T1
One of several categories of digital telecommunication facilities defined in the U.S. T-carrier system (see T-carrier). T1 lines, often used in private-line digital data or Internet service connections, typically operate at an aggregate data rate of 1.544 megabits per second.

T.120
An International Telecommunication Union standard dealing with real-time document and image sharing across a network. Among the areas addressed by T.120 are interoperability for file transfer, still image exchange and shared-whiteboard functions used in Web-conferencing applications or videoconferences.

T2
One of several types of digital voice lines defined in the U.S. T-carrier system (see T-carrier). A T2 line has a transmission capacity of up to 6.312 megabits per second.

T3
A commonly used category of digital telecommunications lines — one of several defined in the U.S. T-carrier system (see T-carrier). T3 lines have a capacity of up to 44.746 megabits per second.

T4
A communications line capable of carrying digitized voice signals at up to 274.176 megabits per second, as defined in the T-carrier system (see T-carrier).

TA (terminal adapter)
An interfacing device for an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) environment. It enables non-ISDN terminals to connect at the physical layer.

tablet
A computing device that weighs less than 4 pounds and is operated by direct screen contact via a pen or touch interface.

TACACS (Terminal Access Controller Access Control System)
An authentication protocol used in Unix networks. It allows a remote access server to forward a user's logon password to an authentication server to determine whether access can be allowed to a given system.

TACS (total access communications system)
A derivative of the U.S. advanced mobile phone service (AMPS). Developed in the United Kingdom and used in Europe and Asia, TACS offers analog cellular phone service at 900 megahertz. See AMPS.

tandem
The connection of networks or circuits in series.

TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface)
An application programming interface developed by Microsoft for its Windows PC environment. TAPI enables Windows applications to control key telephony functions common to most telephone systems. Such control, originally designed to provide call control functionality to desktop PC users, has been expanded to allow server-oriented, third-party call control for call-routing applications.

tariff
The formal process whereby services and rates are established by and for communications carriers. Carriers submit tariffs to the appropriate regulatory agencies, which then review, amend, approve or disallow them.

TB (terabyte)
One trillion bytes.

TCAP (Transaction Capabilities Application Part
In Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) feature for transaction-type information transfer. See ISDN.

T-carrier
A hierarchical system, developed in the United States by the Bell Labs in the 1950s, for multiplexing digitized voice signals over a communications network. A similar system, known as "E-carrier," is used in Europe (see E-carrier). Different types of T-carrier connections (or lines) have varying digital transmission capacities (see T1, T2, T3 and T4). The most common are T1 lines, which typically carry digital data at 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps), and T3 lines, with transmission capacity of up to 44.7 Mbps. T1 and T3 lines are often used in private-line Internet and digital data network connections. Corresponding Digital Signal (DS) levels define arrangements of multiple signals (or channels) over these lines (see DSx series).

TCMP (tightly coupled multiprocessing)
A multiprocessing configuration in which all processors share a single pool of memory.

TCO (total cost of ownership)
A comprehensive assessment of information technology (IT) or other costs across enterprise boundaries over time. For IT, TCO includes hardware and software acquisition, management and support, communications, end-user expenses, and the opportunity cost of downtime, training and other productivity losses.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
A communications protocol based on the U.S. Department of Defense's standards for reliable internetwork delivery of data. It is used in conjunction with Internet Protocol (IP) in TCP/IP networking. See IP and TCP/IP.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
A set of protocols covering (approximately) the network and transport layers of the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model. TCP/IP was developed during a 15-year period under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense. It has become a dominant standard in enterprise networking, particularly at higher-level OSI layers over Ethernet networks. See IP and OSI.

TCSEC (Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria)
A set of security level categories defined by the U.S. National Security Agency's National Computer Security Center (NCSC), and specified in Defense Department Standard 5200.28 (also known as the "Orange Book"). The TCSEC security levels have been adopted for use in a variety of commercial IT contexts, including Internet-based E-commerce. They include:

A similar set of security levels, called the Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria (ITSEC), is used in Europe. See ITSEC.

TDM (time division multiplexing)
A data, voice and video communications technique that multiplexes several low-speed signals into one high-speed transmission channel by allocating brief, interleaved time periods to each signal. In TDM, this transmission must emanate from a single location — unlike time division multiple access (TDMA), which enables the source data signals to emanate from multiple transmitters in different locations. See multiplexing and TDMA.

TDMA (time division multiple access)
A technology for digital transmission of radio signals between, for example, a mobile phone and a radio base station. TDMA enables communicating devices at different locations to share a multipoint or broadcast channel by means of a technique that breaks signals into sequential pieces of defined length, and reconstructs the pieces at the end of the transmission.

TEC (Tivoli Enterprise Console)
An IBM system and network monitoring product. TEC collects event information from a variety of system and application resources, correlates the information to determine detect problems and performs automated problem resolution.

technical component
An application building block that adheres to a specific component object model, such as Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) or Sun Microsystems' Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). See component, COM and EJB.

telco
A contraction of the term "telephone company." It generally refers to the local-exchange carrier (LEC). See LEC.

telecommunications
Any process that permits the passage of information from a sender to one or more receivers in any usable form (such as printed copy, fixed or moving pictures, and visible or audible signals) by means of any electromagnetic system (such as electrical transmission by wire, radio or optical transmission). It includes telegraphy, telephony, video-telephony and data transmission.

Telecommunications Act of 1996
A U.S. act of congress intended to open up local and long-distance markets to competition, and to fix many of the flaws in universal service and access charges. The act required that the Federal Communications Commission separate telephone access charges from universal service fees, and that part of the access charges be based on actual costs. The act also made provisions to include Internet access for U.S. schools, libraries and hospitals as part of universal service.

telecommuter
A work-at-home computer user who connects to the corporate network using remote-access technologies.

telecommuting
Any significant portion of working hours spent at a remote site (typically the worker's home) using communications lines to send and receive information, interact with customers and peers, and deliver work projects.

teleconference
A bidirectional, one-to-many or a many-to-many audio connection, typically used to conduct meetings among geographically dispersed participants.

teleconferencing
Holding meetings among geographically dispersed participants using bidirectional audio transmission technology.

Telcordia Technologies
A telecommunications infrastructure technology firm, which changed its name from Bellcore in 1999. See Bellcore.

teledensity
The number of local loop telephone lines in use at the year-end as a ratio of the total population, usually expressed in terms of lines per 100 population. Also referred to as penetration rate.

telephone exchange
A switching center for the interconnection of lines that terminate therein. Also called central office.

telephony
A generic term for voice telecommunications.

Telnet
The Internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection. It allows a user at one site to interact with a remote device or system that expects terminal-mode traffic. See Internet.

TEM (technology-enabled marketing)
Also known as marketing automation, TEM involves analyzing and automating the marketing process. TEM includes a proactive strategy for using information and IT in marketing, with the ultimate goal of allocating marketing resources to the activities, channels and media with the best potential return and impact on profitable customer relationships. The new metrics of customer profitability, lifetime value and wallet share will be needed to supplement the traditional metrics of market share and penetration. Components of TEM include customer data cleansing and analysis tools, and campaign management systems.

Tempest
The U.S. military standard for shielding equipment so that electronic emanations cannot be detected.

TERM (technology-enabled relationship management)
The concept of forming one enterprisewide view of the customer across all customer contact channels (i.e., sales, marketing, and customer service and support). It is a complex area, requiring complex solutions to problems of integration, data flow, data access and marketing strategy. A critical component is the database that serves as the customer information repository.

terminal
A non-PC device with a keyboard and display screen that is used to communicate with a computer. Terminals typically have limited or no ability to process data on their own. Varieties include "dumb," "intelligent" and 3270 terminals. See dumb terminal, intelligent terminal and 3270.

terminal emulation
Imitation of a specific terminal (3270, for example) by a device, such as a PC, through software. PCs often use terminal emulation methods to connect to host computers, such as mainframes, with which they would otherwise be incapable of communicating. See terminal and 3270.

terminal server
A local-area network (LAN) device that allows asynchronous dumb terminals to communicate with a host computer also attached to the LAN. It is useful in minimizing the amount of cabling where several terminals need to be attached to a mainframe.

term license
A type of software agreement wherein the customer pays maintenance fees for use of the software over a specified term and, unless the license is renewed, has no right to use the software after the term expires. See perpetual license.

TES (technology-enabled selling)
Also known as "sales automation" or "technology-enabled sales," this refers to the application of technology to enable selling through all channels, including field sales, telesales, selling partners, Web selling and retail. The goal of TES is to integrate technology with optimal processes to provide continuous improvement in sales effectiveness, as well as to balance and optimize each enterprise sales channel.

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio)
A European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard for private and public-access mobile radio technology. TETRA uses time division multiple access (TDMA) technology to multiplex four user channels onto one carrier signal. See ETSI and TDMA.

text mining
The process of extracting information from collections of textual data and analyzing it for business purposes.

TFLOPS (teraFLOPS)
One trillion floating-point operations per second.

TFT (thin-film transistor)
A type of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. See LCD.

TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)
A protocol used for basic file transfers, as well as booting systems that communicate with the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite using the TFTP boot protocol. TFTP boot is similar to bootp, but contains an additional file transfer capability. This protocol is commonly used to provide configurations to remote routers, allowing network managers to centrally generate the remote router configuration file and then download that configuration once the router is powered up and connected to the network. See TCP/IP and bootp.

thin client
A type of client/server computing where applications are run, and data is stored, on the server rather than on the client. Because the applications are executed on the server, they do not require client-resident installation, although the graphical user interface and some application logic may be rendered to the client. A common misperception is that a thin-client application requires the use of a thin-client device (i.e., a stripped-down desktop machine that costs less to buy and maintain than a regular PC). However, while thin-client applications enable such devices to be used, they do not require it. In fact, more than 85 percent of devices used to display thin-client Windows applications are regular PCs, typically configured with both "fat-client" applications and access to thin-client ones. Thin-client computing is dominated by Microsoft Windows Terminal Servers with Citrix MetaFrame. Other examples of thin-client technology include Tarantella's Tarantella and Sun Microsystems' Sun Ray. See client/server and fat client.

throughput
The volume of work or information flowing through a system. The term is particularly meaningful in information storage and retrieval systems, in which throughput is measured in units such as accesses per hour.

TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association)
An U.S. association that develops telecommunications standards. TIA represents the communications sector within the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA). See EIA.

TickIT
An initiative sponsored by the U.K. government. It is a scheme that adapts International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 to the special needs of software development. TickIT is designed to make it easier for systems developers to apply quality standards. TickIT is not a standard in itself; rather, it is a way of understanding and applying ISO 9000. Enterprises and IS departments that undertake software development in the United Kingdom can apply for certification under TickIT. This certifies that their software development procedures conform to quality standards, but does not imply any approval of other processes in the department or the enterprise. See ISO 9000.

tie line
A private-line communications channel of the type provided by communications common carriers for linking two or more points together, typically private branch exchanges (PBXs). Also called tie trunk. See PBX.

TIFF (Tag Image File Format)
A de facto standard format for bit-mapped image files.

TIM (transaction incident management)
An formal approach to ensuring that users, consumers and suppliers can perform business transaction tasks securely and in privacy according to business specifications and service-level agreements. The objectives of TIM are to detect any kind of abnormal incidents in real time and to resolve them rapidly, depending on their levels of business criticality. Such incidents can arise from system failures as well as unauthorized or malicious activities.

time division switching
The switching method for a time-division multiplexing (TDM) channel. It involves the shifting of data from one time slot to another in the TDM frame. See TDM.

timeout
A condition wherein a procedure, application or terminal suspends operation due to a prolonged period of system inactivity, or because no response to a data query as been received.

time sharing
Use of a computer facility (typically a mainframe) by many users for different purposes at (apparently) the same time. Although the computer services the users sequentially, it allocates segments of time so that each user appears to have the dedicated resources of the machine. Time sharing was common in the 1970s and 1980s, but became less so with the introduction of more powerful, less expensive computers.

TLS (Transport Layer Security)
A protocol designed to secure the privacy of communications over the Internet. It is defined in request for comment 2246 from the Internet Engineering Task Force.

T&M (time and materials)
A general term describing the practice of billing for services based on the cumulative time worked and materials purchased, rather than based on a fixed price.

TMF (TeleManagement Forum)
A consortium of network equipment vendors and carriers developing implementation specifications for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)-based network management. Founded in 1988, TMF (formerly known as the Network Management Forum) seeks solutions to business and technology challenges resulting from global telecommunications deregulation. The group provides a forum for industry leaders to address interoperation and process automation issues that they could not address as cost-effectively or comprehensively on their own.

TMN (Telecommunications Management Network)
An International Telecommunication Union model for network management in advanced networks such as synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) and Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM). TMN defines management functions with standard interfaces using a management network separate from the transmission network, and standard protocols such as Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). See SDH, GSM and CMIP.

TMS (transportation management system)
System used to plan freight movements, select the appropriate route and carrier, and manage freight bills and payments.

TOA (time of arrival)
A technique that uses to triangulation to determine the geographic position of mobile devices, such as cell phones. The position is determined by comparing the different times that a signal broadcast by the device arrives at various sites. See location service.

token passing
A LAN access technique in which participating stations circulate a special bit pattern that grants access to the communications pathway to any station that holds the sequence. It is often used in networks with a ring topology (see token ring).

token ring
A LAN access mechanism and topology in which a supervisory frame or token is passed from station to station in sequential order. Stations wishing to gain access to the network must wait for the token to arrive before transmitting data. Invented and once heavily promoted by IBM, token ring technology is on the decline, having been surpassed in popularity by Ethernet, a rival LAN technology. See Ethernet.

topology
The logical or physical arrangement of stations on a network in relation to one another. See bus, ring topology and star topology.

touchpoint
A contact point between a business and its customers. Touchpoints may occur in any channel (for example, via phone, the Web or direct contact with a salesperson).

touch-sensitive
A term used to describe technology that enables a system to identify the coordinates of a point touched on a screen and transmit that information to a program.

touch-tone
Push-button telephone dialing enabled by dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) signaling. The term was once an AT&T trademark. See DTMF.

TPC (Transaction Processing Performance Council)
An organization that has developed several standardized system performance benchmarks, including TPC-C (for online transaction-processing workloads) and TPC-H (for decision support workloads). TPC prohibits testing systems that are specially optimized for benchmarking or lack real-world applicability. See TPC-C and TPC-H.

TPC-C (Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark C)
The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) benchmark model for online transaction-processing (OLTP) workloads. It defines a set of programs and testing protocols that can be used to derived consistent, repeatable benchmark results for OLTP. See TPC.

TPC-H (Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark H)
A Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) benchmark model for decision support workloads. It defines a business-oriented ad-hoc queries and concurrent data modifications that can be used for system benchmarking purposes. See TPC.

TPF (Transaction Processing Facility)
A high-availability IBM system designed to support transaction-driven applications.

tpm (transactions per minute)
A measure of system performance.

TPM (third-party maintenance)
System maintenance performed by an independent service organization, rather than by the vendor of the system.

TPM (transaction-processing monitor)
A category of applications that handle information-processing requests that must be answered within a predictable period that approaches real time (for example, for airline reservations or inventory control). TPMs typically use a process whereby the computer handles each instruction or query individually as it is entered. See transaction processing.

tpmC
Transactions per minute, as measured using the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C benchmark. See TPC-C.

TQM (total quality management)
A model developed in the late 1940s and 1950s. It is widely used by businesses for continual process improvement.

traffic
Messages sent and received over a voice or data communications channel.

transaction logging
A concept in which a detailed record is kept of all operations in a transaction. In the event of a failure, this record can be used to back out the transaction and restore the former state.

transaction monitor
A subsystem that ensures that all transactions against a database leave it in a consistent state or, in case of a transaction failure, returns the database to its pre-transaction state.

transaction processing
A mode of processing characterized by transactions that require high availability, short response times and highly up-to-date information. Applications that perform this type of processing are known as transaction-processing monitors (TPMs). Systems that perform transaction processing include those used to make airline reservations or perform inventory control. See TPM.

transceiver
An electronic device that can both transmit and receive signals.

transducer
A device that converts signals or energy from one form to another (such as a microphone or a speaker).

transfer rate
The speed at which information can be sent across a bus or communications link.

transformation
The process used to translate business data from one format to another, as needed when transferring data between different application systems or trading partners Transformation tools are the interpreters for the digital "Tower of Babel." They provide syntactic and semantic data conversion for business documents that flow between application systems.

transmission
Sending information in the form of electrical signals or electromagnetic waves over wires, optical fibers or the air.

transmission speed
The rate at which information is passed through a communications medium, generally measured in bits per second.

transmit
To send information from one location to another.

transponder
A device that transmits a signal in response to a received signal. Communications satellites usually contain several transponders.

transport layer
In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, the network processing entity responsible — in conjunction with the underlying network, data link and physical layers — for the end-to-end control of transmitted data and the optimized use of network resources. See OSI.

Triple DES (Triple Data Encryption Standard)
A variant of Data Encryption Standard (DES). It uses three different DES keys, in sequence, to encrypt a file. See DES.

Trojan horse
A form of malicious code that may be deliberately planted to perform a destructive act on a computer. It is effective because it is not what it appears to be. The execution of a Trojan horse may have an undesirable and unexpected effect on the user's work environment, but it is the user who initiates the execution of the code (for example, by clicking on a button in a graphical user interface that appears harmless). Unlike a computer virus, a Trojan horse is unable to replicate and is not parasitic.

trouble ticket
A record of a customer complaint or problem, usually created in a call or contact center. The ticket remains active until the issue has been resolved.

Tru64
A 64-bit Unix operating system originally developed by Digital Equipment, and now marketed by Hewlett-Packard.

TRUSTe
An online privacy seal program (OPSP) that identifies Internet companies utilizing appropriate processes and operations to protect the confidentiality of consumer information. License fees are based on a company's annual revenue. Vendors must reapply for licensing each year, and during this process their operations are re-evaluated to ensure they meet all requirements for displaying the program emblem.

trusted third party
A trusted entity that vouches for the identity of the sender or receiver of information in a security system. In public-key infrastructure (PKI) security, the role of trusted third party is played by a certification authority. See PKI and certification authority.

TSAPI (Telephony Services Application Programming Interface)
A computer-telephony integration (CTI) application programming interface developed by Novell and AT&T that provides a client/server implementation and supports first-and third-party call control. The major benefit of third-party call control is that, via the command link to the switch, it is possible to control calls between third parties (much like an operator does today). This permits CTI applications to provide multiparty services, call routing based on automatic number identification and other advanced features.

TSD (Tivoli Service Desk)
A consolidated service desk (CSD) product once offered by IBM's Tivoli unit. It was sold to Peregrine Systems in 2000.

TSO (Time Sharing Option)
An IBM mainframe feature, introduced in its Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) operating system, that provides users with interactive time sharing from remote terminals. The latest version, offered in z/OS, is called Time Sharing Option/Extensions (TSO/E). See MVS and TSO/E.

TSO/E (Time Sharing Option/Extensions)
A feature of IBM's z/OS operating system. It provides an interactive terminal interface for z/Series mainframes. See z/OS and TSO.

tuning
The process of adjusting computer system control variables to make a system divide its resources most efficiently for a workload.

tunneling
A technique that encapsulates data for transmission so that it doesn't need to be changed to accommodate differing network types or protocols.

TUP (Telephone User Part)
An Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) feature for call setup and control. See ISDN.

turnkey
A term describing a system made up of disparate components (such as hardware and software) that are assembled and installed by single vendor, and sold by that vendor as a total package.

TVO (total value of opportunity)
A Gartner-developed model that brings a number of factors together to derive the business value of IT investments, thereby providing a basis for IT decision making. TVO is a metrics-based approach to measuring business performance based on three important factors: risk, time and the effectiveness of converting projected value into actual business benefit.

twin-axial
A type of coaxial cable (sometimes referred to as "twinax") with two center conductors at each connection point. See coaxial.

twisted pair
A type of cable that contains two insulated wires twisted together. See UTP (unshielded twisted pair).

Type A, Type B, Type C
A Gartner framework that classifies enterprises or their subdivisions according to an information technology (IT) adoption profile. Classification is based not only on an enterprise's IT adoption strategy, but also on whether the strategy is supported by top management and is adequately funded.