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Appendix A
Glossary
- AIS
- Alarm Indication Signal; a signal that replaces the normal traffic signal when a maintenance alarm indication has been activated. An AIS is transmitted downstream indicating that an upstream failure has occurred. See also blue alarm, red alarm, yellow alarm.
- Alarm Indication Signal
- See AIS.
- BIOS
- Basic Input/Output System; on PC-compatible computers, the set of essential software routines that test the hardware at setup, launch the operating system, and support the transfer of sata between hardware systems.
- blue alarm
- One of the three alarms to indicate problems with T1/E1 transmissions. The blue alarm occurs when two consecutive frames have fewer than three zeros in the data stream. A blue alarm sends ones in all bits of all timeslots. Also known as the AIS. See also AIS, red alarm, yellow alarm.
- bus (telephony)
- A physical system which permits the interchange of data. A telephony bus has three basic elements: lines for the data, bit synchronization (clocks), and frame synchronization (frame strobe). Most telephony buses also have a network reference - an 8 kHz timekeeper. See also H.100 bus, MVIP.
- CEPT
- Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications administrations; a European telephony standards committee.
- CEPT E1
- A standard used in Europe for digital telephone carriers. CEPT E1 is similar to T1 but operates at 2.048 Mbps and has 32 channels instead of T1's 24. See also T1.
- channel
- An electronic communications path. In digital telephony, a channel usually refers to a separate connection carried on a digital trunk.
- clock master
- The board that drives the clock signal for a system of boards connected by a bus cable. See also clock slave.
- clock slave
- A board that derives its clock signal from a bus cable; the clock signal is driven by the bus clock master. See also clock master.
- Communications Processor
- See CP.
- CP
- Communication Processor; a separate processing engine that offloads processing from the main CPU of a system to another CPU that is specialized for a certian task. For TX hardware environments, the CP allows the system to offload Communications/Protocol processing onto the TX board.
- CSA
- Canadian Standards Association; CSA certification is required for most electrical equipment used in Canada.
- CSU
- Channel Service Unit; a device connecting customer T1 equipment and a network line. See also T1.
- D4 framing
- A framing format in the T1 environment. The D4 framing bit is used to identify both the channel and the signaling frame. In D4 framing, signaling for voice channels is carried in-band along with the encoded voice. A pattern derived from the framing bit of each individual frame is used to maintain synchronization. See also robbed-bit signaling.
- device driver
- Software which translates the application commands into the code required by the device.
- DLL
- Dynamic Link Library; a library of software object modules that can be loaded and accessed on demand.
- DSi0..7, DSo0..7
- The names of the physical bus wires in the MVIP-90 bus cable that carry the individual unidirectional bit streams. By convention, they are paired up (DSiX, DSoX) to form eight full-duplex MVIP streams. DSi0..7 are designated for input to resource boards and DSo0..7 are designated for output from resource boards.
- DRAM
- Dynamic Random Access Memory chip; RAM memory that requires data to be refreshed periodically to prevent its loss in memory. See also SRAM.
- DSX-1
- Digital Signal Cross-Connect [X] Level 1; A standard set of parameters for cross-connecting DS-1 lines.
- duplex
- See full-duplex, simplex.
- Dynamic Random Access Memory
- See DRAM.
- E1
- See CEPT E1.
- Entity ID
- A unique value that identifies an application running on a host computer. Each application must select a unique Entity ID between 0x20 to 0x3F.
- ESF
- Extended SuperFrame; a framing format in the T1 environment. There are 24 separate 193 bit frames in an Extended Superframe. The 24 framing bits, one from each individual frame, are used to maintain synchronization in a manner similar to D4 framing, provide error checking, and provide a diagnostic channel. In-band signaling is employed using robbed-bit signaling. See also D4 framing, robbed-bit signaling, T1.
- Ethernet
- A local area network hardware, communication, and cabling standard. Ethernet is synonymous with 10Base-T.
- ETSI
- European Telecommunication Standards Institute.
- Fast Ethernet
- An Ethernet specification that enables data transmission rates of 100 Mbit/s. Synonymous with 100Base-T.
- firmware
- Software routines stored in read-only memory (ROM), such as startup routines and low-level input/output instructions.
- full-duplex
- Simultaneous two-way voice or two-way signal data transmission. See also simplex.
- ground
- An electrical connection to earth or to a common conductor which is connected to earth.
- H.100 bus
- A PCM digital bus standard for integrating hardware from various PC board vendors which enables boards to share voice data, signaling data, and switching information. The H.100 bus is an interoperable superset of the H-MVIP and MVIP-90 telephony buses. It can be addressed using the MVIP-95 switch model. See also bus (telephony), HMIC, MVIP-90.
- HMIC
- H.100/MVIP Integrated Circuit; the single chip that offers full support for the H.100 bus within the MVIP architecture, providing access to all 4096 timeslots on H.100 and H.110 buses. The industry standard name for the HMIC is the Lucent T8100. See also H.100 bus.
- host
- The PC on which an application runs. Also used to designate a computer with full two-way access to a network such as local area network or the Internet.
- Instance ID
- For TX environments, a combination of the Entity ID and a unique ID which defines the processor that is handling the call. Applications running on a host always have an Instance ID of zero. See also Entity ID.
- International Telecommunications Union
- See ITU.
- ISA
- Industry Standard Architecture; the de-facto bus card standard in the IBM-PC compatible world. Also known as the PC/AT bus.
- ISUP
- ISDN User Part; the SS7 protocol layer which allows for the establishment, supervision, and clearing of circuit-switched connections between two SS7 signaling points, such as central office switches. Despite its name, the ISUP layer is not unique to ISDN connections - it is used to manage all types of circuit-switched connections.
- ITU
- International Telecommunications Union; an international standards body for telecommunications.
- KERNEL
- The operating system loaded onto a Communications Processor on a TX series board. See also CP.
- loopback
- A local connection between the input and output of a device. This is typically used for testing purposes.
- MIPS
- Millions of Instructions Per Second; measure of computer speed according to the average number of machine language instructions performed by the CPU in one second.
- MTP
- Message Transfer Part; the SS7 protocol layers responsible for the reliable, in-sequence delivery of packets between two SS7 signaling points. The MTP's functions include message routing, signaling link management, signaling route management, and congestion control.
- multiplex
- To transmit more than one signal or channel over a single physical circuit.
- MVIP
- Multi-Vendor Integration Protocol; PCM digital bus standard for integrating various board vendors. Facilitates software-controlled digital switching within the PC chassis. MVIP interconnects switching and telephony processing boards on a PC. An interoperable subset of the H.100 bus standard. See also H.100 bus.
- MVIP-90
- Original MVIP standard for hardware and software requirements for a standard telephony bus.
- MVIP bus
- A high-speed, multiplexed digital telephony "highway" which allows boards to share data, signaling information, and switching information. See also bus (telephony).
- MVIP Bus Adapter
- A hardware connector that attaches an MVIP-90 bus to an H.100 board (e.g., a TX 3220), which enables boards connected to the MVIP-90 bus to access the first 16 streams on the H.100 bus and boards connected to the H.100 bus to access streams of data on the MVIP-90 bus. See also MVIP bus, H.100 bus.
- NAI
- See network access identifier (NAI).
- NDIS
- Network Driver Interface Specification; a device driver specification that provides hardware independence and protocol independence for network drivers so that multiple protocol stacks can coexist in the same host-based application.
- network access identifier (NAI)
- A software handle used to refer to a trunk.
- NMS
- Natural MicroSystems Corporation.
- PCI
- Peripheral Component Interconnect; a 32/64 bit local bus inside a PC.
- red alarm
- One of the three alarms that indicate problems with T1 transmissions. A red alarm is generated for a locally detected failure, such as loss of synchronization for 2.5 seconds. See also AIS, blue alarm, yellow alarm.
- redundancy
- The provisioning of extra or spare signaling links, boards, or nodes which can take over the responsibilities of similar components in the case of a failure or maintenance outage. The redundant components may be deployed in an active load-sharing arrangement (such as signaling links) or in a spare, or standby, arrangement. See also SS7.
- ring
- The alerting signal to the subscriber or terminal equipment; also the name for one conductor of a wire pair, designated by R. The other is called tip, or T. See also tip.
- RJ-48C
- An 8-position keyed plug most commonly used for connecting T-1 circuits.
- robbed-bit signaling
- A signaling method that uses the least significant bit of each timeslot in every sixth frame to carry signaling information (on-hook, off-hook, etc.) for that voice channel. See also D4 framing.
- SCCP
- Signaling Connection Control Part; an SS7 protocol that provides both connection-oriented and connectionless data transfer over an SS7 network. It extends the service provided by the SS7 MTP layers by adding extended addressing capabilities and multiple classes of service. The SCCP addressing capabilities allow a message to be addressed to an individual application or database within a signaling point. See also SS7.
- simplex
- A circuit which carries information in only one direction. See also full-duplex.
- snapshot
- In the TX environment, a dump file, usually named cpsnap.dmp, that a user can create to assist in the diagnosis of internal CP operations. The snapshot file is an image of every byte of memory on the CP at the time of snapshot.
- span line
- A T1 line. Also known as a T1 trunk, or as a span.
- SRAM
- Static Random Access Memory; RAM that retains its data without the refreshing required by DRAM. SRAM offers faster memory access time and is more expensive than DRAM. See also DRAM.
- SS7
- Signaling System 7; an out-of-band signaling system that provides fast call setup (using circuit-switched connections) and transaction capabilities for remote database interactions.
- Static Random Access Memory
- See SRAM.
- swizzle stick
- An informal name for the MVIP Bus Adapter. See MVIP Bus Adapter.
- T1
- A standard for telephone transmission that multiplexes 24 digital voice channels on a single 1.544 Mbyte/s carrier.
- task
- A software operation taking place on a board rather than on the PC host.
- TCAP
- Transaction Capabilities Application Part; an SS7 protocol that provides applications with transaction support over the SS7 network. It enables the exchange of non-circuit related data, such as database queries/responses and remote feature invocation requests, between SS7 signaling points. The TCAP layer relies on both the MTP and SCCP layers for message addressing and delivery.
- Telephone User Part (TUP)
- Like the ISDN user part, the telephone user part is an SS7 protocol that allows for the establishment, supervision, and clearing of circuit-switched connections between two SS7 signaling points, such as central office switches. It is used primarily in parts of Asia, South America, and Latin America. Use of TUP is decreasing as it is replaced by ISUP for circuit switching in most parts of the world.
- tip
- One conductor of a wire pair, designated by T; usually connected to the positive side of a line circuit. The other is called ring, or R. See also ring.
- trunk
- A transmission channel connecting two switching machines.
- With regard to NMS products, a trunk is defined as the physical interface between the telephone network and the board. It can be used interchangeably with line because it could be connected to either a trunk or a line.
- In telephone networks, a trunk is a shared connection between two switches. It differs from a line in that it is not dedicated to one subscriber or extension. Trunks should have good machine-to-machine interfaces. Compared to lines, trunks have different signaling requirements, including possibly billing information.
- TX
- Natural MicroSystems' product line of telephony and signaling hardware/software.
- uninterruptable power supply
- See UPS.
- UPS
- Uninterruptable Power Supply; a device, connected between a computer (or other electronic equipment) and a power source (usually an outlet receptacle), that provides a consistent electrical flow to the computer.
- yellow alarm
- One of the three alarms to indicate problems with T1 transmissions. A yellow alarm signal is sent back toward the source of a failed transmit circuit in a T1 transmission path. A yellow sends zeros in bit two of all timeslots. See also AIS, blue alarm, red alarm.
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