Glossary of Terms

 Industry-Standard Terminology

 Customer

A customer is a company or individual using CTC-Connect to manage their hosted PBX, VoIP or SIP trunking services.

 

e911

Enhanced 911, a location technology that enables mobile or VoIP phones to process 911 emergency calls so that emergency services can locate the geographic position of the caller. The number (allotted under the North American Numbering Plan) is answered by a telephone operator or an emergency service dispatcher, who then alerts the appropriate emergency service.

 

End-user

An end-user (also known as an extension user) uses a VoIP phone or softphone.

 

FoIP

FoIP is an acronym for FAX over Internet Protocol, which is the primary protocol used to implement the Internet.

 

IP

IP is an acronym for Internet Protocol.

 

IP Address

Internet Protocol address used to route network traffic between sender and receiver. VoIP uses the IP addresses of both the sender and the receiver to establish and maintain a call.

 

PBX

PBX is an acronym for Private Branch Exchange, which is a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office, as opposed to one that a common carrier or telephone company operates for many businesses or for the general public. A PBX is sometimes referred to as an EPABX or PABX.

 

SIP

SIP is an acronym for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a connection service offered by many Internet Telephony Service Providers that links a company's PBX to the existing telephone system infrastructure (PSTN) over the Internet using the SIP VoIP standard.

 

SMS

SMS is an acronym for Short Message Service. SMS is the transmission of short text messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine and/or IP address. Messages must be no longer than 160 alpha-numeric characters and contain no images or graphics. Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device.

 

Softphone

A softphone is software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone.

 

VoIP

VoIP is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol. This is a general term for a family of transmission technologies used to deliver voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.