[mic64]

ACT
Applied Computer Telephony : Hewelett Packard's computer API.

ACTAS
Alliance of Computer-based Telephony Applications Suppliers : A USA CTI industry forum.

ACTIUS
Association of Computer Telephony Integration Users and Suppliers. An European CTI industry forum.

AMIS-A
Audio Message Interchange Specification- Analogue: This is a industry standard protocol for the transmission of voice message between message system. The AMIS protocol uses DTMF signaling.

Analogue Line
A standard switched voice telephone line.

ANI
Automatic Number Identification.

ANSI
American National Standards Institute.

API
Application Programmer Interface.

Application
A software programme that causes a computer or telephone system to perform functions that are of benefit to actual users of the system.

ASP
Application Service Provider.


AT-Bus
The name of the computer expansion slot technology used in most existing IBM PC compatiable computers. Also called EIA or ISA Bus.

Automated dialling
The collective term used to describe power, predictive and preview dialling.

AVD
Alternate Voice and Data: a method of switching between voice and data during the same call.

B channel
Bearer channel: ISDN standard transmission channel used for voice or data transmission.

Bellcore
Bell Communications Research.

BLF
Busy Lamp Field : A device with LCD panel of indicators that show the extensions status.

BRI
Basic Rate Interface : An ISDN interface which uses two B channels and a D channle ( 2B+D ).

Bus
A defined interface between different parts of a computer.

Caller ID
Calling number information that is transmitted with a telephone call.

CAM
Call Applications Manager: The CTI environment developed by Tandem.


CCIR
International Radio Consultative Committee.

CCITT
International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee.

Central Office
The facility that contains the telephone switch that serves public, private, and businees customers.

Channel Service Unit ( CSU )
Device on the Digital Trunk Interface that is the termination point of the T1 lines from the T1 provider. The CSU collects statistics on the quality of the T1 signal.

CIT
Computer Intergrated Telephony: The CTI environment supported by Digital.

CLASS
Acronym for Custom Local Area Signalling Service, a group of analogue telephone-based features and telephones that use signalling information routed through the Common Channel Signalling No. 7 (CCS7) telephone network to the telephone to enable new kind of features.

CLID
Calling Line IDentification: a service which allows the called party to view the telephone number of the calling party before the call is answered.

Client
A stand-alone workstation computer thst accesses shared network resources provided by another computer ( called a server ).

Client/Server
A mode of distributed network computing in which an application is computing excuted cooperatively by two computers. The client component of the application excutes on one node, while the server component runs on a second node.

CRM
Customer Relationship Management.

CSA
Callpath Services Architecture: The CTI environment supported by IBM.

CST
Computer Supported Telephony: another term for CTI derived from the ECMA standard.

CSTA
Computer Supported Telephony Architecture: A term used by ECMA to describe its CTI standardistation activities.

CTI
Computer Telephony Integration is the application of computer intelligence via external computers to telecomms devices. It include voices processing, LAN intergration, Speech recognition and image/video data integration.

CPU
Central Processing Unit. All computer and electronic telephone systems are controlled by a CPU.

Data Unit
A fully digital device that terminates a digital Switch-56 or ISDN line. Also reffered as a " digital modem " or DSU.

D channel
Data channel : An ISDN standard transmission channel which is packet-switched, and is used for call setup, signalling and data transmission.

DID trunk
Direct Inward Dial trunk : Trunks that allow direct inward dialing from the public network to the PBX.



DNIS
Dialled Number Identification Service: A telephone network feature that enables identification of the called number.

DLL
Dynamic Link Library: a feature of OS?@ and Windows that allows excutable code modules to be loaded on demand and link at run time.

DN
Directory Number. A telephone nember. On a PBX, this is a extension number.

DOS
Disk Operating System. The software that runs on any computer that enables it to accept instructions from a user or a programme.

DSVD
Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data: the simultaneous transmission of voice and data over a digitl telephone line.

DTMF
Dual Tone MultiFrequency : Two distinct telephone signaling tones used for dialing.

DVMRP
Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol.

E&M trunk
An E&M trunk gives you incoming and outgoing access to other systems in a private network.

ECMA
European Computer Manufacturers Association: The organisation responsible for the CSTA standard.



ECTF
The Enhanced Computer Telephony Forum is an industry body which has been established to allow companies developing or planning to use Computer Telephony Integration products to :
1. plan for consistent, compatible, open CTI interfaces
2. plan for interoperability
3. agree in area where standards are not fully defined
4. provide coordinated input to standards bodies on implementation details
　

EISA Bus
See AT-Bus.

EISA
Extended Industry Standard Architecture. The EISA is a formal specification for a bus design that can accommodate ISA cards, and yet accept other, EISA, option cards for which it provides twice as many pins and much enhanced services.

ETSI
European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

E1
Digital carrier system or line that carries data at 2.048Mbps.

E3
Digital carrier system or line that carries data at 34.368Mbps.

File Server
A network node that usually consists of fixed-disk storage and a CPU, for storing programmes and data shared by users on a network.

Geoport
Apple's 1994 interface to the Macintosh which provides isochronous data communication at up to 2 Mb/s for all datastreams.

GPRS
General Packet Radio Service.

GUI
Graphical User Interface.

IEC
Interexchange Carrier. A generic name for the long distance carriers.

IPX/SPX
Internetwork Packet Exchange/Secure Packet Exchange - a secure method of sending the IP information across the network to insure receipt.

ISA
( Industry Standard Architecture ) Introduced by IBM with its PC/AT computers.


ISA Bus
See AT-Bus

ISDN
Intergrated Service Digital Network. A specific type of switch-based digital telecommunications service.

ISDN BRI
ISDN Basic Rate Access ( or ISDN Basic Rate Interface ).

ISDN Terminal Adapter
Also called an ISDN T/A. this is the device that terminates an ISDN BRA connection.

ISV
Independent Software Vendor.

ITU-U
Telecommunications Standardisation Sector of the International Telecommunications Union.

IXC
Same as IEC.

JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Groupt.

LAN
Local Area Network. A term describing the system ( LAN ) of cabling, software, and service that support the interconnection of computer equipment.

LEC
Local Exchange Carrier. Another name for the local telephone company.

Line Compression
Compression is used in a network to get more traffic across a single facility.

Loop
A term used for " telephone line " from a switch to a " terminal ".

MAPI
Microsoft's Message API which is part of WOSA.

MCA
Micro Channel Architecture, a computer bus architecture introduced by IBM with its PS/2 computers.

MicroChannel Bus
The name of the computer expansion slot technology used in new IBM PS/2 computers.

MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.

MPEG
Moving Picture Experts Groupt. Pertain to the ISO Standard for video storage.



MTA
Macintosh Telephony Architecture which includes Geoport and the Macintosh operating system for telephony applications.

MVIP
Multi Vendor Intergration Protocol: A family of standards to let telephony products from different vendors inter-operate with a computer or group of computers.

NetWare
A local area network operating system produced by Novell, Inc.

NuBus
The name of the computer expansion slot technology used in Apple Macintosh computers.

PADS
Used in a network to add a loss or gain in the decibel level of a trunk.

PBX
Private Branch Exchange. A telephone switch that is owned or leased by an end-user organisation and is located entirely on that organisation's site.

PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect. A local-bus technology that is a method of autoconfiguring PCI peripherals.

PICS
Protocol Implementation Conformance Standards: Part of ECMA CSTA standard.

POP3
Post Office Protocol 3.

Predictive Dialling
An automated method of making many outbound calls without people and then passing answered calls to a person as the calls are answered. This is typically employed in telemarketing and call centers.

Preview Dialling
Preview dialling is a form of automated dialling where records from a list of contacts are presented sequentially to an agent who can choose whether or not to make the call.

Power Dialling
A form of automated dialling where the system ( usually an ACD or stand alone power dialer ) automatically dials numbers from a list. If a call is answered it is passed to an agent. If it is not answered the call is dropped by the system.

Protocol
A set of rules or procedures commonly agreed on by industry wide committee such as IEEE.

Private network
A telephone network consisting of owned or leased telephone lines used to connect different offices of an organization independently of the public network.

PSDS
Public Switched Data Service, a generic name for telco based data services such as Switch-56.

PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network. The telecommunications equipment at Central Office, owned by the Telco.

RAM
Random Access Memory.

Remote Access
The process of using a remote computer linked to a local area network via modem.

Repeaters
Used in a network to boost the T - 1 signal to provide connectivity over greater distances.

RHCs
Regional Holding Companies.

ROM
Read-Only Memory.

Router
A network device that allows data to be exchanged between networks by using information contained at the network layer of the OSI model.

SCAI
Switch Computer Application Interface: a protocol that defines how switches communicate with external computers.

SCSA
Signal Computing System Architecture is a comprehensive architecture that descibes how both hardware and software building blocks work together. It focuses on ' signal computing ' devices which transmit information over the telephone network.

Server
On a local area network, the computer that runs the administrative software to control access to the network.

SMTP
Simple Message Transfer Protocol.

SNA
IBM's Systems Network Architeture.

SPI
Server Provider Interface: a Windows Telephony applications standard which lies between Windows telephony and the network.

Signalling Channel
The ISDN signalling ( or " D " Channel ) is typically used to convey messages, such as " connect," " disconnected, " and " Caller ID, " between the devices at the terminating ends of the switched connection.


STM-1/OC-3
Digital carrier system or line that carries data at 155.52Mbps.

Switch
A name used to refer to a telephone system, whether it is a PBX or is a system at the telephone company's Central Office or an IEC.

Switch 56
The generic name for a type of digital telecommunications service available from LECs, IECs, and within PBXs that transmits data at a rate of 57,384 bits per second.

SVD
Simultaneous Voice and Data: the simultaneous transmission of voice and data over the same telephone line.

T1
Digital carrier system or line that carries data at 1.544Mbps.

T3
Digital carrier system or line that carries data at 44.736Mbps.

TAO
Telephony Application Objects: part of the SCSA programming framework.

TAPI
Microsoft's Windows Telephony Application Programmers interface.

TASC
Telecommunications Applications for Switches and Computers: The international CTI standard developed by ITU.

TCP/IP
Transport Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol - A set of network protocos that has become an industry standard in local area network environment.

Telco
Telephone Company. Usually refer to the LEC.

Terminal Adapters ( TA )
Terminal Adapters convert non-ISDN sets or modems to ISDN-compatible sets or modems.

Terminal Equipment ( TE )
A generic term for devices that connect to an ISDN network.

Trunk
The telephone line that extends from the telephone company's central office to a customer's PBX system, serving the entire system.

UTP
Unshielded twisted-pair cable. A popular twisted-pair cable that looks like telephone wire and doesn't have an insulating shield or sheath.




USB
The Universal Serial Bus is a PC serial port interface jointly developed in 1994 by Intel, Compaq, DEC, IBM, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel . USB supports multiple devices on a standard connector, and provides bi-directional, isochronous communication.

VPIM
Voice Profile for Internet Mail. VPIM uses existing data networks, not switch networks, to transport messages.

VRRP
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol.

WAP
Wireless Application Protocol.

WOSA
Microsoft's Windows Open Service Architecture provides a single system level interface for connecting front-end applications with back-end services.

10Base2
The IEEE standard for Ethernet over thin coaxial cable ( RG-58 ), sometimes called thinnet or cheapernet wire.

10BaseT
The IEEE standard for Ethernet over unshielded twisted-pair cable.