multiSwitch – user manual
© TOPEX 2008 162
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GLOSSARY
ACD
– Abbreviation for
Average Call Duration
– the average call duration for a user's calls. It is
expressed in minutes.
ANI
– Abbreviation for
Automatic Number Identification
– a feature of intelligent service in the
phone network, allowing subscribers to display the phone numbers of the callers. This service is
distributed most often by sending the DMTF digital tone together with the call.
ANI is often used by emergency center dispatches to save phone numbers from which emergency
calls are made, to be able to identify these callers afterwards. For example, in a call center, the ANI
displays to the operator the caller's number, in real time. One of the possibilities is redirecting the calls
to different persons in different geographic areas.
ASR
– Abbreviation for
Answer Seizure Ratio
– this is a rate between the number of successfully
placed calls and the total number of call attempts. Since the busy signals or other types of call rejects
are considered as unsuccessful attempts, the calculated value for the ASR rate depends on the user
behavior.
ATM
– Abbreviation for
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
– this represents a network and
datalink protocol that codifies the data traffic in fixed cells that have small sizes (53 bytes; 48 data
bytes and 4 header bytes). This is a variant of the variable dimension packets (frames) in the packet
switching network. ATM is a oriented technology, where a connection is established between two
points before the data transfer itself is started.
CO
– Abbreviation for
Central Office
– this is a component of the phone network. This is a building
where the home or office phone lines are interconnected with a much bigger switching system. In
metropolitan areas, CO are actually rather LOs (Local Offices), as they serve a local area. The "CO"
term is known since the first days of telephony, when the phone company actually had a central office
in each area.
The phone cable between the CO and the home or office is called "local loop" and in most cases is the
last phone network part that still uses analogue voice signals in copper wires. The maximum distance
between a CO and a home or an office is 5 kilometers. A CO in a metropolitan area can provide
services to a number of over 100.000 local loops.
CLIP
– Abbreviation for
Calling Line Identification Presentation
– this represents an additional
service used to display the caller's number. When a call is initiated, the mobile switching center of the
subscriber transmits the caller's identity to the destination MSC. Then, the destination MSC verifies if
the phone that was called has the CLIP service enabled. If the service is enabled, the caller's identity
will be displayed at entry. CLIP functions together with CLIR (Calling Line Identification Restriction) to
offer an advanced identification version in GSM networks.
DNIS
– Abbreviation for
Dialed Number Identification Service
– a phone service that displays to the
called party the number that the caller party has dialed. DNIS operates by sending the digits in DTMF
format to the destination, where a special application can read, display of provide these digits for call
center programming.
For example, a company can use a different free toll number for each of its line of products. If a call
center handles calls for all the product lines, the switch that receives the call can examine the DNIS
and then send the adequate welcome message. Another example of free toll numbers is multi-lingual
identification. A number can be setup for clients that speak Spanish, another one for clients that speak
German etc.
