Asynchronous Communication

A data communications method in which bits are sent one after the other with a start and stop bit used for flow control. This as opposed to synchronous communication where blocks of data are transmitted using a synchronizing clock.

A verbal choice provided by a recording over the phone. Audio choice menus are common in automated attendant, IVR and fax-on-demand systems. They are prompts for caller input. Audio menus can instruct you to speak commands or hit touch-tones as commands.

A computer telephony system incorporating voice store and forward technology. There are both passive and interactive ARUs. Passive ARUs simply play out messages. Interactive ones play messages based on input from callers.

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A device used to connect multiple parties over the phone. A proctor or operator can man conference bridges, or the can be supervised. There are both stand-alone conference bridges and conference bridge functions built in to some PBXs (Private Branch Exchange). These systems have circuitry for summing and balancing the energy (noise) on each channel so everyone can hear each other. More sophisticated conference bridges have the ability to "idle" the transmit side of channels of non-speaking parties. Some conference bridges use "clVoxising" to idle or reject the input of touch tones or other signals.

Telephone function that sends the dialed telephone number to the answering service.

A high-sped digital switched service using existing copper pairs to connect subscriber CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) to the Central Office. DSL handles more data downstream (data flowing towards the subscriber) than upstream (towards the network).

The dynamic jitter buffer collects voice packets, stores them, and shifts them to the voice processor in evenly spaced intervals to reduce any distortion in the sound.

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The European counterpart to T1, which transmits at 2.048 Mbps.

A computer based fax machine. Fax servers are "shared use" devices, typically installed on a LAN. Clients on the LAN can use the fax server from their PCs in much the same way they share a network-based (shared) printer. Faxes can be generated by users at their workstations and "printed" to the fax server for transmission. Likewise, fax servers can route incoming faxes to printers, file server directories or to individual users. Fax servers save users from having to print documents, carry them to the fax machine and subsequently wait for them to be transmitted after creating a cover page.

In telephony and data communications, the ability for both ends of a communication to simultaneously send and receive information without degrading the quality or intelligibility of the content.

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The current-day public and global computer network or "information super-highway." The Internet is an outgrowth and combination of a variety of university and government sponsored computer networks. Federal and private sector subsidies supported the DARPA-NET. NSFnet (National Sciences Foundation) and thousands of other subnetworks, which were used to do inter-agency research and communication. Today, the Internet is made up of millions upon millions of computers and subnetworks - almost entirely supported by commercial funds except in countries where deregulation has not occurred. The internet is the substrate and chief communications backbone for the World Wide Web (WWW), the "graphical interface" of the Internet.

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Any means of transmitting the human voice (real time or close to real time) over the internet. There are several components: 1) On the client side, a multimedia-equipped PC with special client software will digitize your voice. This can be done with a voice modem or other voice encoding method; 2) A direct or dial-up connection to the internet allows your voice to be transmitted in packet form to its destination; 3) Connection with the far side is achieved by IP address search, common servers or beacons to identify the called party (and to "ring" that person's phone); 4) A similar arrangement on the far end completes the call and allows both parties to speak. There are also PSTN/Internet gateways that allow regular telephone callers to make Phone-to-Internet-to-Phone connections. There are PC-to-Phone connections and Phone-to-PC connections.

The “IP” in voice over IP. It's one of a large family of specifications that define the transmission of information over data networks. But this one is particularly critical because it tracks the Internet addresses of nodes, routes outgoing messages, and recognizes incoming messages. It's the backbone -- or more figuratively, the language -- of the Internet.

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Jitter

Jitter is the variance of latency (i.e. delay) in a connection. The problem is that audio devices or connection-oriented systems (e.g. ISDN or PSTN) need a continuous stream of data. In order to compensate for this, VoIP terminals and gateways implement a jitter buffer that collect the packets before relaying them onto their audio devices or connection-oriented lines (e.g. ISDN), respectively. An increase in the jitter buffer size decreases the likelihood of data being missed but also has the drawback that it increases latency of a connection.

The delay or time span between the voice being digitalized at the senders Location and then output at the receivers end is the latency of a connection. Latency is influenced by the distance the data has to travel, the packet size, the number and delay time of network elements between the terminals and of course the latency generated by the terminals themselves when sending, receiving, encoding, decoding and compensating jitter. 

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In computer telephony, any means of message store and forward. This includes fax mail, voice mail and broadcast messaging. This horizontal application is the most popular of all other voice solutions. Messaging systems provide for the store and forward of "non-real time" communication. For exVoxisle, a recorded voice message can be stored for later play back either locally or remotely, or a fax can be received and stored before it is re-transmitted to the ultimate recipient. Messages, then, can vary in content and media type - the distinction being that they are recorded or stored for pick up in the future. The time between original storage and retrieval of a message can be created and stored by a sales manager for later retrieval by multiple (worldwide) sales people. The sales staff can listen to the message at different times over an extended period. This is due to the nature if random retrieval by the recipients in their respective time zones. Messaging systems are a kind of "shared tenant" answering machine, because messages that were intended for as many as a thousand or more users can be stored and controlled by the same system. If a community of users agree on some basic ground rules, messages can be shared, forwarded, and distributed to multiple recipients in the same fashion as e-mail.

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Short for Modulator/Demodulator. Equipment that converts digital signals to analog signals and vice-versa. Modems are used to send data signals (digital) over the telephone network, which is usually analog. A modem modulates binary signals into tones that can be carried over the telephone network. At the other end, the demodulator part of the modem converts the tones to binary code.

A logically grouped unit of data. Packets contain a payload (the information to be transmitted), originator, destination and synchronizing information. The idea with packets is to transmit them over a network so each individual packet can be sent along the most optimal route to its. Packets are assembled on one end of the communication and re-assembled on the receiving end based on the header addressing information at the front of each packet. Routers in the network will store and forward packets based on network delays, errors and re-transmittal requests from the receiving end.

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

Point of Presence, equivalent of a local phone company's central office. The place your long distance carrier terminates your long distance lines just before those lines are connected to your local phone company's lines, or to your own direct hookup.
Alternate Definition: Post Office Protocol. An Internet standard for the storage and retrieval of email messages

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The public switched telephone network that traditionally routes voice calls from one location to another. The worldwide voice telephone network - sometimes called POTS.

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An addressable entity providing application and administrative support to the client environment by responding to client requests and maintaining the operational integrity of the server.

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The basis for modern methods to route traffic with out-of-brand signaling. Its forerunner, CCIS (Common Channel Interoffice Signaling), used 4.8 Kbps data links to transmit call set up and tear down messages to switching office adjunct computers and packet switches. SS7 in itself is not a network service offering, but rather the underlying infrastructure with which many existing and proposed offerings are based. For exVoxisle, local Basic Rate ISDN (BRI) services can tap into SS7, so 64 Kbps packetized data can be routed with the help of the network's out-of-band signaling capability. In addition, nationwide Primary Rate ISDN (PRI) services can use the same backbone.

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A 1.544-Mbps point-to-point dedicated digital circuit provided by the telephone companies consisting of 24 channels.

Transmission Control Protocol. The transport layer protocol developed for the ARPAnet which comprises layers 4 and 5 of the OSI model. TCP controls sequential data exchange in TCP/IP for remotely hosts in a peer-to-peer network.

Taken from Greek root words meaning "far sound", telephony is the discipline of converting or transmitting voice or other signals over a distance, and then re-converting them to an audible sound at the far end.

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A communications channel between two points, typically referring to large-bandwidth telephone channels between switching centers that handle many simultaneous voice and data signals.

An application of store and forward wherein telephone access to private messages are retrieved by users for playback. Imagine a shared tenant answering machine that handles multiple telephone lines and can record incoming messages for hundreds of people simultaneously. Imagine the intended parties being able to retrieve these messages over the phone with simple touch-tone commands. Imagine full security, so no one can pick up anyone else's messages without a special, private access code. That's voice messaging. Voice messaging systems take many forms. There are CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) versions and Service Bureau or Telco versions. The basic idea is the non real-time sending and receiving of private messages. Some systems support the broadcast of messages to multiple recipients. Some provide message waiting notification via pager, message waiting light or "outdial" telephone calls.

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