Plain-English definitions for the acronyms and technical terms used throughout this guide.
Where a term is a general industry concept, the Learn more column links to
the relevant Wikipedia article. Terms specific to the Abilis CPX (or used by Abilis with a
special meaning) have no external link — the definition here is the authoritative one.
Throughout the guide, acronyms are wrapped in a dotted underline. Hover one to see its
expansion; click it to jump back to the entry on this page.
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| Abilisphone | — | The Abilis mobile phone app (Android/iOS) that turns a smartphone into a registered extension on the Abilis CPX. Also marketed under the name "Virtual Office" in some Abilis materials. | — |
| ACL | Access Control List | An ordered list of allow/deny rules that decide which network traffic the Abilis lets through. Acts as the firewall. | Wikipedia → |
| AD | Administrative Distance | A priority number attached to a route. When two routes lead to the same destination, the Abilis uses the one with the lower AD. Labelled AD (Priority) in the Routings table; the networking how-tos also call it the metric. | Wikipedia → |
| AHCI | Advanced Host Controller Interface | The standard way modern computers talk to SATA hard drives and SSDs. Visible in the Disk Analyzer page. | Wikipedia → |
| AI | Analog Input | A sensor input that reads a continuous voltage or current (e.g. a temperature probe), as opposed to an on/off switch. Abilis automation context — not "Artificial Intelligence". | — |
| AIPT2 | Abilis IP Tunnel v2 | Abilis’s proprietary VPN protocol. Bundles multiple paths between two units for redundancy and combined throughput. | — |
| AO | Analog Output | An output that drives a continuous voltage or current (e.g. a 0–10 V signal to a motor controller). | — |
| ARP | Address Resolution Protocol | The mechanism a computer uses to find the hardware (MAC) address that owns a given IP address on the local network. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| CDI | Called number, Inbound | The number that an incoming caller dialled. Used in CTI routing rules. | — |
| CDO | Called number, Outbound | The number that the call is being routed towards (after any rewrites). Used in CTI routing rules. | — |
| CGI | Calling number, Inbound | The caller’s own number as it arrived at the Abilis. Abilis telephony context — not "Common Gateway Interface". | — |
| CGO | Calling number, Outbound | The caller’s number as it will be presented to the called party (after any rewrites). | — |
| CF | CompactFlash | The removable flash storage card the Abilis uses as its main internal disk — it holds the configuration, audio messages and firmware. "Load from CF" in the audio editor means a file already stored on the unit. | Wikipedia → |
| CIDR | Classless Inter-Domain Routing | The "/n" shorthand after an IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24): n is how many leading bits of the address are the network part. /24 is the same as subnet mask 255.255.255.0. | Wikipedia → |
| CLNUM | CTICL Numbers | An Abilis list type holding the phone numbers used by a CTI Cluster — i.e. the numbers exchanged between two linked Abilis PBXs so each side can reach the other's extensions. Per v9.0 reference manual ch6.11. | — |
| CLI | Command-Line Interface | The text-based interactive command interface to the Abilis. Reached over SSH/Telnet on the configured Control Port, or through the in-browser Control Port tab (which blocks configuration commands but allows queries and diagnostics). | Wikipedia → |
| CLUS | Cluster | An Abilis phone "technology" used to link two Abilis PBXs together so extensions on one are reachable from the other. | — |
| Line congestion | — | A link carrying as much traffic as it can hold, so fresh packets queue up or get dropped — the network version of a traffic jam. The yellow band in a WAN-bundle quality graph flags a line running near its limit; it is also why QoS and failover exist. | Wikipedia → |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit | The processor inside the Abilis. The Tools section reports load and temperature; sustained high CPU usually means too many concurrent streams (video, calls) for the hardware. | Wikipedia → |
| CSV | Comma-Separated Values | A plain-text spreadsheet format. Used by Abilis for bulk SMS, address-book import/export and statistics export. | Wikipedia → |
| CTI | Computer Telephony Integration | Letting the computer (the Abilis) decide what happens to a call — routing, recording, IVR menus, etc. | Wikipedia → |
| CTIDISA | CTI DISA service | Abilis service that runs the auto-attendant / IVR (DISA) functions controlled by CTI rules. | — |
| CTIMIX | CTI Mix service | Abilis service that mixes audio streams — used for conference calls, music-on-hold and announcements. | — |
| CTIP | CTI Phone | An Abilis phone "technology" that exposes an internal phone resource controlled by CTI — for example, an FXS port or an analog extension. | — |
| CTIVR | CTI Voice Recorder | Abilis service that records phone-call audio to disk for later playback or compliance. | — |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| DDNS | Dynamic DNS | A service that keeps a fixed hostname (like myoffice.example.com) pointed at a constantly-changing public IP address. Useful for offices on consumer broadband. | Wikipedia → |
| DHCP | Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol | The protocol that automatically hands out IP addresses (and gateway / DNS / lease-time settings) to devices joining a network. The Abilis can act as a DHCP server, client or relay. | Wikipedia → |
| DNS | Domain Name System | The internet’s phone book: translates names like example.com into IP addresses. The Abilis can run a DNS server, relay and filter. | Wikipedia → |
| Dial plan | — | The set of rules that decide what happens when a number is dialled — which extension rings, which trunk handles the call, what prefixes mean what. | Wikipedia → |
| DI | Digital Input | A sensor input that reads on/off (e.g. a door contact, a button, a relay status). Two states only. | — |
| DISA | Direct Inward System Access | An auto-attendant or IVR: a recorded greeting that lets callers press digits to reach a department, hear information or connect to an extension. | — |
| DO | Digital Output | An output that switches on or off (e.g. driving a relay to turn on a light or unlock a door). | — |
| Dry contact | — | A pair of wires that simply close or open a circuit, with no voltage of their own. The way most door sensors and panic buttons signal an alarm. | — |
| DSCP | Differentiated Services Code Point | The standard QoS mark carried in the IP header on most networks. The Abilis uses its own IPCOS classes instead, mapped to VLAN (802.1q) priority bits. | Wikipedia → |
| DSL | Digital Subscriber Line | Internet over an ordinary copper telephone line. Includes ADSL, VDSL, etc. Often used as a backup link on the Abilis. | Wikipedia → |
| DTMF | Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency | The audible tones produced when you press digits on a phone keypad. Used by IVR menus to detect what the caller pressed. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| Factory reset | — | Returning a device to the configuration it had when it left the factory, erasing all customisations. The Abilis has its own recovery procedure for this. | Wikipedia → |
| FAT32 | File Allocation Table (32-bit) | An old, widely-compatible disk format. Has a 4 GB single-file limit — relevant when downloading long recordings from the Abilis. | Wikipedia → |
| FEC | Forward Error Correction | A technique that adds redundant data to a transmission so the receiver can fix small errors without asking for a resend. Used by AIPT2 to keep voice quality high over lossy links. | Wikipedia → |
| Firmware | — | The software that runs inside an appliance (the Abilis itself, a camera, a phone). Updated through the Administration page. | Wikipedia → |
| FLASH | Hook flash | A very brief on-hook pulse used on analog phones to trigger a function (transfer, conference, hold). Often labelled R on European phones. | Wikipedia → |
| FMS | Fleet Management System (standard) | An open standard that lets a black-box device read data from a truck’s onboard computer (fuel use, RPM, distance, etc.). | Wikipedia → |
| FQDN | Fully Qualified Domain Name | A complete hostname that uniquely identifies a machine on the internet, e.g. mail.example.com (not just mail). | Wikipedia → |
| FRAGSIZE | Fragment size | An AIPT2 parameter that sets the maximum size of each tunnel packet. Lower values reduce loss on poor links; higher values reduce overhead. | — |
| Frames | — | The basic unit of data on an Ethernet network — a chunk of bytes wrapped with addressing and error-checking info. | Wikipedia → |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol | The classic protocol for moving files to and from a server. The Abilis can act as an FTP server (e.g. for downloading recordings) or client. | Wikipedia → |
| FXS | Foreign Exchange Subscriber | The kind of port an analog phone plugs into — the side that supplies dial-tone and ring voltage. The Abilis presents FXS ports to your phones. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| G.711 | — | The standard high-quality audio codec for VoIP and traditional telephone calls. Sounds best, uses the most bandwidth (~64 kbit/s). | Wikipedia → |
| G.729 | — | A compressed audio codec used when bandwidth is tight (~8 kbit/s). Slightly lower quality than G.711. | Wikipedia → |
| Gateway | — | The device a host hands traffic to when the destination is outside its own subnet — on a typical Abilis LAN, the Abilis itself. Also called the default gateway. | Wikipedia → |
| Geofence | — | A virtual boundary drawn on a map. The Abilis (in Automotive mode) can trigger an alert when a tracked vehicle enters or leaves it. | Wikipedia → |
| GiB | Gibibyte | 230 bytes (~1.074 GB). The strictly-binary cousin of "gigabyte"; used in disk-space displays. | Wikipedia → |
| GPT | GUID Partition Table | The modern partitioning scheme for hard disks (replaces MBR). Required for disks larger than 2 TB. | Wikipedia → |
| GPS | Global Positioning System | The satellite-based positioning system used by vehicle trackers to report location, speed and direction. Abilis Automotive consumes GPS data from in-vehicle tracking modules. | Wikipedia → |
| GSM | Global System for Mobile communications | The 2G mobile-phone standard. The Abilis can use a GSM module for SMS sending/receiving and as a backup voice channel. | Wikipedia → |
| GUNUM | Group of user numbers | An Abilis list type that holds a group of user/extension numbers. | — |
| GwRes | Gateway Resource | The Abilis name for the logical resource that represents a connected automation gateway (a WIO, RIO, etc.). | — |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| IAX / IAX2 | Inter-Asterisk eXchange | A VoIP protocol native to Asterisk PBXs. Lighter than SIP; uses a single UDP port. Supported as one of the Abilis phone technologies. | Wikipedia → |
| INN | ISDN Numbers Normalized | An Abilis list type holding phone numbers in normalized (canonical) form — used by CTI routing, Virtual Office and other internal call-handling, regardless of whether the call ever touches an ISDN line. Per v9.0 reference manual ch6.11. | — |
| IP address | — | A number like 192.168.1.1 that uniquely identifies a device on a network. Made of a network part (which LAN) and a host part (which device) — the subnet mask decides where the split is. | Wikipedia → |
| IPCOS | IP Class of Service | An Abilis ACL setting that tags packets with a quality-of-service marker so downstream equipment can prioritise them. | — |
| IPR | IP Range | An Abilis list type that holds a range of IP addresses (start – end). | — |
| IPSEC | Internet Protocol Security | The standard suite for encrypting and authenticating IP traffic. Used as one of the encryption options inside an AIPT2 tunnel. | Wikipedia → |
| IPSRC | Source-IP restriction | An Abilis parameter on a service (HTTP, FTP, SSH…) that limits which source IP addresses are allowed to connect. | — |
| IPSRCLIST | Source-IP restriction list | Same idea as IPSRC, but pointing to a named list of addresses rather than a single value. | — |
| IPSRC-S | Source-IP restriction (HTTPS-side) | The HTTPS variant of IPSRC: restricts which source addresses may connect to the secure web interface. | — |
| IR | IP Range | An Abilis list type holding a single contiguous range of IP addresses. (Closely related to IPR.) | — |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network | A digital telephone-line standard used by older PBXs. The Abilis can terminate ISDN lines via add-on cards. | Wikipedia → |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider | The company that supplies your internet line (fibre, DSL, LTE) — and with it the credentials, public IP and upstream gateway the Abilis's WAN port uses. | Wikipedia → |
| IVR | Interactive Voice Response | A phone menu that says "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support". On the Abilis, IVRs are built using DISA services. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| LAN | Local Area Network | The internal network of an office or building — everything on the "inside" of the Abilis. | Wikipedia → |
| Latency | — | The delay before data reaches its destination, measured one way. The round-trip form — there and back — is what the Abilis calls Trip time and what ping reports. Low latency is what keeps voice calls and remote desktops feeling instant. | Wikipedia → |
| LDAP | Lightweight Directory Access Protocol | The standard protocol for querying a central directory of users, contacts or address books. The Abilis can act as an LDAP server for shared address books. | Wikipedia → |
| Lease time | — | How long a DHCP-assigned IP address stays valid before the client must renew it. Configured in the DHCP server settings. | Wikipedia → |
| LOGIN-MODE | — | An Abilis CLI parameter that controls whether SSH/Telnet logins use legacy single-user mode or the modern user/password database. | — |
| LTE | Long-Term Evolution (4G) | The 4G mobile-data standard. The Abilis can use an LTE modem as a backup or primary internet link. | Wikipedia → |
| Lua | — | A small, fast scripting language. The Abilis Programs feature uses Lua for advanced automation logic. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| MAC | Media Access Control | A unique hardware identifier burned into every network interface (the "MAC address" — six pairs of hex digits like 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E). The Abilis uses MAC addresses to identify cameras and automation devices during Discovery. | Wikipedia → |
| MBR | Master Boot Record | The legacy partitioning scheme for hard disks. Limited to 2 TB and 4 primary partitions; replaced by GPT. | Wikipedia → |
| MIX | — | An Abilis audio service that combines several streams (used by music-on-hold, conferencing and the audio-message editor). | — |
| MoH | Music on Hold | The audio played to a caller while they wait on hold or in a queue. Configured in Tools → Audio Messages. | Wikipedia → |
| MSS | Maximum Segment Size | The largest payload a TCP segment can carry. Often "clamped" lower on PPPoE links to prevent fragmentation. | Wikipedia → |
| MTU | Maximum Transmission Unit | The largest packet size a network link can carry without fragmenting (1500 bytes on standard Ethernet). | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| OBD | On-Board Diagnostics | The standard diagnostic port found on cars and trucks. The Abilis (in Automotive mode) reads OBD data via an external interface. | Wikipedia → |
| OEM | Original Equipment Manufacturer | The company that actually manufactures a piece of hardware (often re-branded by a reseller). | Wikipedia → |
| OGM | Out Going Message | The Abilis CLI term for the welcome / answering audio played when a caller reaches voicemail (paired with END, the closing message). The Audio Messages GUI labels these as "Welcome" and "Goodbye". | — |
| OID | Object Identifier | A dotted-number address (e.g. 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0) that names a specific value in an SNMP-managed device. | Wikipedia → |
| ONVIF | Open Network Video Interface Forum | The standard that lets IP cameras and recorders from different manufacturers work together. The Abilis videorecorder talks ONVIF to most cameras. | Wikipedia → |
| OPC | Operator Panel Control | The Abilis "switchboard" panel: a grid of cards that lets a receptionist see who is on a call and transfer calls by drag-and-drop. Abilis context — not the industrial "OLE for Process Control" standard. | — |
| OUT-IP | Outbound IP resource | An Abilis routing-table column that names which outgoing IP interface a packet should leave through. | — |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| PA | Public Address | An audio-broadcasting system that plays announcements through speakers across a building. The Abilis can drive a PA via its phone-call audio path. | Wikipedia → |
| Packet loss | — | The share of packets that never arrive — usually dropped at a congested or faulty link. The sender has to resend them, which slows everything down; FEC exists to paper over small amounts. Shown as the "Lost Packets" metric in a WAN bundle. | Wikipedia → |
| PAT | Port Address Translation | NAT that rewrites port numbers as well as addresses, so many devices can share one public IP — each connection gets its own port, which is how replies find their way back. Also called NAT overload. A per-rule switch in the Abilis NAT table. | Wikipedia → |
| PBR | Policy-Based Routing | Routing decisions based on something other than the destination IP — for example, sending all SIP traffic via a specific link. | Wikipedia → |
| PBX | Private Branch eXchange | A phone system inside an organisation that connects internal extensions to each other and links them collectively to outside phone lines or VoIP services. The Abilis CPX is a software-based PBX. | Wikipedia → |
| PLC | Programmable Logic Controller | The industrial cousin of an Arduino: a small computer that runs simple logic loops to control machinery. The Abilis Control Loops feature borrows ideas from PLC programming. | Wikipedia → |
| PoE | Power over Ethernet | Delivering electrical power to a device (phone, camera, access point) through the same cable that carries its data. | Wikipedia → |
| Port forwarding | — | A NAT rule that sends traffic arriving on a chosen public port to one specific device inside the network — how the outside world reaches an internal server behind NAT. | Wikipedia → |
| POTS | Plain Old Telephone Service | The traditional analog phone line — the one that gives you dial-tone over a copper pair. | Wikipedia → |
| PPP | Point-to-Point Protocol | A standard for carrying network traffic over a direct link between two devices. The basis of PPPoE. | Wikipedia → |
| PPPoE | PPP over Ethernet | The mechanism most DSL/fibre ISPs use to authenticate a customer connection. The Abilis dials PPPoE on behalf of an upstream modem in bridge mode. | Wikipedia → |
| PTZ | Pan-Tilt-Zoom | A camera with motors that rotate it horizontally (pan), tilt it up and down and zoom optically — controlled remotely from software instead of being fixed in place. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| REDIS | — | An Abilis AIPT2 tunnel parameter related to packet redistribution across paths. Note: not the open-source Redis database — despite the identical spelling. | — |
| RFC | Request For Comments | A numbered standards document published by the IETF that defines an internet protocol (e.g. RFC 5456 defines IAX2). | Wikipedia → |
| RAID | Redundant Array of Independent Disks | A storage scheme that combines multiple disks with redundancy so a single drive failure doesn't lose data. Used in this guide as an analogy for the Abilis's Forward Error Correction on AIPT2 tunnels. | Wikipedia → |
| RIO | Remote Input / Output | An Abilis-compatible wired automation module with digital and analog I/O lines. Connects over RS-485. | — |
| RTP | Real-time Transport Protocol | The protocol that carries the actual voice audio in a VoIP call (SIP sets up the call; RTP carries the sound). | Wikipedia → |
| RTSP | Real-Time Streaming Protocol | The standard way an IP camera advertises its live video stream so a recorder (the Abilis) can pull it. | Wikipedia → |
| RU | Range of users | An Abilis list type holding a contiguous range of user/extension numbers. | — |
| RVS | Remote Video Surveillance | The Abilis name for a wired automation module focused on video / camera integration. Closely related to RIO. | — |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| SD-WAN | Software-Defined WAN | The general industry term for sending traffic over multiple internet links and choosing which one to use per-flow. AIPT2 is the Abilis equivalent. | Wikipedia → |
| SIM | Subscriber Identity Module | The smartcard a cellular modem uses to identify itself to a mobile operator. In the Abilis, the SIM lives inside the UMTS-BOX or LTE-BOX module and gives the unit a phone number for SMS and voice. | Wikipedia → |
| SIP | Session Initiation Protocol | The dominant standard for setting up VoIP calls. Most IP phones, softphones and VoIP providers speak SIP. | Wikipedia → |
| SMS | Short Message Service | Short text messages over the cellular network. The Abilis sends and receives SMS through its UMTS-BOX or LTE-BOX module — for alerts, 2FA forwarding and bulk notification campaigns. | Wikipedia → |
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol | The standard protocol for sending email. The Abilis uses SMTP to send alarm emails and voicemail-to-email. | Wikipedia → |
| SNMP | Simple Network Management Protocol | A standard way for monitoring tools to query a device’s status (CPU, traffic, uptime, etc.). | Wikipedia → |
| Softphone | — | A phone that runs as software on a computer or mobile, instead of on a physical handset. Registers to the Abilis over SIP. | Wikipedia → |
| Sonoff | — | A widely-available consumer brand of Wi-Fi smart switches and sensors (made by Itead). The Abilis can integrate selected Sonoff devices. | — |
| SSH | Secure Shell | An encrypted command-line login protocol — the modern replacement for Telnet. Used to reach the Abilis CLI. | Wikipedia → |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer | The historical name for the encryption used by HTTPS. Now superseded by TLS, but the term "SSL" is still used colloquially. | Wikipedia → |
| STARTTLS | — | A way to upgrade a plain-text connection (SMTP, IMAP…) to an encrypted one mid-stream. An option when configuring outbound mail. | Wikipedia → |
| Subnet mask | — | The number that splits an IP address into a network part (which LAN) and a host part (which device), e.g. 255.255.255.0. Devices whose network part matches reach each other directly; everything else goes via the gateway. The short form is the CIDR "/n". | Wikipedia → |
| SUPER / SUPERUSER | — | The built-in top-privilege account on the Abilis — reserved for lockout recovery and low-level CLI tasks. "SUPER" and "SUPERUSER" refer to the same account. | — |
| SYSLOG | — | A standard format for system log messages. The Abilis can stream its logs to an external syslog collector. | Wikipedia → |
| Term | Stands for | Plain-English meaning | Learn more |
|---|
| T.38 | — | The standard for sending fax over an IP network reliably (instead of trying to push fax tones through a voice codec). | Wikipedia → |
| Throttled | — | Deliberately slowed down. Bandwidth shaping "throttles" a flow to keep it under a configured speed limit. | Wikipedia → |
| Throughput | — | The data rate a link actually achieves, as opposed to the headline speed it is sold at. An AIPT2 WAN bundle compares each line's throughput against its maximum to judge how much spare capacity is left for more traffic. | Wikipedia → |
| TLS | Transport Layer Security | The modern encryption that protects HTTPS and most other secure internet protocols. Successor to SSL. | Wikipedia → |
| ToS | Type of Service | A byte in the IPv4 header where a packet can ask for special handling — originally a 3-bit precedence (priority) plus flags requesting low delay, high throughput, high reliability or low cost. Modern networks reuse the same byte for DSCP. In Abilis ACL rules, TOS-I matches a packet's incoming ToS value, while TOS-O rewrites it on the way out (* = don't change). | Wikipedia → |
| Traffic policing | — | Enforcing a bandwidth limit by dropping the packets that exceed it, immediately. Contrast traffic shaping, which delays them instead. The Abilis's QoS tools shape rather than police. | Wikipedia → |
| Traffic shaping | — | Enforcing a bandwidth limit by holding excess packets back briefly and releasing them later — smooth, nothing lost, at the cost of a little delay. What the Abilis's port speed limits and IP Shaping do. | Wikipedia → |
| Preferred treatment type | — | The QoS class you assign to a WAN bundle's traffic (None, VPN, VoIP, Surfing or Streaming). Each class tells the bundle which quality metric matters most — loss, jitter, trip time or throughput — so it steers that traffic onto the best-suited line. The Abilis CONTROL parameter on an AIPT2 tunnel. | — |
| TRFA | Traffic Analysis | The Abilis subsystem that records per-call and per-flow statistics for later reporting (Phone Statistics, accounting, etc.). Must be enabled to populate Recent Calls. | — |
| Trip time | — | How long a packet takes to reach a destination and have its reply come back — the same thing ping measures. | Wikipedia → |
| Trunk | — | (Telephony) A line that carries calls to/from an outside provider rather than to a single extension. (Networking) A switch port that carries multiple VLANs at once. | Wikipedia → |
| TTS | Text To Speech | Software that synthesises spoken audio from typed text. The Audio Messages tool uses TTS to generate a DISA/voicemail prompt without recording one with a microphone. | Wikipedia → |
| TUPR | Tuple | An Abilis NAT/ACL list type holding compound entries (e.g. IP+port pairs) rather than just single addresses. | — |