTS - Text To Speech – Refers to any technology for reading
electronic content (for example a document) and producing synthesized speech, effectively
allowing a document to be read aloud instead of having to be read.
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol. The network management
protocol used almost exclusively in TCP/IP networks. SNMP provides a means to monitor
and control network devices, and to manage configurations, statistics collection,
performance and security.
USB - Universal Serial Bus – USB provides a single common
interface to peripherals and plug-and-play configuration (at the host/pc).
VCM - Support for the optional Voice Compression Module
allows voice calls to be networked between Systems when WAN links are used. Five
compression algorithms are supported from 64kbp to 6.3kbps, while the Voice Compression
Module also provides echo cancellation where voice calls between systems are then
broken out on to the public network.
VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol – The technology used
to transmit voice conversations over a data network using the Internet Protocol.
VPN - Virtual Private Network – A virtual private network
provides a secure connection between two or more computers across a public network
(such as the Internet or a company LAN or WAN). In a VPN data is encrypted between
the participating computers – creating private "tunnels", ensuring that even were
the data intercepted that it could not be read by any computer other than those
participating in the VPN.
WAN - Wide Area Network – Typically much slower than a LAN.
Typical speeds start at 56kbps but are typically much faster. WANs provide connections
between LANs that are at different geographical locations.
WiFi - Wireless Fidelity – A term for certain types of wireless
local area networks (WLAN) that use specifications conforming to IEEE 802.11b. WiFi
has gained acceptance in many environments as an alterative to a wired LAN. Many
airports, hotels and other services offer public access to WiFi networks so people
can log on to the Internet and receive emails on the move. These locations are known
as hotspots.
WSDL - WSDL is a language for describing how to interface
with XML-based services.
XML - XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C initiative
that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and
semantics that computers and humans can understand. XML is great for information
exchange and can easily be extended to include user-specified and industry-specified
tags.