Glossary of Terms

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

ADSL transforms the existing twisted copper pair between the telephone exchange and the telephone socket into a high-speed digital line.

CDR

Call Detail Record

Information regarding a single call collected from the switch and available as an automatically generated downloadable report for a requested time period. The report contains information on the number of calls, call duration, call origination and destination, and billed amount.

Centrex

“Centralised Exchange”

Centrex is a hosted telephony service that operates over a managed broadband connection delivering the functionality of a PBX without many of the costs and manageability issues.

Codec

Coder / Decoder

A technique used to compress/decompress speech or audio signals.

CPS

Carrier Pre-Selection

Uses network access technology, so call traffic originating from your site will be routed directly to your chosen network with no need for prefix codes. The “selection” of the preferred provider is done automatically at point of entry (the local exchange) to the public voice network.

DDI

Direct Dial Inward

An inbound or outbound number assigned to a specific handset.

ENUM

Electronic Numbering

ENUM is an internationally approved method for connecting the telephone communications network to the Internet. ENUM is designed to enable you to call someone on different electronic communications devices and software applications by using a single identifier – a telephone number converted into a domain name. The first main use of ENUM will be to link different VoIP servers so that telephones within businesses that use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to connect users within an internal network can use the same technology to connect users to external customers via the Internet. At present it is easy to connect from one employee within a company to another in the same company using a VoIP server. That still works if an employee is a home worker who connects over the Internet – the VoIP server recognises the numbers within its system and connects the call as if the home worker were in the office.

GSM

Global System for Mobile Communications

The mobile phone platform used in Europe and much of the rest of the world SLA ( Service Level Agreement) A SLA is an agreement concerning a measurable level of service between the service provider and the service receiver.

Global System for Mobile Communications

The mobile phone platform used in Europe and much of the rest of the world

SLA

Service Level Agreement

A SLA is an agreement concerning a measurable level of service between the service provider and the service receiver.

PBX

Private Branch Exchange

An in-house telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other, as well as to the outside telephone network.

PSTN

Public Switched Telephone Network

The world’s collection of interconnected voice-oriented public telephone networks, both commercial and government-owned. Also referred to as the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).

QoS

Quality of Service

The service level defined by a service agreement between a network user and a network provider, which guarantees a certain level of bandwidth and data flow rates.

SIP

Session Initiation Protocol

A standard protocol for initiating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements such as video, voice, chat, gaming, and virtual reality.

SLA

Service Level Agreement

A SLA is an agreement concerning a measurable level of service between the service provider and the service receiver.

VOIP

Voice Over Internet Protocol

A term used in IP telephony for a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP).