ACK: A DTMF "A" (acknowledge) signal from the CPE or a DTMF "D" signal followed by a DTMF 1 through 5 sent as part of the FSK signal.
ADMF: ADSI Data Message Format
ADPCM: Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation. A sophisticated compression algorithm for digitizing audio that stores the differences between successive samples rather than the absolute value of each sample. This method of digitization also reduces storage requirements from 64K bits/second to as low as 24K bits/second.
ADSI: Analog Display Services Interface. A Bellcore standard defining a protocol on the flow of information between a switch, a server, a voice mail system, a service bureau, or a similar device and a subscriber's telephone, PC, data terminal, or other communicating device with a screen. The idea of ADSI is to add words to a system that usually only uses touch tones. In a typical voice mail system, you call up and hear choices: "to listen to new messages, press 1, to hear saved messages, press 2," etc. ADSI is designed to display the choices you're hearing on a screen attached to your phone. Your response is the same: a touch tone button. ADSI's signaling is DTMF and standard Bell 202 modem signals from the service to your 202-modem equipped phone. From the phone to the service it's only touch tone. ADSI works on every phone line in the world.
AGC: Automatic Gain Control. An electronic circuit used to maintain the audio signal volume at a constant level.
analog: 1. A method of telephony transmission in which the signals from the source (for example, speech in a human conversation) are converted into an electrical signal that varies continuously over a range of amplitude values analogous to the original signals. 2. Not digital signaling. 3. Used to refer to applications that use loop start signaling.
ANI: Automatic Number Identification.
Antares: A Dialogic open platform for easily incorporating speech recognition, Text-To-Speech, fax and many other DSP technologies. Dialogic PC-based expansion board with four TI floating point DSPs, SPOX DSP operating system, and the Antares board downloadable firmware and device driver.
ASCIIZ string: A null-terminated string of ASCII characters.
asynchronous function: A function that allows program execution to continue without waiting for a task to complete. To implement an asynchronous function, an application-defined event handler must be enabled to trap and process the completed event. Contrast with synchronous function.
AT bus: The common communication channel in a PC AT. The channel uses a 16-bit data path architecture, which allows up to 16 bits of data transfer. This bus architecture includes the standard PC bus plus a set of 36 lines for additional data transmission, addressing, and interrupt request handling.
AT: Used to describe an IBM or IBM-compatible Personal Computer (PC) containing an 80286 or higher microprocessor, a 16-bit bus architecture, and a compatible BIOS.
Automatic Gain Control: See AGC.
base memory address: A starting memory location (address) from which other addresses are referenced.
Bell 202: A 1200 bits per second (bps) FSK modem, developed by Bell Labs, used mainly for signaling between the CO and the CPE. It uses one carrier frequency and assigns a frequency for mark bits (1200 Hz) and space bits (2200 Hz) and is, by definition, phase continuous.
bit mask: A pattern which selects or ignores specific bits in a bit mapped control or status field.
bitmap: An entity of data (byte or word) in which individual bits contain independent control or status information.
board device: A board-level object that can be manipulated by a physical library. Board devices can be real physical devices, such as a D/4x board, or emulated devices, such as one of the D/4x boards that is emulated by a D/81A, D/12x or D/xxxSC board.
Board Locator Technology (BLT): Operates in conjunction with a rotary switch to determine and set non-conflicting slot and IRQ interrupt-level parameters, thus eliminating the need to set confusing jumpers or DIP switches.
bps: Bits Per Second
buffer: A block of memory or temporary storage device that holds data until it can be processed. It is used to compensate for the difference in the rate of the flow of information (or time occurrence of events) when transmitting data from one device to another.
bus: An electronic path which allows communication between multiple points or devices in a system.
busy device: A device that is stopped, being configured, has a multitasking or non-multitasking function, or I/O function active on it.
cadence detection: A voice driver feature that analyzes the audio signal on the line to detect a repeating pattern of sound and silence.
cadence: A rhythmic sequence or pattern. Once established, it can be classified as a single ring, a double ring, or a busy signal by comparing the periods of sound and silence to establish parameters.
Cadenced Tone Generation: To generate a signal with single or dual tone elements; an enhancement to GTG.
Call Progress Analysis: The process used to automatically determine what happened after an outgoing call is dialed.
Call Status Transition Event Functions: Functions that set and monitor events on devices.
Caller ID: Calling Party Identification information.
CAS: CPE Alerting Signal
CCITT: Comite Consultatif Internationale de Telegraphique et Telephonique. One of the four permanent parts of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency based in Geneva. The CCITT is divided into three sections: 1. Study Groups set up standards for telecommunications equipment, systems, networks, and services. 2. Plan Committees develop general plans for the evolution of networks and services. 3. Specialized Autonomous Groups produce handbooks, strategies, and case studies to support developing countries.
channel: 1. When used in reference to a Dialogic expansion board that is analog, an audio path, or the activity happening on that audio path (for example, when you say the channel goes off-hook). 2. When used in reference to a Dialogic expansion board that is digital, a data path, or the activity happening on that data path. 3. When used in reference to a bus, an electrical circuit carrying control information and data.
channel device: A channel-level object that can be manipulated by a physical library, such as an individual telephone line connection. A channel is also a subdevice of a board. See subdevice.
checksum: A one byte entity for error detection, which is computed by transmitter and appended to the Message, and is computed by the receiver and compared to the sent checksum for basic error detection. Only one checksum is used per SDM or MDM message.
CLASS: Custom Local Area Signaling Services; a Caller ID standard published by Bellcore.
CO: Central Office. A local phone exchange. In general, "CO' refers to the phone network exchange that provides your phone lines. The term "Central Office" is used in North America. The rest of the world calls it PTT, for Post, Telephone and Telegraph. The telephone company facility where subscriber lines are linked, through switches, to other subscriber lines (including local and long distance lines).
computer telephony: The extension of computer-based intelligence and processing over the telephone network to a telephone. Lets you interact with computer databases or applications from a telephone and also enables computer-based applications to access the telephone network. Computer telephony makes computer-based information readily available over the world-wide telephone network from your telephone. Computer telephony technology incorporated into PCs supports applications such as: automatic call processing; automatic speech recognition; text-to-speech conversion for information-on-demand; call switching and conferencing; unified messaging that lets you access or transmit voice, fax, and E-mail messages from a single point; voice mail and voice messaging; fax systems including fax broadcasting, fax mailboxes, fax-on-demand, and fax gateways; transaction processing such as Audiotex and Pay-Per-Call information systems; call centers handling a large number of agents or telephone operators for processing requests for products, services or information; etc.
configuration file: An unformatted ASCII file that stores device initialization information for an application.
configuration functions: Functions that alter the configuration of devices.
convenience functions: Functions that simplify application writing.
CP: Control Processor
CPE: Customer Premise Equipment
CPE Alerting Signal: A special machine detectable DTMF signal.
CPU: Central Processing Unit
Data Link Layer: Layer 2 in ADSI, it is responsible for the first level of framing (or de-framing) of the data to be transmitted (or received). The Data Link Layer includes the appending (or checking) of Checksum/CRC data as well as preamble sequence generation (or removal).
data structure: Programming term for a data element consisting of fields, where each field may have a different type definition and length. A group of data structure elements usually share a common purpose or functionality.
DCM: Dialogic Configuration Manager. A utility with a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables you to add new boards to your system and work with board configuration data. You can: 1) view and modify configuration data for boards with Board Locator Technology; 2) add, modify and delete configuration data for hardware-configurable boards; 3) start and stop Dialogic System Service.
debouncing: Eliminating false signal detection by filtering out rapid signal changes. Any detected signal change must last for the minimum duration as specified by the debounce parameters before the signal is considered valid. Also known as deglitching.
deglitching: Eliminating false signal detection by filtering out rapid signal changes. Any signal change shorter than that specified by the deglitching parameters is ignored.
device: A computer peripheral or component controlled through a software device driver. A Dialogic voice and/or network interface expansion board is considered a physical board containing one or more logical board devices, and each channel or time slot on the board is a device.
device channel: A Dialogic voice data path that processes one incoming or outgoing call at a time (equivalent to the terminal equipment terminating a phone line). There are 4 device channels on a D/4x, 12 on a D/12x, 16 on a D/160SC-LS, 24 on a D/240SC or D/240SC-T1, 30 on a D/300SC-E1, and 32 on a D/320SC board. See time slot definition.
device driver: Software that acts as an interface between an application and hardware devices.
device handle: Numerical reference to a device, obtained when a device is opened using xx_open( ), where xx is the prefix defining the device to be opened. The device handle is used for all operations on that device.
device management functions: Functions that open and close devices.
device name: Literal reference to a device, used to gain access to the device via an xx_open( ) function, where xx is the prefix defining the device to be opened.
Dialogic Configuration Manager: See DCM.
DIALOG/HD Series: Dialogic High Density products, including the D/160SC-LS, D/240SC, D/240SC-T1, D/300SC-E1, and D/320SC, provide a powerful set of advanced computer telephony features that developers can use to create cost-efficient, high-density systems.
digital: Information represented as binary code.
digitize: The process of converting an analog waveform into a digital data set.
download: The process where board level program instructions and routines are loaded during board initialization to a reserved section of shared RAM.
downloadable SpringWare firmware: Software features loaded to Dialogic voice hardware. Features include voice recording and playback, enhanced voice coding, tone detection, tone generation, dialing, call progress analysis, voice detection, answering machine detection, speed control, volume control, ADSI support, automatic gain control, and silence detection.
driver: A software module which provides a defined interface between an application program and the firmware interface.
DSP-based boards: 1. Digital signal processor. A specialized microprocessor designed to perform speedy and complex operations with digital signals. 2. Digital signal processing.
DTMF digits: Dual Tone Multi Frequency. Push button or touch tone dialing based on transmitting a high and a low frequency tone identify each digit on a telephone keypad. The tones are (Hz):
1: 697,1209 2: 697,1336 3:697,1477
4: 770,1209 5: 770,1336 6: 770,1477
7: 852,1209 8: 852,1336 9: 852,1477
0: 941,1336 *: 941,1209 #: 941,1477
echo: The component of an analog device's receive signal reflected into the analog device's transmit signal.
echo cancellation: Removal of echo from an echo-carrying signal.
echo-cancelled signal: The output signal of an echo canceller after echo has been removed from the echo-carrying signal.
echo canceller: The software component responsible for performing echo cancellation.
echo-carrying signal: In regard to the echo canceller, a signal containing incoming speech data plus an echo component.
echo-producing circuit: Typically the interface between 4-wire (typically digital) and 2-wire (typically analog) circuits, which, due to impedance mismatches, reflects part of the receive signal into the transmit signal.
echo-reference signal: The signal that initially introduced echo into the echo-carrying signal. This signal is used by the echo canceller to estimate the echo component in the echo carrying signal.
ECR: Dialogic's Echo Cancellation Resource, consisting of three Voice library function APIs for implementing echo cancellation on a Dialogic voice channel device.
ECR mode: The operational mode for a Dialogic voice channel utilizing the Dialogic ECR feature at its highest level.
ECR_RX: The receive signal of the voice channel device's echo canceller containing the echo-reference signal.
ECR_TX: The transmit signal produced by the voice channel device's echo canceller containing the echo-cancelled signal.
EIA: Electronic Industry Association
emulated device: A virtual device whose software interface mimics the interface of a particular physical device, such as a D/4x boards that is emulated by a D/12x or a D/xxxSC board. On a functional level, a D/12x board is perceived by an application as three D/4x boards. See physical device.
event: An unsolicited or asynchronous message from a hardware device to an operating system, application, or driver. Events are generally attention-getting messages, allowing a process to know when a task is complete or when an external event occurs.
event handler: A portion of a Dialogic application program designed to trap and control processing of device-specific events. The rules for creating a DTI/1xx event handler are the same as those for creating a Windows signal handler.
event management functions: Class of device-independent functions (contained in the Standard Runtime Library) that connect events to application-specified event handlers, allowing users to retrieve and handle events that occur on the device. See Standard Runtime Library (SRL Guide).
extended attribute functions: Class of functions that take one input parameter (a valid Dialogic device handle) and return device-specific information. For instance, a Voice device's Extended Attribute function returns information specific to the Voice devices. Extended Attribute function names are case-sensitive and must be in capital letters. See Standard Runtime Library.
firmware: A set of program instructions that reside on an expansion board.
flash: A signal which consists of a momentary on-hook condition used by the Voice hardware to alert a telephone switch. This signal usually initiates a call transfer.
frequency detection: A voice driver feature that detects the tri-tone Special Information Tone (SIT) sequences and other single-frequency tones for call progress analysis.
Frequency Shift Keying: A frequency modulation technique used to send digital data over voice band telephone lines.
FSK: Frequency Shift Keying
G.726: an international standard for encoding 8 kHz sampled audio signals for transmission over 16, 24, 32 and 40 kbps channels. The G.726 standard specifies an adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) system for coding and decoding samples.
Global Dial Pulse Detection: Enables applications to detect dial pulses from rotary or pulse phones and use them as if they were DTMF digits.
Global Tone Detection: A feature that allows the creation and detection of user-defined tone descriptions on a channel by channel basis.
GSM: A speech compression algorithm developed for the Global System for Mobile telecommunication (GSM), Europe's popular protocol suite for digital cellular communication.
hook state: A general term for the current line status of the channel: either on-hook or off-hook. A telephone station is said to be on-hook when the conductor loop between the station and the switch is open and no current is flowing. When the loop is closed and current is flowing the station is off-hook. These terms are derived from the position of the old fashioned telephone set receiver in relation to the mounting hook provided for it.
hook switch: The name given to the circuitry which controls on-hook and off-hook state of the Voice device telephone interface.
hybrid: See echo-producing circuit.
I/O: Input-Output
I/O Functions: Functions that transfer data to and from devices.
idle device: A device that has no functions active on it.
interrupt request level: A signal sent to the central processing unit (CPU) to temporarily suspend normal processing and transfer control to an interrupt handling routine. Interrupts may be generated by conditions such as completion of an I/O process, detection of hardware failure, power failures, etc.
IRQ: Interrupt ReQuest. A signal sent to the CPU to temporarily suspend normal processing and transfer control to an interrupt handling routine. A means of toggling between applications so that your system does not crash.
kernel: A set of programs in an operating system that implement the system's functions.
KTS: Key Telephone System
loop: The physical circuit between the telephone switch and the D/xxx board.
loop current: The current that flows through the circuit from the telephone switch when the Voice device is off-hook.
loop current detection: A voice driver feature that returns a connect after detecting a loop current drop.
loop start: In an analog environment, an electrical circuit consisting of two wires (or leads) called tip and ring, which are the two conductors of a telephone cable pair. The CO provides voltage (called "talk battery" or just "battery") to power the line. When the circuit is complete, this voltage produces a current called loop current. The circuit provides a method of starting (seizing) a telephone line or trunk by sending a supervisory signal (going off-hook) to the CO.
loop-start interfaces: Devices, such as an analog telephones, that receive an analog electric current. For example, taking the receiver off-hook closes the current loop and initiates the calling process.
LSI/120: A Dialogic 12-line loop start interface expansion board.
Mbps: Million or Mega bits per second
Message Body: The portion of the SDM or MDM that does not include the Message Type byte nor the Checksum byte.
Message Assembly Layer: Layer 3 in ADSI, it is used to construct SDM, MDM, ADMF, or other valid messages, and transport them via the Data Link and Physical Layers to and from the CPE device.
MSI/SC: Modular Station Interface. An SCbus-based Dialogic expansion board that interfaces SCbus time slots to analog station devices.
NAK: Negative Acknowledgment. NAK is a control character in ASCII that means a packet arrived with the check digits in error. It is sent from the computer receiving the packets to the sender, implying that the packet should be retransmitted so that all bits will arrive intact next time.
NLP: Non Linear Processor. Operates on the output of the echo canceller to provide improved echo suppression as long as the echo-reference signal contains a speech signals and the echo-carrying signal does not.
off-hook: The state of a telephone station when the conductor loop between the station and the switch is closed and current is flowing. When a telephone handset is lifted from its cradle (or equivalent condition), the telephone line state is said to be off-hook.
PBX: A local premises or campus switch.
PC: Personal Computer. In this manual, the term refers to an IBM Personal Computer or compatible machine.
PCM Expansion Bus: See PEB.
PEB: PCM Expansion Bus. A Dialogic open platform, digital voice bus for electrically and digitally connecting different voice processing components. Information on the PEB is encoded using the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) method. Non-Dialogic products using PCM encoding may interface with Dialogic products by using this bus.
PerfectDigit: Dialogic SpringWare DTMF or MF signaling.
PerfectLevel: Dialogic SpringWare Volume control.
PerfectPitch: Dialogic SpringWare Speed control.
PerfectVoice: Dialogic SpringWare Enhanced voice coding.
physical device: A device that is an actual piece of hardware, such as a D/4x board; not an emulated device. See emulated device.
physical layer: Layer 1 of ADSI, it describes the electrical specifications of the interface, including FSK modem-based data transmission (reception) and in-band signaling.
polling: The process of repeatedly checking the status of a resource to determine when state changes occur.
PSTN/STN: Public or Private Switched Telephony Network
resource: Functionality (for example, voice-store-and-forward) that can be assigned to call. Resources are shared when functionality is selectively assigned to a call (usually via a PEB time slot) and may be shared among multiple calls. Resources are dedicated when functionality is fixed to the one call.
RFU: Reserved for future use.
ring detect: The act of sensing that an incoming call is present by determining that the telephone switch is providing a ringing signal to the Voice board.
route: Assign a resource to a time slot.
routing functions: For SCbus, functions that assign analog and digital channels to specific SCbus time slots; these SCbus time slots can then be connected to transmit or listen to other SCbus time slots. For PEB, functions that change the routing of channels to the time slots on the PCM Expansion Bus (PEB).
sampling rate: Frequency with which a digitizer takes measurements of the analog voice signal.
SCbus: Signal Computing Bus. A hardwired connection between Switch Handlers (SC2000 chips) on SCbus-based products. SCbus is a third generation TDM (Time Division Multiplexed) resource sharing bus that allows information to be transmitted and received among resources over 1024 time slots.
SCbus routing functions: Functions that enable an application to connect or disconnect (make or break) the receive (listen) channel of a device to or from an SCbus time slot.
SCSA: See Signal Computing System Architecture.
Signal Computer System Architecture: SCSA. A Dialogic standard open development platform. An open hardware and software standard that incorporates virtually every other standard in PC-based switching. All signaling is out of band. In addition, SCSA offers time slot bundling and allows for scalability.
silence threshold: The level that sets whether incoming data to the Voice board is recognized as silence or non-silence.
Special Information Tones: SIT. (1) Standard Information Tones. Tones sent out by a central office to indicate that the dialed call has been answered by the distant phone. (2) Special Information Tone. Detection of a SIT sequence indicates an operator intercept or other problem in completing the call.
speed and volume control: Voice software that contains functions and data structures to control the speed and volume of play on a channel. The end user controls the speed or volume of a message by entering a DTMF tone.
speed and volume modification table: Each channel on a voice board has a table with twenty entries that allow for a maximum of ten increases and decreases in speed or volume, and one "origin" entry that represents regular speed or volume.
SpringBoard functions: Functions used on SpringBoard devices only.
SpringBoard: A Dialogic expansion board using digital signal processing to emulate the functions of other products. SpringBoard is a development platform for Dialogic products such as the D/120 and D/121.
SpringWare: Software algorithms build into the downloadable firmware that provides the voice processing features available on all Dialogic voice boards.
SRL: See Standard Runtime Library.
standard attribute functions: Class of functions that take one input parameter (a valid Dialogic device handle) and return generic information about the device. For instance, Standard Attribute functions return IRQ and error information for all device types. Standard Attribute function names are case-sensitive and must be in capital letters. Standard Attribute functions for all Dialogic devices are contained in the Dialogic SRL. See Standard Runtime Library.
Standard Runtime Library: A Dialogic software resource containing Event-Management and Standard Attribute functions and data structures used by all Dialogic devices, but which return data unique to the device. See the Voice Software Reference: Standard Runtime Library.
station device: Any analog telephone or telephony device (such as a telephone or headset) that uses a loop-start interface and connects to an MSI/SC board.
string: An array of ASCII characters.
subdevice: Any device that is a direct child of another device. Since "subdevice" describes a relationship between devices, a subdevice can be a device that is a direct child of another subdevice, as a channel is a child of a board.
SVP mode: The standard voice processing mode for a Dialogic voice channel, where all standard Dialogic voice channel features are enabled and the default echo cancellation is provided.
synchronous function: Blocks program execution until a value is returned by the device. Also called a blocking function. Contrast with asynchronous function.
tap: The echo tail length that the echo canceller handles in the ECR mode is 16 ms, also referred to as 128 tap. SVP mode echo cancellation utilizes a 48 tap (6 ms) echo canceller.
termination condition: An event or condition which, when present, causes a process to stop.
termination event: An event that is generated when an asynchronous function terminates. See asynchronous function.
TIA: Telecommunications Industry Association
time slot assignment: The ability to route the digital information contained in a time slot to a specific analog or digital channel on an expansion board. See device channel.
time slot: In a digital telephony environment, a normally continuous and individual communication (for example, someone speaking on a telephone) is (1) digitized, (2) broken up into pieces consisting of a fixed number of bits, (3) combined with pieces of other individual communications in a regularly repeating, timed sequence (multiplexed), and (4) transmitted serially over a single telephone line. The process happens at such a fast rate that, once the pieces are sorted out and put back together again at the receiving end, the speech is normal and continuous. Each individual pieced-together communication is called a time slot.
Transaction Record: Records two SCbus time slots from a single channel.
Universal Dialogic Diagnostic program: Software diagnostic routines for testing board-level functions of Dialogic hardware.
voice processing: Science of converting human voice into data that can be reconstructed and played back at a later time. Dialogic equipment can place 2-30 ports in one PC slot. They also use common APIs for scalability and the SCbus to connect to a broad range of technologies.
voice system: A combination of expansion boards and software that let you develop and run high-density voice processing applications.
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