Telos TWOx12 - Page 207

TELOS TWOX12 USER’S MANUAL
GLOSSARY OF TELEPHONE TERMINOLOGY
APPENDIX 4 195
Lucent Technologies
- Company which now makes the former AT&T 5ESS switch, as
well as various other piece of Telco gear and semiconductors. Lucent was split off from
AT&T in 1996 and owns Bell Labs.
MSN
- Multiple Subscriber Number. This is a telephone number associated with an
ETS 300 BRI line. Providers of ETS 300 often give you three MSNs with a BRI,
although additional MSNs can be purchased. An ISDN terminal will “ring” (provide an
alerting signal) only when calls are made to the MSN (or MSNs) entered in that
terminal. If a terminal has no MSNs entered it will “ring” whenever there is a call to
any of the MSN’s on that BRI. See ETS 300 and DN.
National ISDN
- The first US “standardized” multi-platform ISDN protocol. The first
version is National ISDN-1. As of mid 1996 National ISDN-2 has been implemented in
some areas and is fully backward compatible with National ISDN-1.
NCTE
– Network Channel Terminating Equipment. NCTE is a general term that can
be applied to a CSU or NT1 or other equipment terminating a digital line at the
customer’s premises.
Network Channel Terminating Equipment
. See NCTE.
NIUF
- National ISDN User’s Forum. A user’s group formed under the National
Institute of Technology (NIST) in the USA. The NIUF is a neutral forum where the
switch manufacturers and Telcos can get input from users and CPE manufacturers
regarding the implementation of National ISDN. Among NIUF’s successful projects
have been the IOC ordering codes. Their web page is at http://www.niuf.nist.gov/ . See
National ISDN.
Nortel
- Manufacturer of the DMS-100 switch as well as many other pieces of telecom
equipment.
Northern Telecom
- The Canadian company which was once the manufacturing arm of
Bell Canada (it was called Northern Electric back then). Now called Nortel. See Nortel.
NT1
- “Network Termination Type 1”. The termination at the customer premises of an
ISDN BRI circuit. The NT1 performs the role of line termination of the “U” interface
and Codes/Decodes from the line’s 2B1Q coding scheme. The customer end of the
NT1 interfaces using the “S” or “T” interface. The NT1 is frequently part of the
“Terminal Adapter” and is built-in to Zephyr, ZephyrExpress, Telos TWO and
TWOx12 systems sold in the USA & Canada.
NT-1
- An alternative expression for NT1. See NT1
PBX
- Private Branch Exchange. A privately owned switch. Basically a PBX is a
private “business” telephone system which also interfaces to the telephone network.
Many PBX’s can now offer ISDN BRI service, usually over the S Interface. A few
vendors are now offering BRI over the U interface as well. Be wary of these ISDN
protocols since they have not been as well tested. They may or may not work with a
given piece of CPE.
PIC
- Primary Interexchange Carrier. This is your default “1+” carrier used for
interLATA calls. In some areas you may have two PICs, one for interLATA calls, and
one for intraLATA long distance calls (in which case it stands for Primary
Intraexchange Carrier). In some areas intraLATA long distance calls are still handled
by your RBOC, in others you now have a choice.