TAPI (Telephony Application Program Interface)  
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
TDM (time-division multiplexing)
TDMA (time division multiple access)
Telnet

TAPI (Telephony Application Program Interface) is a standard program interface that lets you and your computer "talk" over telephones or video phones to people or phone-connected resources elsewhere in the world. Assuming your computer is equipped with TAPI and your setup includes the right applications and hardware, you may be able:

• Call someone by clicking on their picture or other image
• Use a similar graphical user interface (GUI) to set up a conference call and then attend the call at the scheduled time
• See who you're talking to individually or at a conference call
• Add a voice note to an e-mail note you send or listen to a voice note attached to an e-mail note you receive
• Program your computer to automatically receive phone calls from certain numbers (but not from others)
• Send and receive faxes
• Do these things from a portable wireless cellular telephone/computer as well as from a desktop computer

TAPI provides a high-level interface for dialing and disconnecting. Instead of having to encode an ATDT dial string and the ATH disconnect string, the programmer codes a much simpler "function call."

In addition to the interface for applications, TAPI includes a Service Provider Interface (SPI) for hardware vendors who are writing the driver software. The TAPI Dynamic Link Library (DLL) maps the API to the SPI and coordinates input/output traffic.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in the private networks called intranets and in extranets. When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

TCP/IP is a two-layered program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the destination.

TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication in which a computer user (a client) requests and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another computer (a server) in the network. TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point, meaning each communication is from one point (or host computer) in the network to another point or host computer. TCP/IP and the higher-level applications that use it are collectively said to be "connectionless" because each client request is considered a new request unrelated to any previous one (unlike ordinary phone conversations that require a dedicated connection for the call duration). Being connectionless frees network paths so that everyone can use them continuously. (Note that the TCP layer itself is not connectionless as far as any one message is concerned. Its connection remains in place until all packets in a message have been received.)

Most Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use TCP/IP to get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon to remote computers, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as a "suite."

Personal computer users usually get to the Internet through the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). These protocols encapsulate the IP packets so that they can be sent over a dial-up phone connection to an access provider's modem.

Protocols related to TCP/IP include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used instead of TCP for special purposes. Other protocols are used by network host computers for exchanging router information. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), and the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP).

TDM (time-division multiplexing) is a scheme in which numerous signals are combined for transmission on a single communications line or channel. Each signal is broken up into many segments, each having very short duration.

The circuit that combines signals at the source (transmitting) end of a communications link is known as a multiplexer. It accepts the input from each individual end user, breaks each signal into segments, and assigns the segments to the composite signal in a rotating, repeating sequence. The composite signal thus contains data from all the end users. At the other end of the long-distance cable, the individual signals are separated out by means of a circuit called a demultiplexer, and routed to the proper end users. A two-way communications circuit requires a multiplexer/demultiplexer at each end of the long-distance, high-bandwidth cable.

If many signals must be sent along a single long-distance line, careful engineering is required to  ensure that the system will perform properly. An asset of TDM is its flexibility. The scheme allows for variation in the number of signals being sent along the line, and constantly adjusts the time intervals to make optimum use of the available bandwidth. The Internet is a classic example of a communications network in which the volume of traffic can change drastically from hour to hour. In some systems, a different scheme, known as frequency-division multiplexing, is preferred.

TDMA (time division multiple access) is a technology used in digital cellular telephone communication to divide each cellular channel into three time slots in order to increase the amount of data that can be carried.

TDMA is used by Digital-American Mobile Phone Service (D-AMPS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), and Personal Digital Cellular (PDC). However, each of these systems implements TDMA in a somewhat different and incompatible way. An alternative multiplexing scheme to FDMA with TDMA is code division multiple access (CDMA), which takes the entire allocated frequency range for a given service and multiplexes information for all users across the spectrum range at the same time.

TDMA was first specified as a standard in EIA/TIA Interim Standard 54 (IS-54). IS-136, an evolved version of IS-54, is the United States standard for TDMA for both the cellular (850 MHz) and PCS (1.9 GHz) spectrums.

Telnet is the way you can access someone else's computer, assuming they have given you permission. (Such a computer is frequently called a host computer.) More technically, Telnet is a user command and an underlying TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote computers. The Web or HTTP protocol and the FTP protocol allow you to request specific files from remote computers, but not to actually be logged on as a user of that computer. With Telnet, you log on as a regular user with whatever privileges you may have been granted to the specific applications and data on that computer.

A Telnet command request looks like this (the computer name is made-up):

     telnet the.libraryat.harvard.edu

The result of this request would be an invitation to log on with a userid and a prompt for a password. If accepted, you would be logged on like any user who used this computer every day.

Telnet is most likely to be used by program developers and anyone who has a need to use specific applications or data located at a particular host computer.