Shoretel Unified Communications Glossary
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This document provides a glossary of terms related to unified communications and IP telephony. It defines abbreviations and industry-specific phrases to help explain concepts in these fields. Terms defined include automatic call distribution, caller ID, conferencing, IP telephony switches, quality of service, and voice over IP. The glossary aims to make discussions about voice and data communication technology more understandable.
Shoretel Unified Communications Glossary
- 1. GLOSSARY Business Communications A to Z A Helpful Compendium Of Unified Communications & IP Telephony Terms, Acronyms And Phrases Every industry has its communications short-cuts: those specialized phrases, abbreviations and insider terms that can fly by in a white paper or conversation as though the listener is already well-versed in the field. IP Telephony and Unified Communications is no exception. Today’s sophisticated integration of business phones with UC applications offers a multitude of end-user features made possible by lightning-fast, low- cost Internet distribution, advanced communications protocols, ingenious device programming, and rich multimedia enhancements. It is a “must have” for all businesses, no matter the size. ShoreTel offers this glossary to take some of the complexity out of talking VoIP and UC. A Automatic number identification (ANI) – ANI is a feature that allows the telephone company to capture the billing phone number of the ATM – Asynchronous Abandoned call – An abandoned call is when calling party. ANI is similar to caller ID, but with Transfer Mode the caller disconnects while he or she is on ANI, the caller’s phone number and line type hold and waiting for a call center agent. The are captured even if caller ID is blocked. ACD – Automatic call caller may call back at a later time, but may distribution become dissatisfied and call a competitor. Availability – Availability of any IT system is As the call volume increases, the abandon based on the probably of a hardware failure. ANI – Automatic number rate usually increases. Experts consider the Availability takes into account the type and identification optimum abandoned call rate to be 3 percent number of hardware components in a system to 5 percent. and the mean time between failure (MTBF) BYOD – Bring-your-own- for these components. If an IP telephony device Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) – ATM switch has a predicted MTBF of approximately is a type of wide-area network circuit that 135,600 hours, and each failure requires is used to transmit voice, video and data. one hour mean time to repair (MTTR), then All information sent over an ATM network availability is 99.9993%. This achieves five-nines is broken into packets of a fixed size, which of availability, and it means the switch will be means the performance is predictable and unavailable for one hour every ten years. manageable. Automated attendant – An automated attendant offers a customizable way for an B organization to quickly route incoming calls to their destinations. Organizations can use Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) – With automated attendants to connect callers the huge popularity of mobile devices, with the right parties faster and hire fewer many people want to use their personal operators or receptionists. smartphones, tablets and other mobile Automatic call distribution (ACD) – An ACD devices to access business applications and is a system that receives incoming phone calls information. They won’t need to carry different and routes them to the appropriate contact mobile devices for work and personal use, and center agent. ACDs are used in businesses and they will be able to make and receive personal contact centers that handle large volumes of and business calls, while maintaining their incoming callers who may require assistance business and personal personas. Companies from any number of different people. can also save the cost of buying smartphones 1
- 2. and tablets for their workers. A successful a computer. Examples include screen pops, BYOD initiative requires careful management automatic dialing and call center functions. and security to protect the business from risk. Conferencing – Conferencing allows two or more people to interact using audio C (audio conferencing), audio and video (video conferencing), or a combination of audio, video and information sharing using a Web Call center – A central location of an browser (web conferencing). Conferencing organization that handles high volumes of reduces the need for travel and encourages inbound and outbound calls, typically for sales, collaboration among employees, customers service or support. and partners who may be at different physical Call detail record (CDR) – Business phone locations. systems generate detailed logs of calls, which Contact center – A contact center handles can be saved for processing and analysis. high volumes of inbound and outbound calls, Service organizations that bill by the hour, such Web chats, instant messaging, emails, faxes as legal and advertising firms, often input the and other forms of communications, typically information from call detail records into their for sales, service or support. A contact center customer billing systems. also typically uses blended agents, who can Caller identification (Caller ID) – Caller ID manage multiple forms of voice and data- is used to allow the called party to see the centric customer communications. calling party’s name and telephone number Customer relationship management (CRM) before picking up the phone. Caller ID can be – Software that manages all aspects of an CDR – Call detail record blocked by the calling party. organization’s interactions with its customers, Caller ID – Caller Capital expense (capex) – Capex includes all clients and prospects. identifiication of the equipment required, including hardware and software, planning, installation, initial Capex – Capital expense setup and integration with other systems. D Capex declines over time, as IT products CEBP – Communications- continue to improve in price/performance Denial of Service (DoS) – DoS or distributed enabled business and new features. See operational expenses DoS (DDoS) attacks are favorites of criminals, processes (opex). political operatives as well as disgruntled Click to call – The ability to launch a phone call customers, former employees and social CTI – Computer telephony protestors. DDoS attacks have become directly from the contact list on your computer. integration highly organized and complex, which makes Cloud-based VoIP or unified communications them harder to fight. In a DDoS attack, the CRM – Customer (UC) – Most IP voice and unified network is bombarded with traffic, resulting in relationship management communications systems today are a slowdown or crash of the applications and deployed on-premises, but cloud services servers. Every organization using IP telephony DoS – Denial of service are becoming increasingly popular. With a should have backup telephone lines in case of cloud service, costs are more predictable a DDoS attack. DID – Direct inward dial than with an on-premises solution. A cloud- based business phone system is both hosted Direct inward dial (DID) – DID is used for E911 – Enhanced 911 call routing, and it enables external callers and managed by the provider. The VoIP or unified communications system is located in to contact a user directly at his or her unique the provider’s secure data centers and the phone number. In the UK, it is called direct provider owns, configures and manages it. dial-in (DDI). Communications-enabled applications – These applications have directly integrated E communications functionality. Key applications include collaboration, contact center, Employee-liable mobile device – A mobile notification applications, reporting and device, such as a smartphone or tablet, that’s analytics. owned by the employee, not the organization, Communications-enabled business processes but is used to access corporate applications (CEBP) – When business applications are and data. integrated with communications applications Enhanced 911 (E911) – When IP telephony or to improve operations and workflow, it is mobile phone users dial 911, E911 is used to known as communications-enabled business allow the location of the user to be known to processes. CEBP can be used in collaboration, the call receiver. E911 support is required by contact center, notification applications, and the FCC for mobile phones and IP phones. reporting and analytics tools. Ergonomics – The science of designing Computer telephony integration (CTI) – products, machines and systems to maximize CTI refers to any technology that enables the safety, comfort and efficiency of the integrated interaction on a telephone and people who use them. Ergonomics takes into 2
- 3. account psychology, physical measurement, conferencing. SIP and MGCP protocols have environment and more to ensure that products become more popular than H.323 over time. are adapted to suit workers and their specific Hosted VoIP – In a hosted VoIP or unified needs. Keep ergonomics in mind as you communications system, the carrier, vendor look at the handsets and software of unified or solution provider runs and manages the communications systems. system. Costs are more predictable than with the traditional on-premises model where F businesses buy, build and manage their own phone systems. Find me, follow me – This IP telephony feature Hunt groups – On a business phone systems, allows an employee to program his or her hunt groups ensure that all calls are answered extension to ring based on status, such as by a live person, rather than having to wait in a allowing the call through when he or she is queue or go to voicemail. An incoming call can in the office, forwarding to a mobile phone ring extensions in a specified sequence or ring when there is no answer, or forwarding to multiple extensions at once, depending on the a colleague when the line is busy. Find-me, company’s preference. follow-me improves worker productivity and customer service by ensuring that every call reaches the right person, regardless of where I he or she is working. IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN – Wireless LANs Firewall – A firewall sits between two networks, use radio technologies to provide connectivity such as a company’s network and the Internet, for smartphones, tablets, IP phones, sensors to prevent access by unauthorized users. A and many other types of devices. 802.11 firewall monitors and controls the flow of data wireless LANs operate in the 2.4 GHz and 5 in and out of the network and can intercept, GHz radio bands. 802.11n is the newest and analyze and stop a wide range of malicious fastest technology and delivers up to 100Mbps attacks. Make sure your company’s firewall performance–similar to or even better than supports IP voice. wired networks. Older (but still compatible) FMC – Fixed mobile Fixed mobile convergence (FMC) – FMC technologies include 802.11a (54Mbps), 802.11b coverage solutions integrate cellular services with (11Mbps) and 802.11g (54Mbps). private communications networks, either wired IM – Instant messaging IEEE 802.11e – 802.11e is an enhancement or wireless. Users are accessible via a single to the 802.11 wireless LAN specifications number and can use of enterprise telephony IVR – Interactive voice that provides quality-of-service features, features from their mobile phones. FMC can response including the prioritization of data, voice and provide cost savings by eliminating expensive video. To ensure a quality user experience, roaming charges on mobile networks, quality of service should be used for real-time especially for international calls. See also applications such as voice and video. mobile unified communications. IEEE 802.11i – 802.11i improves wireless Frame relay – Frame relay is a type of wide- authentication and encryption for wireless area network connection. Frame relay circuits LANs. Together, 802.11i and Wi-Fi Protected are less expensive than private leased lines Access 2 (WPA2), from the Wi-Fi Alliance, are because the carrier shares the frame relay used to secure wireless networks. bandwidth among many customers. When properly engineered, frame relay can provide IEEE 802.1p – 802.1p is a specification that a cost-effective way to transmit IP telephony gives Ethernet switches the ability to identify traffic and still guarantee quality of service. and prioritize traffic into eight classes of service. 802.1p works at the media access control (MAC) layer, or Layer 2. G IEEE 802.1X – 802.1X authentication should be used to verify a user’s identity on a G.711 – G.711 is an ITU-U standard that wireless LAN, so that unauthorized guests describes the 64-kbps pulse code modulation are not allowed to use the network. Laptops, (PCM) voice coding technique. In G.711, tablets and smartphones can support 802.1X encoded voice is already in the correct format authentication, but Wi-Fi IP phones, which for digital voice delivery in the public switched have less computational capacity, use simpler telephone network or through PBXs. methods such as MAC address authentication or username and password. H Instant messaging (IM) – Real-time communication over the Internet using text- H.323 – H.323 is a standard that facilitates based messages. Often a key component of videoconferencing over packet-based UC. networks. It includes a complete suite Interactive voice response (IVR) – IVR is a of protocols for audio, video and data method of communication between customers 3
- 4. and an automated system through the use of a by network congestion, how routers and telephone keypad or speech recognition. switches queue up packets as well as network routing policies, such as traffic engineering IP contact center – Call centers using or MPLS paths used by carriers. Latency, jitter traditional PBXs can find that it is difficult and packet loss all impact voice quality. and expensive to gradually increase the number of agents. With an IP-based contact center, companies can more easily growth L their contact centers one agent at a time. In addition, IP contact centers can span across Latency – Latency is the time it takes for a many locations, which gives the business caller’s voice to be transported – packetized, greater flexibility than having to assemble a sent over the network, depacketized and skilled team of agents in a single location. replayed – to the other person. Geographical Agents can sign in from wherever they are distance and lower-speed network (even at home) and be instantly online as part connections can cause delays. If latency is of the contact center team. Also called a virtual too high, the natural conversation flow will contact center or distributed contact center. be interrupted. Latency should not exceed IP PBX – An IP PBX is a business phone 100 milliseconds one way for toll-quality system that delivers voice or video over a data voice. However, participants can still carry on network using IP. The previous generation of a decent conversation if latency is up to 150 PBXs used time-division multiplexing, rather milliseconds. Latency, jitter and packet loss all than IP. impact voice quality. IP phones – IP phones plug directly into Leased lines – Leased lines are the most the network and perform the necessary private wide-area network (WAN) connection, analog-to-digital and/or digital-to-analog and they are direct point-to-point connections conversions. You may need different models between your locations. Leased lines can be of IP phones based on various segments in used for data, voice and Internet services. They your user population. For example, the legal are also the easiest type of WAN circuit to department may need multi-line handsets with ensure a high quality of service for voice and MTBR – Mean time easy conference call capabilities, while the other applications. between failure manufacturing floor needs a phone with fewer Least-cost routing – Used in voice bells and whiles but good, loud sound and a MTTR – Mean time to communication to select the outbound rugged exterior. repair communications path based on lowest cost. IP telephony – IP telephony uses the IP MGCP – Media gateway network to carry voice, fax and other types of control protocol information that traditionally have been sent M over the public switched telephone network. Also called voice over IP (VoIP). Managed IP telephony services – In a managed services model, the customer owns IP telephony system architecture – Some IP the IP PBX and related equipment, and it telephony systems use a distributed system resides either at the customer’s office or in the architecture, while others use a centralized provider’s network, while the carrier or value- architecture. In a centralized architecture, a added reseller provides management and central call control server provides dial tone for maintenance for the phone system. all phones. In a distributed model, the phone service is handled by multiple call control Mean time between failure (MTBR) – MTBF servers, which can be in different locations, is the predicted time between failures of a and call control is provided by each switch in system during operation. MTBF is calculated the system. A distributed system has greater as the average time between failures of a reliability and resilience. system. The hard disk drives, fans and power supplies of a business phone system are the IP VaaS – IP voice as a service is a small but components that are most likely to fail. Look growing offering as a VoIP telephony solution. for a system with the fewest moving parts. Rather than buying and managing the VoIP infrastructure internally, clients receive voice Mean time to repair (MTTR) – The time to services via a third-party provider that hosts, repair a device. A four-hour MTTR is the delivers and manages the operation remotely. industry standard, which can be a challenge The infrastructure is typically shared with other for businesses that want to maintain five nines clients. (see Hosted VoIP). of availability for the IT systems. Redundant systems are usually added to ensure the appropriate levels of availability. Modular, J distributed systems also make repair easy and results in a lower MTTR. Jitter – Jitter can cause strange sounds to Media gateway control protocol (MGCP) – contaminate voice calls and users will complain MGCP, also known as H.248 and Megaco, is about degraded voice quality. Jitter is caused an ITU-U standard for handling the signaling 4
- 5. and session management needed during a all hardware must be doubled, which doubles multimedia conference. MCGP defines the the hardware cost. communication between a media gateway, Net Promoter Score (NPS) –SATMETRIX’s which converts the data for use on a circuit- Net Promoter Score® is a globally recognized switched network, to the format required for metric used to measure customer loyalty. NPS a packet-switched network and the media is a measurement of an individual’s willingness gateway controller. to recommend a company or product to Metro Ethernet – A metropolitan area network others. A score of 50 or above is considered that is based on Ethernet standards and is world class. used to connect subscribers to the Internet Network assessment – A network assessment or to their own offices in the region. 10-Gbps provides a comprehensive performance Ethernet services are increasingly popular for assurance and real-time verification of unified metro Ethernet. communications performance right to the Mobile device management (MDM) – MDM users’ desktops. A network assessment will software secures, monitors and manages help scout out problems before IP voice or mobile devices, such as smartphones and video is deployed. Any business deploying tablets. MDM software usually distributes IP voice should first conduct a network applications and enforces data and assessment. configuration settings for mobile devices, and includes the ability to lock or delete data from a lost or stolen mobile device. MDM can also O be provided as a service. Operational expenses (opex) – Opex is Mobile unified communications (mobile the cost involved once a given service UC) – A mobile UC solution includes is operational, including operational common telephony functions, presence MDM – Mobile device management, user education, support, status, messaging, calendar, visual voicemail, management troubleshooting and related labor-intensive videoconferencing and document sharing/ services. Opex costs increase over time, as MACs – Moves, adds and collaboration from a smartphone or tablet. personnel costs rise. See capital expenses changes Mobility Router – A mobility router is a (capex). network appliance that combines IP telephony, MPLS – Multi label enterprise wireless LANs, carrier cellular switching networks and location technology to extend P voice and unified communications to mobile NPS – Net promoter score devices. A Mobility Router allows users Packet loss – Packet loss results in a metallic to make and receive calls from enterprise sound or conversation dropouts in IP phone Opex – Operational and personal mobile phone numbers by systems. Packet loss can be caused by network expenses automatically selecting the best network (Wi-Fi congestion, distance and poor line quality. PoE – Power over ethernet or cellular) to optimize cost, call quality and Because VoIP is a real-time service, there’s battery life. no way to recover lost packets. Even one or two percent packet drop results in noticeably Moves, adds and changes (MACs) – The degraded voice quality. Latency, jitter and administration necessary when users or packet loss all impact voice quality. network components are moved, added or changed on the network. When the moves, Power over Ethernet (PoE) – With PoE, adds and changes for your phone system need electrical power and data are transmitted to be done by a reseller or solution provider, on Ethernet cabling. On today’s networks, rather than your own IT administrator or office IP phones plug directly into the Ethernet manager, expenses can quickly add up. network, rather than having a separate power source. The IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) – Many standard can be used to power IP phones, large enterprise and service provider networks video surveillance camera and other devices. use MPLS to create full mesh connectivity The original IEEE 802.3af standard provides across the wide-area network without having up to 15.4 watt of DC power, where the newer to manage virtual circuits. IEEE 802.3at (also known as PoE Plus) provides up to 25.5 watts of power. N Presence status – The ability to see a colleague’s presence status, such as in the N+1 redundancy – A business phone system office, away, on the phone, or in a meeting. with a distributed architecture that allows for A user’s presence status should change use of N+1 redundancy will provide high levels automatically if the person is on the phone of reliability. N+1 redundancy means that extra or scheduled to be in a meeting. Presence parts, such as voice switches, can be added services are expanding to include the to provide redundancy and there is no single presence and location information between point of failure. A 1:1 redundancy means that multiple sources. 5
- 6. Private branch exchange (PBX) – A PBX applications and their associated data are telephone system is based on time-division centrally hosted on the cloud. The services multiplexing (TDM) and they were traditionally provided are typically accessed by users via a deployed by organizations until the arrival of web browser. IP-based phone systems in the late 1990s. Seamless roaming – When a person walks Public switched telephone network (PSTN) from one location to another using a – The network of the public circuit-switched mobile device, he or she counts on roaming telephone lines, which allows any phone in the capabilities of the wireless LAN to keep the world to connect with any other phone. The application or voice call connected. Invisible to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) the user, the underlying wireless infrastructure creates the standards that govern the technical hands off the user from one wireless access operations of the PSTN. point to the next, while performing the necessary re-association and re-authentication in the background. Q Service level agreement (SLA) – An SLA is part of a service contract where the level Quality of service (QoS) – There are a number of service is defined. SLAs can be between of ways to identify and mark which applications service providers and customers, or businesses and traffic should receive high priority and their internal departments. An SLA may transmission over the network. These methods describe the service uptime, application include virtual LANs, DiffServ, Type of Service, response time, application performance, IEEE 802.1p, IP address, and source and time to repair, and other measurable details. destination ports. Different QoS methods may PBX – Private branch An SLA for voice quality might include call be used at Layer 2 and Layer 3, and to ensure exchange completion rate, delay from when the last digit that quality of service can be enforced end-to- is dialed until a user hears a ringing or busy PSTN – Public switched end across the network, you must ensure that signal, and a mean opinion score to measure telephone network these QoS methods can be translated from voice quality. one layer to another. QoS – Quality of service Session border controller (SBC) – If you are using SIP trunks to connect your company’s RTP – Real-time transport R different locations, you should add a session protocol border controller to protect against malicious Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) – An IP attacks. An SBC ensures that only approved ROI – Return on investment standard that provides end-to-end network traffic passes into the heart of your business. transport functions that can be used by An SBC also hides your internal network and SLA – Service level application transmitting real-time voice, video your users IP addresses from the outside agreement or data over unicast or multicast network world, which provides additional security services. protection. SBC – Session border control Reliability – Reliability generally refers to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) – SIP is a hardware reliability. Reliability is determined signaling protocol used to establish a session SIP – Session initiation by calculating how often the system fails in an IP network, from a simple telephone call protocol compared to the percentage of the time to a multimedia conference session with many that the system is available. In the telephony participants. SIP establishes, manipulates and world, five nines of reliability is the acceptable tears down sessions. However, there are many benchmark. This means the system is available different “flavors” of SIP, which can create at least 99.999 percent of the time. Reliability is interoperability issues. SIP is RFC 3261 from different than availability. the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Return on investment (ROI) – ROI is used to SI – Systems Integrators specialize in bringing justify a purchase decision. In IT, ROI is about together component subsystems into a the productivity an organization gains by whole andensuring that those subsystems implementing a particular technology. For function together, a practice known as system unified communications, this productivity integration. could be qualitative, such as customer Skills-based routing – In a contact center, satisfaction, or end-user productivity, such as skills-based routing is used to automatically increased call volumes or the productivity of route calls to the most appropriate agent, contact center agents. ROI and total cost of based on criteria such as language, experience ownership (TCO) are often confused. See also or technical expertise. total cost of ownership. Softphone – A softphone, which delivers telephony capabilities to any PC or laptop, is S particularly convenient for workers who travel frequently. With calls directed to a laptop SaaS – Software as a service, sometimes and a headset plugged into the USB port, an referred to as “on-demand software”, is a employee can work from anywhere using the virtual application service in which software computer and its built-in microphone. 6
- 7. UCaaS a more sophisticated communications T solution than simple voice, and should include instant messaging, conferencing, presence TDM – Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is and voicemail features, as well as advanced a type of signal multiplexing in which two or integration with email and other business more bit streams share allocated space on one process software, to be considereda truly communication channel by physically taking unified communications solution. turns on the channel via synchronized and Unified communications (UC) – UC provides error-corrected time slots of fixed length. TDM a single interface through which users can exponentially increases the amount of data access a wide range of communications that can be transmitted simultaneously. options, including voice, instant messaging, Telephony denial of service (TDoS) – TDoS email, conferencing and more. refers to automatically generated call floods Unified communications and collaboration received by businesses – usually their contact (UCC) – UCC integrates multiple centers. For example, attackers can flood the communications channels and enables contact center’s IVR or agents with hundreds communication and collaboration within or thousands of concurrent calls to disrupt the workgroups and across company boundaries. business or to generate calls for revenue. See UCC includes voice and telephony, also denial of service. conferencing, messaging, presence status Telepresence – Telepresence is a set of and instant messaging, and these capabilities TDM – Time-division technologies that provides video and sound can be accessed from a variety of devices. multiplexing quality that is as good as being there. Products may be a standalone suite or a Telepresence has extended the capabilities of portfolio of integrated applications and TDoS – Telephony denial of videoconferencing beyond the boardroom to platforms. service tablets and other mobile devices, facilitating Unified messaging – Unified messaging is the collaboration. TCO – Total cost of integration of email, SMS, fax, voicemail and ownership Throughput – How much bandwidth your video messaging into a single interface and system needs, which depends on the number accessible from a variety of devices. Unified UCaaS – Unified of simultaneous calls, the voice encoding messaging simplifies the user experience communications as a scheme used by the IP phone or softphone, because all types of messages are stored in service and the signaling overhead. one place. UC – Unified Toll fraud – Insider abuse or a compromised communications system may allow outsider access to the phone V system to make calls, often internationally. Toll UCC – Unified fraud can cost companies millions of dollars. VaaS – Voice as a Service. (See IP VaaS) communications and Total cost of ownership (TCO) – TCO helps collaboration you determine which specific vendor’s product VAR – A value-added reseller is a company you should purchase. TCO is the measure of that adds features or services to an existing VaaS – Voice as a service what technology costs to own. For unified product, then resells it as an integrated communications, these costs could include product or complete “turn-key” solution. VAR – Value added reseller The added value can come from professional capital expenses such as hardware and software, implementation and training, system services such as integrating, customizing, VLANs – Virtual local area consulting, training and implementation. networks management, and network and long distance charges. The focus for organizations should Customers purchase systems from a reseller if be on choosing products that reduce these they lack the time or experience to assemble tangible costs over the lifetime of owning the system themselves. Some OEMs chose the system. TCO and return on investment to market their products and services solely (ROI) are often confused. See also return on through VARs. investment (ROI). Virtual contact center – A virtual contact Trunk line – Trunk lines connect the PBX to center leverages an IP-based contact center public switched telephone network. In older solution that allows agents to work from PBX phone systems, ISDN, T1, E1 and DS3 different locations and even from home. A were commonly used for trunk lines. Today, SIP virtual contact center scales more effectively trunks are often used. and allows businesses to leverage expertise across locations, rather than hoping to find a highly skilled team in one location. Also called U an IP contact center. Virtual LANs (VLANs) – Many organizations UCaaS – Unified communications as a service use virtual LANs (VLANs) to logically separate is a turn-key business communications solution devices and departments on the same physical whereby clients pay for shared use of an IP UC network. Isolating different groups’ traffic infrastructure which is owned and managed from one another provides an additional layer offsite by a provider (see Hosted VoIP). of security. Giving voice traffic its own VLAN 7
- 8. will deliver a better user experience. Using Wideband audio –Wideband audio (50 Hz VLANs also reduces the impact of multicast or to 7,000 Hz) is preferred for business phone broadcast traffic. systems, because it makes conversations sound better and reduces errors in translation. Virtual private network (VPN) – A VPN is Wideband audio more than doubles a private network used by a company, and narrowband (300 Hz to 3,400 Hz). An IP in many cases, its partners or associates, to PBX should support both wideband and communicate over a non-private network. narrowband. VPN traffic can be carried over a public network infrastructure such as the Internet. Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Internet-based VPNs offer the least amount Alliance, an industry organization. Wi-Fi is used of administrative control to regulate and to describe products that have passed the guarantee quality of service to ensure a good organization’s interoperability tests; however, voice experience. the term Wi-Fi is commonly used to describe wireless LANs. Virtualization – Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than an actual) version of Wireless LAN – Wireless LANs use radio something, such as an operating system, technologies to provide connectivity for server, storage device or network. For smartphones, tablets, IP phones, sensors and example, server virtualization essentially tricks many other types of devices. Smaller wireless the operating system into thinking that a LANs use access points (APs) to provide the group of servers is a single pool of computing service, while larger wireless LANs also use resources, and that allows IT to run multiple mobility controllers to control and manage the operating systems simultaneously on the same many access points. machine. Virtualization allows companies to Wireless Multimedia (WMM) – WMM is used consolidate servers, increase operational to deliver quality of service for voice and other VPN – Virtual private flexibility and deliver higher application newtork applications on wireless LANs. WMM defines availability. four priority levels to support different types VoIP – Voice over IP Voice over IP (VoIP) – VoIP is a method of of traffic, including voice, video, best effort for sending voice calls over the IP data network. data and background traffic. WMM is a Wi-Fi VoWLAN – Voice over This can apply to the public Internet or private Alliance certification that’s based on the IEEE wireless LAN IP networks. Also called IP telephony and IP 802.11e standard. voice. WebRTC – Web real-time communications Voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) – Running IP voice over a wireless LAN. WFQ – Weighted fair queuing W WAN – Wide area newtork WAN optimization – WAN optimization WMM – Wireless products accelerate your applications by multimedia eliminating redundant transmissions, staging data in local caching, compressing and prioritizing data, and streamlining chatty protocols. This makes more room for your real- time applications, such as voice and video. WebRTC – Web Real-Time Communication) is an API definition being drafted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to enable browser to browser applications for voice calling, video chat and P2P file sharing without plugins. Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) – WFQ is a quality of service method that is used on routers and switches. WFQ allows traffic flows to share the network, but provides prioritization for small, time-sensitive traffic. This way, a large traffic flow, such as a backup, will not clog the pipe or create lengthy delays for smaller flows, such as voice. Wide area network (WAN) – A telecom network that spans great distances, often across a metropolitan or regional area, but also across countries. 8
- 9. About ShoreTel ShoreTel is a provider of business communication solutions whose brilliantly simple unified communications platforms, applications and mobile UC solutions promise a new rhythm of workforce engagement and collaboration. With costly complexity eliminated by design from its award winning, all-in-one IP phone system, UC and contact center solution, and its industry leading hosted business phone system, workers enjoy a freedom and self-reliance that other providers can’t match. Users have full control to engage and collaborate, no matter the time, place or device, for the lowest cost and demand on IT resources in the industry. ShoreTel is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices and partners worldwide. For more information, visit shoretel.com or shoretelsky.com WORLD HEADQUARTERS 960 Stewart Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94085 USA. shoretel.com and shoretelsky.com +1 (800) 425-9385 Toll Free +1 (408) 331-3300 Tel. +1 (408) 331-3333 Fax for ShoreTel +1 (646) 230-5000 Tel. +1 (646) 230-5001 Fax for ShoreTel Sky EMEA +800 408 33133 Freephone +44 (1628) 826300 Tel. ASIA PACIFIC +61 (0)2 9959 8000 Tel. Copyright © 2013 ShoreTel. All rights reserved. The ShoreTel logo and ShoreTel are registered trademarks of ShoreTel, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other copyrights and trademarks herein are the property of their respective owners. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Part #850-1369-01/01.13