Active Contract
A Contract that has been ordered.

Active Member
IPCB.net Member that has paid to or got paid by IPCB.net for the past traffic exchange at least once.

AHT (Average Hold Time)
The average length of time between the moment a caller finishes dialing and the moment the call is answered or terminated.

ANI
Automatic Number Identification; A telephone function that transmits the billing number of the incoming call (Caller ID, for example).

ANSI
American National Standards Institute American standardization body and member of the ISO, known for example for interface recommendations and standardization of programming languages. ANSI is a non-profit making, government-independent organization and is comparable with DIN in Germany.

AS (Autonomous System)
A group of networks under mutual administration that share the same routing methodology.

An AS uses an internal gateway protocol and common metrics to route Packets within the AS, and uses an external gateway protocol to route packets to other ASs.

ASP (Application Service Provider)
An independent, third-party provider of software-based services delivered to customers across a wide area network (WAN).

ASR (Answer-Seizure Ratio)
The ratio of successfully connected calls to attempted calls (also called 'Call Completion Rate'). ASRs vary by routes. A typical ASR to Pakistan is lower than that of Germany. Reasons for this include the quality of the network and the fact that it's less likely that a call to Pakistan will encounter a device such as an answering machine. Built-in IPCB.net QoS Management Tools track the ASRs for all termination facilities that receive calls routed through the IPCB.net Softswitch.

ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a technology for switched, connection-oriented transmission of voice, data and video. It makes high-speed dedicated connections possible between a theoretically unlimited number of network users and also to servers. As a switching system ("Cell Relay") it is to be used in broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) and also in the Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS networks). ATM is also becoming increasingly popular in the LAN area in the form of ATM-LAN emulations. ATM is based on high-speed cell switching (packets of fixed size: 48+5 bytes) that makes it possible to vary bit rates (according to requirements). In connection with ATM one speaks of message blocks or message cells rather than message packets.

Backbone
A very-high-speed network spanning the world from one major metropolitan area to another. Such networks are typically provided by national Internet service providers (ISPs). Local ISPs connect to the backbone in order to transport data.

Bad Frame Interpolation
Bad Frame Interpolation interpolates lost/corrupted packets by using the previously received voice frames. It increases voice quality by making the voice transmission more robust in bursty error environments.

Balance
See Net Termination Balance.

Bandwidth
The maximum data carrying capacity of a transmission link. For networks, bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps).

BDSG
Federal Data Protection Act

Billing Increment
A call duration measurement unit, expressed in seconds.

BLI
Busy Lamp Indicator; A light or LED on a telephone that shows which line is in use.

Broadband
Descriptive term for evolving digital technology that provides consumers a single switch facility offering integrated access to voice, high-speed data service, video demand services, and interactive delivery services.

Buyer
A Member of IPCB.net that purchases Termination Services.

Buyer Tariff
The price at which an IPCB.net Member can send minutes to the destination associated with the Ordered (purchased) Contract. Buyer Tariff = Seller Tariff + IPCB.net Fee. Potential Buyers can indicate Tariffs that they are willing to pay for Termination Services in their Requests.

Call
Establishment of (or an attempt to establish) voice connection between two endpoints, or between two points which provide a partial link (e.g. a trunk) between two endpoints.

Call deflection
Example from documentation: "Call Deflection is a feature under H.450.3 Call Diversion (Call Forwarding) that allows a called H.323 endpoint to redirect the unanswered call to another H.323 endpoint."

Call Detail Record (CDR)
Information regarding a single call collected from the switch and available as an automatically generated downloadable report for a requested time period. The report contains information on the number of calls, call duration, call origination and destination, and billed amount. IPCB.net Members use CDR reports to bill retail customers and settle with their partners on a wholesale level.

Codec
Compression-decompression. In VoIP it is a voice compression-decompression algorithm that defines the rate of speech compression, quality of decompressed speech and processing power requirements. The most popular codecs in VoIP are ITU-T G.723.1 and G.729 (AB).

Compression
compression is used at anywhere from 1:1 to 12:1 ratios in VOIP applications to consume less bandwidth and leave more for data or other voice/fax communications. The voice quality may decrease with increased compression ratios.

Congestion
The situation in which the traffic present on the network exceeds available network bandwidth/capacity.

Connection-oriented
Mode of communication in which a connection must be established between the transmitter and receiver before transmission of user data. This can be done by switching a circuit or by setting up a logical channel. A well-known connection-oriented protocol is TCP. Connection-oriented is the opposite of connectionless.

Connectionless
Mode of communication in which a connection (circuit or logical channel) does not need to be set up for data transmission between the transmitter and receiver. It is the underlying protocol for packet-switched transmission. The individual data packets can go from the transmitter to the receiver via different paths. A well-known connectionless protocol is UDP.

Contract
A set of parameters that an IPCB.net Member using the VoIP Termination Service establishes in order to receive traffic from and provide termination services to other IPCB.net Members. Contract details include the requested price per minute (Tariff), Grace Period, Minimum Call Duration, Billing Increment, and one or more registered Gateways/Gatekeepers that will be terminating calls sent by an IPCB.net Member who has ordered this Contract.

Credit Line
Past credit limit. A Buyer's initial Credit Line is equal to Deposit.

CSMA/CD
Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection This is the access procedure to the Ethernet in which the participating stations physically monitor the traffic on the line. If no transmission is taking place at the time the particular station can transmit. If two stations attempt to transmit simultaneously this causes a collision which is detected by all participating stations. After a random time interval the stations that collided attempt to transmit again. If another collision occurs the time intervals from which the random waiting time is selected are increased step by step. Networks using the CSMA/CD procedure are simple to implement but do not have deterministic transmission characteristics. The CSMA/CD method is internationally standardized in IEEE 802.3 and ISO 8802.3.

Deposit
A deposit that establishes the Buyer's initial credit limit. The Deposit is refundable at the end of the Membership Agreement term provided that the Buyer has no outstanding liabilities with IPCB.

Dial-peer
addressable call endpoint -- a software structure that binds a dialed digit string to a voice port or IP address of the destination gateway. Several dial peers always exist on each router in the network, and at least two will be involved in making a call across the network, one on the originating end and one on the terminating end. In Voice over IP, there are two kinds of dial peers: POTS and VoIP. VoIP peers point to specific VoIP devices.

Dial-peer hunting
Process when the originating router tries to establish call on different dial peers if the originating router receives a user-busy invalid number or an unassigned-number disconnect cause code from a destination router.

DID
Direct Inward Dialing; The ability to make a telephone call directly into an internal extension without having to go through the operator.

DiffServ
DiffServ (Differentiated Services) is a quality of service protocol that prioritizes IP voice and data traffic to help preserve voice quality even when network traffic is heavy.

DNIS
Dialed Number Identification Service; A telephone function that sends the dialed telephone number to the answering service.

DTMF
Dual-Tone Multifrequency; The type of audio signals generated when you press the buttons on a touch-tone telephone.

dynamic jitter buffer
collects voice packets, stores them, and shifts them to the voice processor in evenly spaced intervals to reduce any distortion in the sound.

E&M
(Ear and Mouth) is the interface on a VOIP device that allows it to be connected to analog PBX trunk ports (tie lines).

E.164
The international public telecommunication numbering plan. An E.164 number uniquely identifies a public network termination point and typically consists of three fields, CC (country code), NDC (national destination code), and SN (subscriber number), up to 15 digits in total.

E1
A wide-area digital transmission scheme (European): 2,048 Mbits/s; 31 channels, 64 Kbps each.

End Date
Date determining the end of the period during which IPCB.net Members (Sellers) will terminate calls to the Gateways specified in a particular Contract.

Endpoint

SIP or H.323 terminal or Gateway. An endpoint can Call and be Called. It generates and terminates the information stream.

Failed Call
An attempted Call that does not receive the Connect message. Such calls are not billed.

Firewall
A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of both. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet sthe security criteria specified on the firewall.

Forward Error Correction
increases voice quality by recovering lost or corrupted packets.

FXO
(foreign exchange office) is the interface on a VOIP device for connecting to an analog PBX extension.

FXS
(foreign exchange station) is the interface on a VOIP device for connecting directly to phones, faxes, and CO ports on PBXs or key telephone systems.

G.711
An ITU-T PCM half-duplex codec that uses either A-law or ?-law compression (64 kbps, high quality, minimum processor load).

G.723.1
An ITU-T double rate CELP codec (6.4/5.3 kbps, medium quality, high processor load).

G.726
An ITU-T ADPCM wave form codec (16/24/32/40 kbps, good quality, low processor load).

G.728
An ITU-T low delay CELP codec (16 kbps, medium quality, very high processor load).

G.729
An ITU-T ACELP codec (8 kbps, medium quality, high processor load).

G.7xx
A family of ITU standards for audio compression.

Gatekeeper
The central control entity that performs management functions in a Voice and Fax over IP network and for multimedia applications such as video conferencing. Gatekeepers provide intelligence for the network, including address resolution, authorization, and authentication services, the logging of Call Detail Records, and communications with network management systems. Gatekeepers control bandwidth, provide interfaces to existing legacy systems, and monitor the network for engineering purposes as well as for real-time network management and load balancing.

Gateway
In IP telephony, a network device that converts voice and fax calls, in real time, between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and an IP network. The primary functions of an IP gateway include voice and fax compression/ decompression, packetization, call routing, and control signaling. Additional features may include interfaces to external controllers, such as Gatekeepers or Softswitches, billing systems, and network management systems.

GKTMP (Cisco Gatekeeper Transaction Message Protocol)
A proprietary Cisco protocol used for communication between the Cisco IOS Gatekeeper and external applications.

Grace Period
The time interval at the beginning of a call, measured in seconds, that is not billed. IPCB.net IPCB.net Fee and Routing Fee do not apply to the grace period.

H.225
Protocols (RAS, RTP/RTCP, Q.931 call signaling) and message formats for H.323.

H.245
A protocol for capability negotiation, messages for opening and closing channels for media streams, etc. (i.e. media signaling).

H.323
An ITU-T "umbrella" of standards for Packet-based multimedia communications systems. This standard defines the different multimedia entities that make up a multimedia system - Endpoints, Gateways, Multipoint Conferencing Units (MCUs), and Gatekeepers -- and their interaction. This standard is used for many Voice-over-IP applications, and is heavily dependent on other standards, mainly H.225 and H.245.

Hairpin
Telephony term that means to send a call back in the direction that it came from. For example, if a call cannot be routed over IP to a gateway that is closer to the target telephone, the call typically is sent back out the local zone, back the way from which it came.

Hop off
Point at which a call transitions from H.323 to non-H.323, typically at a gateway. "be hopped-off locally" means "be hairpinned" Example from documentation: "If the called address does not match any known zone prefixes, the gatekeeper will attempt to hairpin the call out through a local gateway.

IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
One of two technical working bodies in the Internet Activities Board. The IETF meets three times a year to set technical standards for the Internet.

Integrated T-1
Comprised of 24 64Kbps channels, T1 lines can be used for a diverse number of applications. Commonly referred to as an integrated T1 or channelized T1, this highly flexible circuit is designed for businesses that need to run multiple services over the same line. Common applications for integrated T1 service include, Frame Relay/dedicated long distance and Internet/point-to-point. Often confused with a fractional T1, integrated service is made up of multiple fractional T1 services.

IP Centrex
IP Centrex delivers such services as call hold, call transfer, last number look-up and redial, call forward, three-way calling, but does it on a packet-based network.

IP Precedence
see Type of Service.

IP Telephony
The transmission of voice and fax phone calls over data networks that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). IP telephony is the result of the transformation of the circuit-switched telephone network to a packet-based network that deploys voice-compression algorithms and flexible and sophisticated transmission techniques, and delivers richer services using only a fraction of traditional digital telephony’s usual bandwidth. Compare with VoIP.

IPCB.net
The service mark of IP Clearing Board. Inc.

IPCB.net Fee
The amount of money a Buyer pays to IPCB.net for the VoIP Termination Service. Clearing Fee is calculated on a per minute basis and equals 10% of Seller Tariff or $0.01/minute whichever is less.

ITSP
Internet Telephony Service Provider.

ITU-T
ITU standards for telecommunications.

Jitter
The variation in the amount of Latency among Packets being received

LAN
A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line or wireless link and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (for example, within an office building).

Latency
(Also called Delay) The amount of time it takes a Packet to travel from source to destination. Together, Latency and Bandwidth define the speed and capacity of a network.

Licensed Software
The "harvester software" and any other software provided by IPCB.net to a Member for the purpose of record keeping, accounting, and/or access to IPCB.net services, and including IPCB-provided documentation.

Load Balancing
Distribution of calls among terminating Gateways based on the Priorities and Weights assigned by the Buyer.

Login ID
A string of digits identifying an IPCB.net Registered User. Together with the Password, the Login ID is used to authorize a user's access to the IPCB.net trading floor. The Login ID and Password are automatically e-mailed to a potential IPCB.net Member after filling out a Registration.

Managed LAN
The Managed LAN Switch feature enables the control of the four switch ports in Cisco 831, 836, and 837 routers. Each switch port is associated with a Fast Ethernet interface.

Member in Good Standing
IPCB.net Member that maintains its Credit Line with IPCB.net in Good Standing.

Member [of IPCB.net]
An operator with IP Telephony minutes and/or termination capabilities; a Registered User that has signed the Membership Agreement and paid the Membership Fee, and, has thereby gained access to IPCB.net VoIP Termination Service.

Membership Agreement
A signed agreement between an IPCB.net Member and IPCB.net, where IPCB.net provides Gatekeeping services or VoIP Termination services between Sellers and Buyers. The Membership Agreement form is e-mailed to Members upon registering; the Members then sign their copy and send it back to IPCB.

MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol)
A protocol complementary to H.323 and SIP, designed to control media gateways from external call control elements in decomposed gateway architectures. Working in conjunction with the Gateway Location Protocol (GLP), MGCP enables a caller with a PSTN phone number to locate the destination device and establish a session. It provides the gateway-to-gateway interface for the Session Initialization Protocol (SIP). MGCP is meant to simplify standards for the new Voice over Packet technology by eliminating the need for complex, processor-intense IP telephony devices, thus simplifying and lowering the cost of these terminals.

Minimum Duration
The minimum billed call duration up to which all shorter calls are rounded in seconds.

Offer
An offer of Termination Services in a particular area. Offer details include the desired Buyer Tariff and estimated traffic volume. Offers can be submitted by all Registered Users, with no commitments attached.

Order Contracts and Routes
An operation by which an IPCB.net Member activates its own routes and commits to purchase termination services offered by other IPCB.net Members. The operation includes assigning Priorities and Weights to a collection of Routes and Contracts.

Packet
In data communication, the basic logical unit of information transfered.

PBX
Private Branch eXchange; An in-house telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the outside telephone network.

PRI
Primary Rate Interface; An ISDN service that provides 23 64-Kbps B (Bearer) channels and one 64-Kbps D (Data) channel (23 B and D).

Profile
Information on an IPCB.net Registered User, including details such as the Contact Name, submitted to IPCB.net on registering.

PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network.

Q.931
ISDN connection control protocol, roughly comparable to TCP in the Internet protocol stack. Q.931 doesn't provide flow control or perform retransmission, because the underlying layers are assumed to be reliable and the circuit-oriented nature of ISDN allocates bandwidth in fixed increments of 64 kbps. Q.931 does manage connection setup and breakdown. In H.323 scenario, this protocol is encapsulated in TCP and sent to port 1720.

QoS
Quality of Service. Measure of performance for a transmission system that reflects its transmission quality and service availability. Standards based QOS for VoIP usually involves the implementation of ethernet standards 802.1p and 802.1q at layer 2 across an Ethernet. At layer 3, the IP standard DiffServ defines bits settings in the TOS (type of service) in the IP header which will identify packets as being associated with a specific service.

QSIG
Q (point of the ISDN model) Signaling. Signaling standard. Common channel signaling protocol based on ISDN Q.931 standards and used by many digital PBXs.

RAS (Registration, Admission, Status)
A management protocol between terminals and Gatekeepers.

Redundant
Redundant describes computer or network system components, such as fans, hard disk drives, servers, operating systems, switches, and telecommunication links that are installed to back up primary resources in case they fail. A well-known example of a redundant system is the redundant array of independent disks (redundant array of independent disks).

Registered User
erson/company that has registered at IPCB.net Web Site and received an Account and ID/Password.

Ring
A ring is a network topology or circuit arrangement in which each device is attached along the same signal path to two other devices, forming a path in the shape of a ring. Each device in the ring has a unique address. Information flow is unidirectional and a controlling device intercepts and manages the flow to and from the ring.

Route
A set of parameters predefined by IPCB.net to facilitate routing of traffic between the Gateways/Gatekeepers controlled by an IPCB.net Member either via ownership or via a partnership with the owner. Along with specifying other parameters, an IPCB.net Member using the Gatekeeping Service assigns to a Route values specifying the details of both originating and terminating Gateways/Gatekeepers.

RSVP
Resource Reservation Protocol. Protocol that supports the reservation of resources across an IP network. Applications running on IP end systems can use RSVP to indicate to other nodes the nature (bandwidth, jitter, maximum burst, and so on) of the packet streams they want to receive. RSVP depends on IPv6. Also known as Resource Reservation Setup Protocol.

RTP
Real-Time Transport Protocol. Commonly used with IP networks. RTP is designed to provide end-to-end network transport functions for applications transmitting real-time data, such as audio, video, or simulation data, over multicast or unicast network services. RTP provides such services as payload type identification, sequence numbering, timestamping, and delivery monitoring to real-time applications.

Seller
A Member of IPCB.net that sells Termination Services.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
An application-layer control protocol, a Signaling protocol for Internet Telephony. SIP can establish sessions for features such as audio/videoconferencing, interactive gaming, and call forwarding to be deployed over IP networks thus enabling service providers to integrate basic IP telephony services with Web, e-mail, and chat services. In addition to user authentication, redirect and registration services, SIP Server supports traditional telephony features such as personal mobility, time-of-day routing and call forwarding based on the geographical location of the person being called.

Softswitch
(Also called a Proxy Gatekeeper, Call Server, Call Agent, Media Gateway Controller, or Switch Controller) Software used to bridge a public switched telephone network and voice over Internet by separating the call control functions of a phone call from the media gateway (transport layer). Softswitch performs call control functions such as protocol conversion, authorization, accounting and administration operations.

SoftSwitching Service
IPCB.net Softswitch service allows IPCB.net Members to bill, route and monitor IP telephony traffic between their gateways and the gateways of their partners. For more information on this please refer to the corresponding section of this site.

Start Date
Date determining the start of the period during which IPCB.net Members will terminate calls to the Gateways specified in a particular Contract. It is possible to order future Contracts (those with the Start Date in the future) in advance.

T1
1.544-Mbps point-to-point dedicated digital circuit provided by the telephone companies consisting of 24 channels.

TAPI
Telephony API; A programming interface that allows Windows client applications to access voice services on a server.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
Connection-oriented transport layer protocol that provides reliable full-duplex data transmission. TCP is part of the TCP/IP protocol stack.

Termination Services
The completion by an IPCB.net Member of a telephone call originated by another Member.

TOS
Type of Service; A method of setting precedence for a particular type of traffic for QoS.

ToS (Type of Service)
An 8-bit field in the IP datagram header that identifies the relative priority of one packet over another. Networking devices use this field to prioritize packets appropriately and place them in different queues if necessary.

Trunk
A communications channel between two points, typically referring to large-bandwidth telephone channels between switching centers that handle many simultaneous voice and data signals.

Trunking
Trunking means that several connections in a network may be established simultaneously, and that setup of connections proceeds automatically using the channels available at the time in question. In this way many users may share a few connections, and if the number of connections is increased, the capacity of the network is increased more than proportionally. This means that an optimal trunking effect is obtained in very large networks.

VoIP
Voice over IP. The capability to carry normal telephony-style voice over an IP-based Internet with POTS-like functionality, reliability, and voice quality. VoIP enables a router to carry voice traffic (for example, telephone calls and faxes) over an IP network. In VoIP, the DSP segments the voice signal into frames, which then are coupled in groups of two and stored in voice packets. These voice packets are transported using IP in compliance with ITU-T specification H.323.

VoIP Termination Service
The service that allows Internet Telephony Service Providers, Members of IPCB.net, to terminate each other's calls.

VoIP Trunking
Service providers can use this application to connect enterprise and call center customers directly to their VoIP network. By bypassing local operators and toll charges, the VoIP Trunking application enables service providers to offer attractive termination rates for both domestic and international long distance calling. This application connects seamlessly to the enterprise/call center's PBX, allowing employees to make off-net calls at reduced rates.

VPDN
virtual private dial-up network. Also known as virtual private dial network. A VPDN is a network that extends remote access to a private network using a shared infrastructure. VPDNs use Layer 2 tunnel technologies (L2F, L2TP, and PPTP) to extend the Layer 2 and higher parts of the network connection from a remote user across an ISP network to a private network. VPDNs are a cost effective method of establishing a long distance, point-to-point connection between remote dial users and a private network

VPN
Virtual Private Network. Enables IP traffic to travel securely over a public TCP/IP network by encrypting all traffic from one network to another. A VPN uses “tunneling” to encrypt all information at the IP level.

Weight
A number (10-100) assigned to a Contract or Route when ordering the Contract/Route. If several Contracts/Routes for the same destination have the same Priority assigned, calls to the destination are distributed among the Contracts/Routes according to their relative Weights.