GLOSSARY

There are many new concepts when we talk about IP telephony, so below is a summary of the most common expressions.

ADSL, Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line

A high-speed link through copperwire to the Internet. Assymetrical means that there are different speeds depending on which direction the information is sent. Today ADSL supports max 24 Mbps when you receive information and 3 Mbps when you send information.

Analog Phone

An analog telephone is the type of phone that most people use today and is built on the same technology that we have used since the 1800s.

VoIP-ATA adapter

In order to be able to use your regular analog phones in the digital VoIP network you need to have an adapter. The VoIP-ATA adapter converts the analog signals to digital signals.

Bandwidth

We tend to talk about the various services that you use over the Internet requires a certain bandwidth. Bandwidth is the data / time a connection to the Internet for example, can deal with.

Firewall

A feature that filters communications so only approved communications are let through. Can be either hardware or software.

Cisco

One of the world's largest suppliers of networking equipment.

CLIP, Caller ID

A service that sends the person's phone number and, in some networks also name to the recipient at the time of the call is made.

DHCP, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

A protocol that allows the user to connect to a network without manually specifying the IP address.

DID, Direct Inward Dialing

A service which can be used in a company to have fewer numbers than connections, while each connection has a unique number.

Ethernet

Idag använder vi Ethernet som den gällande standarden för att transportera data via ett nätverk. Det uppfanns på 1970-talet och har sedan dess utvecklats.

Today, we use Ethernet as the current standard for transporting data over a network. It was invented in the 1970s and has since been developed.

IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers computer society

An association which among other things, has developed standards for local networks.

Internet

A worldwide network where all the computers/devices connected to it communicates with the TCP/IP standard.

IP, Internet Protocol

A type of protocol that transmit packets between two computers or other connected devices.

IP-adress

A unique number that each node (computer or other connected device) has on the Internet. This enables communication between different units.

IP-LCR - Least Cost Routing

In international voice telecommunications, least cost routing (LCR) is the process that provides customers with cheap telephone calls. Within a telecoms carrier, an LCR team will be choosing routes from between twenty to over one hundred suppliers for five hundred or more destinations across the world on a weekly or even daily basis to maintain a competitive cost base and acceptable call quality.

IP telephony

IP telephony is the transmission of voice etc via the computer network based on the Internet Protocol (IP). Unlike traditional telephony it uses entirely digital transmissions and is divided into data packets.

IVR, Interactive voice response

Makes it possible for those who call a certain number to navigate through menus with the help of his phone.

LAN, Local Area Network

A local-area network is a computer network covering a small geographic area, like a home, office, or group of buildings e.g. a school.

NAT, Network Address Translation

A feature that is often found in a firewall or router. Allows multiple nodes (computers) to share a single internet (or local network) IP address.

PBX, Private Branch Exchange

A telecommunications switching system, physically located at a customer's place of business, that provides internal communication between users and also access to outside (trunk) telephone lines.

Protokoll

A set of rules governing communication within and between computing endpoints.

PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network

PSTN is the network we use for analog telephony via copper wire.

Router

A device that links several local networks together. Used most often to link together the company's local networks with the Internet.

SoHo, Small Office and Home Office

A smaller company with typically 1-10 employees.

SS7, Signalling System 7

A collection of telephone protocols used in the world for ordinary telephone calls via the PSTN. SS7 is an important piece as it links IP telephony to the PSTN network.

Switch

A device for connecting multiple twisted pair or fiber optic Ethernet devices together, making them act as a single network segment.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the standard now widely in use for computers to communicate on networks, especially the internet.

VoIP

Voice over IP. See IP telephony.

WLAN, Wireless LAN

A wireless local computer network. Also see LAN.