Glossary

The following terms and abbreviations are defined as they are used in the context of Blueworx Voice Response Voice over IP. If you do not find the term or abbreviation you are looking for, see IBM Dictionary of Computing, McGraw-Hill, 1994, or the AIX Version 4.3: Glossary.

A

action
See state table action.
application
A (usually) customer-written program or set of programs which might comprise one or more state tables or custom servers running on Blueworx Voice Response, along with associated voice segments.

B

bandwidth
A measure of the capacity of a communication transport medium to convey data.

C

call transfer
A series of actions that directs a call to another telephone number.
CAS
See channel associated signaling.
channel associated signaling (CAS)
A method of communicating telephony supervisory or line signaling (on-hook and off-hook) and address signaling on T1 and E1 digital links. The signaling information for each traffic (voice) channel is transmitted in a signaling channel permanently associated with the traffic channel. On T1 links, supervisory signaling is sent in the traffic channel using robbed-bit signaling (RBS). On E1 links, a separate channel is used to send signaling. Address signaling can be transmitted either in the signaling channel (out-of-band) or in the traffic channel (in-band).
Call Control eXtensible Markup Language (CCXML)
Language designed to provide telephony call control support for VoiceXML or other dialog systems. Refer to the CCXML forum web site at http://www.w3.org/TR/ccxml
codec
Pertaining to adapters that compress and decompress video files. The letters "codec" represent "compression/decompression"; in the past, they represented "coder/decoder."

D

DNSSRV
A variation of DNS (Domain Name System) for identifying the location of specific SERVICES (for example, a SIP Proxy capable of supporting SIP signaling using TCP/IP) within a network.
Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
A specialized processor for computing the algorithms and procedures used to process digital electronic signals.
Digital Trunk Extended Adapter (DTXA)
The IBM ARTIC960RxD Quad Digital Trunk PCI Adapter. In Blueworx Voice Response, this adapter is known as a DTXA. It allows you to connect directly to the telephony network a pSeries computer that has a PCI bus; it does not require an external pack. The DTXA that is not supported by Blueworx Voice Response Version 7.
Digital Trunk Ethernet Adapter (DTEA)
A Radysis adapter card that provides the audio streaming (RTP) interface between the Blueworx Voice Response internal H.100 bus and Ethernet for a maximum of 120 channels using uncompressed (G.711) voice, and compressed G.723.2 and G.729A compressed voice.
Digital Trunk No Adapter (DTNA)
A device driver that supports uncompressed (G.711) voice RTP streaming.
DTMF
See dual-tone multifrequency.
Digital Trunk Telephony Adapter (DTTA)
The IBM Quad Digital Trunk Telephony PCI Adapter. In Blueworx Voice Response, this adapter is known as a DTTA. It allows you to connect directly to the telephony network from a pSeries computer without the need for an external pack. The DTTA supersedes the DTXA.
dtuser
The name of the AIX account set up during the installation process for the use of all users of Blueworx Voice Response.
DTTA
See Digital Trunk Telephony Adapter.
DTXA
See Digital Trunk Extended Adapter.
dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF)
The signals sent by pressing one of the telephone keys. Each signal is composed of two different tones.

E

E1
A digital trunking facility standard used in Europe and elsewhere, capable of transmitting and receiving 30 digitized voice or data channels. Two additional channels are used for synchronization, framing, and signaling. The transmission rate is 2048 kilobits per second. Contrast with T1.
E164
A Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation for the format of international dialing prefixes, which usually begin with a + character and can include up to 15 digits.
endpoint
A place where calls are originated and terminated.
error message
Any message displayed by Blueworx Voice Response in the System Monitor as an alarm and optionally written to the Blueworx Voice Response error log, or to the AIX error log (as an alert). Strictly speaking, the term error message should include only red (immediate attention) and yellow (problem situation) messages but it is also used to refer to green (a red or yellow message has been cleared) and white (informational) messages.
Ethernet
A 10/100 network connection between the VoIP gateway and the Speech Server that supports VoIP.

F

Fax over IP (FoIP)
The sending of Fax data over IP networks.

G

G.711
Specification for uncompressed voice for PSTN and Voice over IP access.
G.723.1
Compressed audio codecs used on Voice over IP connection for voice.
G.729A
Compressed audio codecs used on Voice over IP connection for voice.
gateway
A component of a Voice over IP network. A gateway provides a bridge between VoIP and circuit-switched environments.

I

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
A digital end-to-end telecommunication network that supports multiple services including, but not limited to, voice and data.
Internet Protocol (IP)
In the Internet suite of protocols, a connectionless protocol that routes data through a network or interconnected networks and acts as an intermediary between the higher protocol layers and the physical network.
IP address
The unique 32-bit (IPv4) or 64-bit (IPv6) address that specifies the location of each device or workstation on the Internet. IPv4 addresses are usually written in dot-decimal notation, for example, 9.67.97.103. IPv6 addresses are usually written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, with each group separated by a colon. URIs that include numeric IPv6 format addresses, must have the numeric part within [ ] brackets, for example:
rtsp://[2002:0914:fc12:195:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]/media/recognizer
This applies to all protocols.
ISDN
See Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) .

L

LAN
See local area network.
local area network (LAN)
A network in which computers are connected to one another within a limited geographical area.

P

packet
A sequence of binary digits, including data and control signals, that is transmitted and switched as a composite whole.
private automatic branch exchange (PABX)
An automatic private switching system that services an organization and is usually located on a customer's premises. Often used as another name for private branch exchange (PBX).
private branch exchange (PBX)
A switch inside a private business that concentrates the number of inside lines into a smaller number of outside lines (trunks). Many PBXs also provide advanced voice and data communication features. Often used as another name for private automatic branch exchange.
PSTN
An ITU-T abbreviation for public switched telephone network.
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
Variation of a digital signal to represent information.

Q

Quality of Service
For an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) virtual channel or a Networking BroadBand Services (NBBS) network connection, a set of communication characteristics such as end-to-end delay, jitter, and packet loss ratio.

R

Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)
A protocol that provides end-to-end network transport functions suitable for applications transmitting real-time data, such as audio, video or simulation data, over multicast or unicast network services. The data transport is augmented by a control protocol (RTCP) to allow monitoring of the data delivery.

S

SDP
Session Description Protocol is an IETF protocol for the definition of multimedia services. SDP is contained within some SIP messages (for example, INVITE) to define the type of media to be used (for example, compressed or uncompressed voice, fax, video and so on).
Session Initiation Protocol
A signaling protocol used for internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification and instant messaging.
signaling
The exchange of control information between functional parts of the system in a telecommunications network.
signaling process
A Blueworx Voice Response component that controls signaling for an exchange data link or common-channel signaling protocol. Some signaling processes are supplied with Blueworx Voice Response, and others can be custom-written.
SIP
See Session Initiation Protocol.
signaling System Number 7 (SS7)
The international high-speed signaling backbone used for the public-switched telephone network.
silence
A short pause between utterances.
state table
A list of all the actions used in a particular voice application. A component of Blueworx Voice Response.
state table action
One instruction in a set of instructions contained in a Blueworx Voice Response state table that controls how Blueworx Voice Response processes various operations such as playing voice prompts or recording voice messages.

T

T1
A digital trunking facility standard used in the United States and elsewhere, capable of transmitting and receiving 24 digitized voice or data channels. Signaling can be imbedded in the voice channel transmission when robbed-bit signaling is used. The transmission rate is 1544 kilobits per second. Contrast with E1.
TCP/IP
See Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TDM
See time-division multiplex bus.
time-division multiplex bus
A method of transmitting many channels of data over a smaller number of physical connections by multiplexing the data into timeslots, and demultiplexing at the receiving end. In this document one such channel can be considered to be a half-duplex unidirectional stream of 64 kilobits per second.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
A communication subsystem that is used to establish local area and wide area networks.
trombone
A connected voice path which enters an IVR from a switch on one circuit, then returns to the same switch on a parallel circuit. Two IVR ports and two circuits are consumed, but in some circumstances this might be the only way to make a connection between two callers if the attached switch does not support a Call Transfer function. Also known as double-trunking.
trunk
A telephone connection between two central offices or switching devices. In Blueworx Voice Response, a trunk refers to 24 or 30 channels carried on the same T1 or E1 digital interface.

U

User Agent
A SIP endpoint
User Agent Client (UAC)
The SIP endpoint that initiates call setup (the caller)
User Agent Server (UAS)
The SIP endpoint that receives a call setup request the called party
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
In the Internet suite of protocols, a protocol that provides unreliable, connectionless datagram service. It enables an application program on one machine or process to send a datagram to an application program on another machine or process. UDP uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to deliver datagrams.
Universal Resource Identifier (URI)
Means to access a resource on the Internet and is a more up-to-date alternative to URL. URIs that include numeric IPv6 format addresses, must have the numeric part within [ ] brackets, for example:
rtsp://[2002:0914:fc12:195:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]/media/recognizer
This applies to all protocols.

U

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Sending telephony voice over Internet Protocol (IP) data connections rather than existing dedicated voice networks, switching and transmission equipment.
VoiceXML
VoiceXtensible Markup Language. An XML-based markup language for creating distributed voice applications. Refer to the VoiceXML forum web site at www.voicexml.org
VoIP
See Voice over Internet Protocol.