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Glossary
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A
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ASR (Answer Seizure Ratio) - Ratio of the number of successful calls over the total number of outgoing calls from a carrier’s network. See QoS
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B
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BACKHAUL - Services to connect carriers’ networks to cable head landing stations.
BILATERAL NETWORK - Bilateral international circuit between two carriers which allows them to route traffic towards each other.
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C
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CASCADE ACCOUNTING - Accounting arrangement between carriers concerning the declaration of accounts in Switched Transit. With the cascade accounting mode, provided that a carrier sends traffic to another carrier via a carrier acting as a transitory, declaration and payment of the traffic is credited by each intervening party to the next one.
CITY-TO-CITY – A carrier wanting to design its own core network or wanting to serve its customer base can use a city-to-city service to get transmission links between selected major cities worldwide.
Usual connection rates are 2 Mbps, 34 Mbps, 45 Mbps, 155 Mbps, 622 Mbps, 2.5 Gbps.
CLI (P/R) - Calling Line Identity. (Presentation / Restriction) CLI refers to the phone number of a subscriber who will originate a call in the network. Another name for CLI is the Calling Party Number / Calling Party Address.
CONFIDENTIAL TRANSIT SETTLEMENT RATE - In Switched Transit this corresponds to the confidential Settlement Rate negotiated with the carrier originating the traffic.
CTI4G - 4th Generation International Transit Centers. See SWITCH
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D
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DEDICATED TRANSIT – Service offering bandwidth transit across one country, from border to border or from border to cable head landing station. Usual transit service offer SDH-based connection with 64 Kbps, 2 Mbps, 34 Mbps, 45 Mbps, and 155 Mbps.
DIRECT ROUTE - Bilateral international circuit between two carriers which allows them to route traffic towards each other.
DIRECT ACCOUNTING - Accounting arrangement between operators concerning the declaration of accounts in Traditional Switched Transit. In direct accounting, the operator originating the traffic sends a separate declaration and the payments due to him to each of the intervening operators.
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G
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GRX (Global Roaming Exchange) - are services providing end-to-end native IP VPN solutions for GPRS roaming worldwide.
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H
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HUBBING - both PoP or bilateral - is a switched-voice product offered by a range of carriers.
Once a connection to the carrier is established - either via the Pop or bilaterally - the international carriers’ traffic will terminate into a range of networks worldwide. The CLI submitted from the originating carrier can be changed or cleared inside the carrier’s network.
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I
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ICD (International call details) - Ticket issued each time a call passes through a switch.
See SWITCH, TICKET
ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier) - The historic local phone service provider in a market. Distinct from competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), new market entrants.
INTERCONNECTION - Linking two networks or systems independent from each other via physical and logical connections.
IRU (indefeasible right of use).
ITU (International Telecommunication Union) - This organization, founded in 1865 and based in Geneva, has about 180 member countries. Its role is to harmonize the development of telecommunications around the world.
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L
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LCR (Least Cost Routing) - This process means searching for the optimum traffic routes via one or several traffic routings enabling a cost reduction. It is possible to configure the optimum solution between best QoS and lowest cost.
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M
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MOBILE HUBBING - Hubbing connections for mobile carriers on an LCR (least cost routing) base. See HUBBING.
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N
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NUMBERING PLAN - This refers to the information collected and enhanced, per calling code, which allows to identify specific services (ISDN/ PAID 800/ ITFN/MOBILE...) that can be offered to carriers.
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O
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OCN (Original called number) - the OCN is the phone number of the original called party, regardless of use (call redirection...).
OVERFLOW (alternative routing) - Whenever the links with another carrier are congested or in case of a technical problem disrupting the flow of traffic, the traffic is routed via a third party carrier.
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P
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PoP - Point of Presence.
PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network. See SWITCH.
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Q
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QoS (Quality of Service) - A measure of the service quality for a telecommunications service.
This typically involves the specification of latency, jitter, loss and availability. See ASR
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R
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RETAIL - As opposed to wholesale, retail concerns the direct traffic routing between a carrier and the end user.
ROUTING PLAN - Refers to the distribution of traffic towards a destination/location broken down into traffic % per provider. Those elements are used for LCR and for Trading. See LCR, TRADING.
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S
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SIGNALLING - Transmission of service information (addresses,...) between nodes and/or terminals of a network.
Technical characteristics of the signal carried. The various types of signalling are the following: R2A; R2N; C5; C7 (with 3 variations: SSUTR2, TUP and ISUP).
SIGNALLING FOR ROAMING - Transmission of service information between nodes of international mobile carriers via the SS7 international signalling system. This service lets customers use mobile phones in any international mobile network having the same standard (GSM). Usually uses a 64-kbit channel to connect the mobile carrier and the Roaming Service Center. A transcoding facility is used to carry a roaming signal between Europe and North America.
SUBMARINE CABLE - Submarine cable systems are, besides satellite links, the backbone of worldwide communications. Most of the submarine cable systems are based on redundant fiber-optic systems. The capacity ownership is distinguished into three different forms: Half circuits, wholly owned circuits and IRUs (indefeasible rights of use).
SWITCH - Node in a network ensuring the connection and the traffic routing of calls. There are various levels of switches: local, national and international. Usually, there are switches dedicated to international traffic. See CTI4G.
SWITCHED TRANSIT - Wholesale solution that allows a carrier to route voice calls through another carrier to countries it doesn’t have a direct link with. It is used if the originating carrier has insufficient capacity, a low quality or no cost-effective link to these destinations.
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T
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TAR - Total Accounting Rate.
TICKET - Refers to a recording present in a file, for example: a call ticket or a trouble ticket (each call generates a recording).
TRADING - Purchase of transit traffic from a supplier destined to be sold to a client.
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U
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UPGRADE - Term generally used to designate an increase of capacity.
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W
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WHOLESALE - As opposed to retail, wholesale concerns the traffic routing between a carrier and another carrier.
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