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There is no question that we are finally heading towards a deeper period of the technology age. As we move forward into the world of IP Telephony, VOIP and Unified Communications, it is time to be clear on what we are getting into. Here are definitions of some of the broad concepts.
What is IP?
IP stands for Internet Protocol. This is the protocol, or method used in which data is transferred from one computer to another via the Internet. Each workstation is referred to as the host. It has its own IP address used to uniquely identify that specific workstation/computer from the rest of the computers running in the Internet.
This protocol is connectionless. This means that there is no need for a continuous connection between the workstations that are communicating. Each packet of data that is travelling via the Internet is considered as an independent data unit.
What is VoIP?
VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. This is a term used in IP telephony, which refers to a group of facilities used in managing the delivery of voice information through the Internet. It involves the sending of voice information in a digital form instead of using the standard circuit committed protocols of a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). One common advantage of VoIP is that it eliminates the charges incurred for long distance calls through standard telephone lines.
What are Unified Communications?
Unified Communications is the term used in the IT industry to describe all types of multimedia/cross-media message-management and call functions that are controlled by a single user for both social and business purposes. This also includes any business transactional or informational application process that comes from a human user through a single and content-independent mailbox (individual messaging channel) for contact.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing is the term used to identify anything which involves the delivery of hosted services over the Internet. There is no literal cloud involved here. The services are generally divided into three different categories: Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (Saas). The name was inspired by the symbol of the cloud , which is often used as a representation of the Internet in various diagrams and flowcharts.
What is Cloud Telephony?
Cloud Telephony refers to the on-demand voice services typically provided by a virtual, dynamically scalable, hosted provider that deploys voice infrastructure to manipulate both inbound and outbound calls by using a single programmable interface.
What is Identity Management?
ID (Identity Management) refers to a broad administrative function that deals with recognizing individuals in a system, controlling their specific access to certain resources within the system by associating restrictions and user rights with the established identity. In an Information Technology network, the software used for Identity Management is used in order to automate certain administrative responsibilities, like resetting user passwords.
What is Jitter, Latency?
Jitter, in VoIP, refers to the variation of time in between the arrival of data packets, often due to network congestion, route changes, or timing drift.
Latency, on the other hand, is synonymous for delay, which refers to the time spent for a data packet to transfer from one point to another.
What is QoS?
QoS, or Quality of Service is the concept that error rates, transmission rates, and other qualities can be improved, measured, and guaranteed ahead of time. Generally, this is a concern regarding the continuous transmission of multimedia and high-bandwidth video information.
What is streaming video?
Streaming Video is the type of content transferred in a compressed format via the Internet, and seen by a viewer in real time. A user needs a video player to uncompress and send video data and to the speakers.
What is VPN security?
VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a type of network that takes advantage of a public telecommunication infrastructure, like the Internet, in order to offer remote offices and individual users with a secure access to the network of the organization.
In the IT industry, understanding the basic terms used in IT telephony is the best way to understand how the systems work. In the end, it means good business.
About the Author
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Michelle Patterson has been learning and writing about the new IP based communication technologies. She loves sharing her information so that businesses and business owners could take advantage of these technologies.
