Voip Jargon Buster
Application Service Provider or ASP
An independent provider of software-based services that are delivered to customers over the internet.
Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP
The technology that underlies making calls over the internet.
Session Initiation Protocol or SIP
An application layer control protocol that enables service providers to integrate basic IP telephony services with Web, email and chat services.
Convergence
The bringing together of telecoms and IT systems.
Delay or Latency
This is the amount of time it takes for a Packet to travel from its source to destination.
Analogue Telephone Adapter or ATA
The adapter used to make VoIP calls using a standard telephone.
Fax Over Internet Protocol or FoIP
The term used for the technology that transports faxes over the internet.
Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange
(IP PBX) An in-house telephone exchange system that uses IP to provide telephone services within a company or building.
Firewall
A system designed to prevent unauthorised access to or from a computer or private network in order to keep them secure.
IP Telephony
The general term for the transmission of voice calls, faxes and multimedia communications over a data network Internet Protocol (IP). These IP-based services may use the public internet, a private data network or a hybrid of public and private systems.
Local Area Network (LAN)
A private data communication network that uses high-speed internet to connect computers and related equipment in a limited geographic area (for example, within an office building)
VoIP Internet Telephony Service Provider or ITSP
A provider of internet-based telephony Services
Packet
The basic unit of information transferred in data communication.
Private Branch Exchange or PBX
An in-house telephone exchange system that connects telephone extensions to each other, as well as to the outside telephone network
Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN
The traditional telephone network.
Inter-Asterisk Exchange Protocol (IAX)
An alternative to SIP for Asterisk PBX
Vocoders
A codec (Coder/Decoder) converts analog signals to a digital bitstream, and another identical codec at the far end of the communication converts the digital bitstream back into an analog signal. In the VoIP world, codec's are used to encode voice for transmission across IP networks. Codec's for VoIP use are also referred to as vocoders, for "voice encoders". Codecs generally provide a compression capability to save network bandwidth. Some codecs also support silence suppression, where silence is not encoded or transmitted.
Trunk
A VoIP trunk gateway is an interface that facilitates the use of plain old telephone service (POTS) equipment, such as conventional phone sets and fax machines, with a voice over IP (VoIP) network.
Asterisk
An open source PBX.
Soft phone
A piece of software for making VoIP calls using a computer, rather than using dedicated hardware
USB phone
A device that looks like a traditional telephone, but connects to a computer using a USB connection and is designed for making VoIP calls.
Interactive voice response (IVR)
A phone technology that allows a computer to detect voice and touch tones using a normal phone call (Press 1 for accounts, press 2 for sales etc).
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
This is a device that allows for the distribution of incoming calls
Call Detail Record (CDR)
Data record typically used to record usage information on a per-call basis. This information might include the incoming DDI, number dialled, start-time, call duration, etc.
Quality of Service (QoS)
The idea that transmission rates, error rates, and other characteristics can be measured, improved, and, to some extent, guaranteed in advance.
