IST-CNS Unified Communications

Unified Communications Glossary of Terms

802.11	Wireless LAN protocol. The 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) is an industry standard developed by the IEEE for wireless network communication. It usually operates in the 2.4 GHz spectrum and permits data transmission speeds from 1Mbps to 54 Mbps.
Analog	Continuously variable signals or data.
ARS	Audio Recognition System
Bandwidth	The capacity of the transmission medium stated in bits per second or as a frequency. The bandwidth of optical fiber is in the gigabit or billion bits per second range, while Ethernet coaxial cable is in the megabit or million bits per second range.
CDPD	Cellular Digital Packet Data. Short for Cellular Digital Packet Data, CDPD is a data transmission technology developed for use on cellular phone frequencies. CDPD uses unused cellular channels to transmit data in packets. This technology offers data transfer rates of up to 19.2 Kbps, better error correction and quicker call set up than using modems on an analog cellular channel.
Centrex	Centrex is a service offered by a local telephone service provider that allows the customer to have features that are typically associated with a private branch exchange (PBX). These features include 3 or 4 digit dialing, intercom features, distinctive line ringing for inside and outside lines, voice mail waiting indication and others. The central office switching facilities in the telephone network provides Centrex services.
Client/server relationship	A client application is one that resides on a user's computer, but sends requests to a remote system to execute a designated procedure using arguments supplied by the user. The computer that initiates the request is the client and the computer responding to the request is the server. Many network services follow a client and server protocol.
Database	A file created by a database manager that contains a collection of information organized into records, each of which contains labeled categories (called fields).
Digital	Data or voltages consisting of discrete steps or levels, as opposed to continuously variable analog data.
DNS	Domain Name System. A general purpose distributed, replicated, data query service. Its principal use is the lookup of host IP addresses based on host names. The host names are also known as domain names. Some important domains are: .COM (commercial), .EDU (educational), .NET (network operations), .GOV (U.S. government), and .MIL (U.S. military). Most countries also have a domain. For example, .US (United States), .UK (United Kingdom), .AU (Australia). Domain Name Server - A computer that converts host names, such as rohan.sdsu.edu to its corresponding IP Address, such as 191.130.1.10. An SDSU computer provides this service any time mail is sent or received and permits users to use TELNET and FTP between SDSU and other sites.
Ethernet	An IEEE 802.3 standard data link layer which can operate over several different media including fiber optic, coaxial cable and twisted-pair cable; this 10 million-bit-per-second networking scheme is widely used on campus as it networks a wide variety of computers; it is not proprietary/components are widely available from many commercial sources.
FDDI	Fiber Distributed Data Interface. An emerging standard for network technology based on fiber optics that has been established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). FDDI specifies a 100-million bit per second data rate.
Gateway	A special-purpose dedicated computer that attaches to two or more disparate networks and converts data packets from one form to another.
Gigabit (Gb)	Gigabit. 10^9 bits of information (usually used to express a data transfer rate; as in, 1 Gigabit/second = 1Gbps).
GSM	Global System for Mobile communications: A two-way, pan-European digital cellular system. Its specification is in line with ISDN and ITU-TS System 7 signaling and approved by almost all European countries. GSM operates at 900MHz and is a forerunner to the mass-market Personal Communications Networks, based on the same set of standards. GSM services include current digital subscriber services and the unique Short Message Service a superior form of paging offering up to 160 alphanumeric characters with guaranteed delivery.
IP	Internet Protocol is the standard that allows dissimilar hosts to connect to each other through the Internet. This protocol defines the IP data gram as the basic unit of information sent over the Internet. The IP data gram consists of an IP header followed by a message.
Megabit (Mb)	Megabit. 10^6 bits of information (usually used to express a data transfer rate; as in, 1 Megabit/second = 1Mbps).
PDA	Personal Digital Assistant: An electronics device that acts as a personal carry-along database, calculator, alarm clock, and personal communicator. It looks like a palmtop computer, and communications are transmitted through telephone lines or wireless.
RIP	Routing Information Protocol used by Berkeley UNIX systems to exchange routing information among a set of computers attached to a network. RIP packets are sent and received by a program called routed.
Protocols	When data is being transmitted between two or more devices something needs to govern the controls that keep this data intact. A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g., the order in which bits and bytes are sent across wire) or high-level exchanges between application programs (e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a file across the Internet).
SMS	Short Message Service. A messaging service that typically transfers small amounts of text (several hundred characters). Short messaging services can be broadcast without acknowledgement (e.g. traffic reports) or sent point-to-point (paging or email). Most digital cellular systems have SMS services. Short messaging for mobile telephones may include: numeric pages (dialed in by a caller), messages that are entered by a live operator via keyboard, an automatic message service that sends a predefined message when an event occurs (such as a fire alarm or system equipment failure), network operator announcements to customers, to and from other message capable devices in the system, from the Internet, advertisers or other information providers.
SMTP	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Internet standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.
SOAP	Simple Object Access Protocol
SQL	Structured Query Language, a syntax used by many database systems to retrieve and modify information.
TTS	Text to Speech processing
UDDI	Universal Description, Discovery and Integration. The UDDI project takes advantage of Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), and HTTP and Domain Name System (DNS) protocols. Additionally, cross platform programming features are addressed by adopting early versions of the proposed Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) known as XML Protocol messaging specifications found at the W3C Web site. The UDDI protocol is the building block that will enable businesses to quickly, easily and dynamically find and transact with one another using their preferred applications. Over 220 companies are members of the UDDI community.
Video conferencing	Video conferencing introduces new requirements to the ordinary transfer of video information. The first requirement is guaranteed minimum latency, because to sustain a moving image, the next frame of information must get to the other end soon enough to avoid image freeze. In practice, the image information is highly compressed and the effects of delayed information in a video sequence is less than the effect on voice transmission. The second requirement is synchronization. Video conferencing includes voice and other media such as electronic chalkboard. It is important that the sound replay matches the image. Equally, when an image is written on the pad, the information on the electronic chalkboard should appear at the same time. The third requirement is broadcast capability. An efficient method of transmitting to multiple sites simultaneously is required when the conference involves more than two parties.
WAIS	Wide Area Information Server. WAIS is best at searches for various sources of academic information that has been indexed based on content. Its indexes consist of every word in a document and each word carries the same weight in a search.
Web Services	Web-Services- Web services are self-describing, self-contained, modular units of application logic that provide some business functionality to other applications through an Internet connection. Applications access web services via ubiquitous web protocols and data formats, such as HTTP and XML, with no need to worry about how each web service is implemented. Web services can be mixed and matched with other web services to execute a larger workflow or business transaction.
WSDL	Web Services Definitial Language
XML	Extensible Markup Language. This is the language typically used by computers in e-commerce transactions. While more difficult to program than HTML, it is easier to debug.
XSL	Extensible Style Language

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Created in: 2002
Last revised: September 20, 2004