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.

NAT (Network Address Translation): An Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations. NAT serves three main purposes: 1) Provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses. 2) Enables a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since they're used internally only, there's no possibility of conflict with IP addresses used by other companies and organizations. 3) Allows a company to combine multiple ISDN connections into a single Internet connection.

NIC (Network Interface Card): Connects a device to a LAN, usually in the form of an expansion board.

Node: Point of connection in a network, means a unit is polled. In a LAN it is a device on a ring and in a packet switched network its one of many packet switches that form the networks backbone.

NT: New Technology.

ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity): Microsoft standard that allows disparate databases to be accessed by a common interface.

OSFP (Open Short Path First): A routing protocol developed for IP networks based on the shortest path first or link-state algorithm. Routers use link-state algorithms to send routing information to all nodes in an internetwork by calculating the shortest path to each node based on a topography of the Internet constructed by each node. Each router sends that portion of the routing table (keeps track of routes to particular network destinations) that describes the state of its own links, and it also sends the complete routing structure (topography). The advantage of shortest path first algorithms is that they results in smaller more frequent updates everywhere. They converge quickly, thus preventing such problems as routing loops and Count-to-Infinity (when routers continuously increment the hop count to a particular network). This makes for a stable network. The disadvantage of shortest path first algorithms is that they require a lot of CPU power and memory. In the end, the advantages out weigh the disadvantages. OSPF Version 2 is defined in RFC 1583. It is rapidly replacing RIP on the Internet.

OSI (Open System Interconnection): An ISO standard for worldwide communications that defines a networking framework for implementing protocols in seven layers. Control is passed from one layer to the next, starting at the application layer in one station, proceeding to the bottom layer, over the channel to the next station and back up the hierarchy. Most of the functionality in the OSI model exists in all communications systems, although two or three OSI layers may be incorporated into one.

PBX: Private Branch Exchange.

PC-PBX: Is a down sized version of the phone company’s larger central switching office.

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect): 32 bit local bus @ 132 mbs vs. 5 for an ISA.

PDF (Portable Document Format): Documents viewed and created by Adobe’s Acrobat Reader to standardize Internet-based documents.

Port: Network access point for data entry or exit. Also an interface!

POTS (Plain Old Telephone System): Is a step below a PSTN as POTS just supplies simple single line phone systems with NO features what so ever.

PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet): PPPoE relies on two widely accepted standards: PPP and Ethernet. PPPoE is a specification for connecting the users on an Ethernet to the Internet through a common broadband medium, such as a single DSL line, wireless device or cable modem. All the users over the Ethernet share a common connection, so the Ethernet principles supporting multiple users in a LAN combine with the principles of PPP, which apply to serial connections.

PRI (Prime Rate Interface): In North America 1,544,000 bits/second and made into as many as 24 phone calls.

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network): Any phone system of local, long distance and international phone companies.

PVC (Permanent Virtual Circuit): A virtual circuit that is permanently available. The only difference between a PVC and a switched virtual circuit (SVC) is that an SVC must be reestablished each time data is to be sent. Once the data has been sent, the SVC disappears. PVCs are more efficient for connections between hosts that communicate frequently. PVCs play a central role in Frame Relay networks. They're also supported in some other types of networks, such as X.25.