CTI Computer Telephony Integration

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to Computer Telephony and Computer Telephony Integration software and products. Computer Telephony Integration CTI software is a rich set of phone software library routines that enable application programs to control your phone system. This comprehensive CTI software lets you increase employee productivity, enhance customer service and reduce costs by combining the capabilities of our PACER phone system with the custom functionality of your Windows, Unix or Web applications. Data collected by your phone ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems can be passed to your existing PC, Unix or Web applications through our phone software. The PACER predictive dialer can automatically call your customers and pass only connected calls to your agents. With our computer telephony software, your telephone and computer work together to provide cost-saving benefits.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment): Integration of software.

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol): An extension to the Internet Protocol (IP) defined by RFC 792. ICMP supports packets containing error, control, and informational messages. The PING command, for example, uses ICMP to test an Internet connection.

IGP (Internet Gateway Protocol): Used to exchange routing information collaborating routers in the Internet. RIP and OSPF are examples of IGPs.

IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol): A proprietary network protocol, developed by Cisco Systems, designed to work on autonomous systems. IGRP is a distance-vector routing protocol, which means that each router sends all or a portion of its routing table in a routing message update at regular intervals to each of its neighboring routers. A router chooses the best path between a source and a destination. Since each path can comprise many links, the system needs a way to compare the links in order to find the best path. A system such as RIP uses only one criteria - hops - to determine the best path. IGRP uses five criteria to determine the best path: the link's speed, delay, packet size, loading and reliability. Network administrators can set the weighting factors for each of these metrics.

ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier): e.g. Frontier.

IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol): Next generation email protocol which is likely to replace POP for Internet mail servers.

IMAP4 (Internet Mail Access Protocol 4): Newer version of IMAP, developed in 1987, that is just starting to come out.

IP (Internet Protocol): Protocol on which the Internet is based. The IP Protocol is a standard describing software that keeps track of the Internetwork addresses for different nodes, routes outgoing messages, and recognizes incoming messages. It allows a packet to transverse multiple networks on the way to its final destination.

IPR6 (Internet Protocol version 6): Replaces 32 bits with v6 128 bits.

IPX (Internet Packet eXchange): A networking protocol used by the Novell NetWare operating systems. Like UDP/IP, IPX is a datagram protocol used for connectionless communications. Higher-level protocols, such as SPX and NCP, are used for additional error recovery services.

ISA (Industry Standard Architecture): Most common bus architecture on the motherboard of MS-DOS computers.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network): 1. To provide standards for voice, data, and signaling. 2. All transmission circuits end-to-end digital. 3. Adopting out-of-band signaling. 4. Increasing bandwidth. Two types, BRI & PRI.

ISP/ITSP: Internet Service Provider/Internet Telephony Service Provider.

ISV (Independent Software Vendor): A company that writes and sells Software.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response): Uses human or synthesized voice for messaging in push button phone systems. Eg. Main menu, press 2 to… 3 etc.

LAN (Local Area Network): A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN).

Most LANs connect workstations and personal computers. Each node (individual computer ) in a LAN has its own CPU with which it executes programs, but it also is able to access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users can share expensive devices, such as laser printers, as well as data. Users can also use the LAN to communicate with each other, by sending e-mail or engaging in chat sessions.

There are many different types of LANs Ethernets being the most common for PCs. Most Apple Macintosh networks are based on Apple's AppleTalk network system, which is built into Macintosh computers.

The following characteristics differentiate one LAN from another:

• topology: The geometric arrangement of devices on the network. For example, devices can be arranged in a ring or in a straight line.

• protocols: The rules and encoding specifications for sending data. The protocols also determine whether the network uses a peer-to-peer or client/server architecture.

• media: Devices can be connected by twisted-pair wire, coaxial cables, or fiber optic cables. Some networks do without connecting media altogether, communicating instead via radio waves.

LANs are capable of transmitting data at very fast rates, much faster than data can be transmitted over a telephone line; but the distances are limited, and there is also a limit on the number of computers that can be attached to a single LAN.

LEC/CLEC: Local Exchange Carrier/Competitive Local Exchange Carrier.

Linux: A Unix PC operating system that competes with NT. Is shareware vs. NT is not.

MAC (Moves, Adds & Changes): For phone systems.

MAC Address (Media Access Control): Address of a device identified at the control layer in a network.

MAPI: Messaging Application Program Interface.

MBS: Millions of bytes/second or Microprocessor Based System.

MIPS (Millions of instructions/second): Average # of instructions by CPU/second.

MDMF (Multiple Data Message Format): Simply the display of Caller ID inf.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): Standard for including non-text information in Internet mail supporting the transmission of mixed media messages across TCP/IP networks.

MIS: Management Information Systems.

MVIP (Multi-Vendor Integration Protocol): Allows telephony products from different vendors to inter-operate within a computer or groups of computers.