Overview
ISO/IEC TR 18053:2000 is a Technical Report that provides a comprehensive glossary of definitions and terminology used across the Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications (CSTA) Phase III suite. Published by ISO/IEC and prepared from ECMA materials, this report does not specify protocols or services itself but standardizes the technical vocabulary needed to implement and interpret CSTA Phase III documents and implementations.
Key topics
This glossary covers a broad range of telecommunication and CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) concepts, including:
- Call and connection concepts: call, connection, call state, alerting, hold, consultative call, conference, queued call, global call
- Device and appearance terms: device, CSTA device, device identifier, appearance, addressable device/appearance, logical vs physical device
- ACD and agent models: Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), ACD group/device, agent, agent state and logging, agent associations
- Media and signalling: media stream, media type, codec, DTMF, analogue/digital lines, ISDN, PSTN
- Service, event and control elements: event report, acknowledgement models (atomic, multi-step), application association, API, ACSE/ROSE references
- Identifiers and records: call identifier, connection identifier, GlobalCallID, call detail record (CDR)
- Operational and network terms: routing devices, switching domains, queues, trunk, PBX
Note: the report’s table of contents lists many additional terms (over several hundred) to ensure precise, consistent usage in CSTA Phase III documentation.
Practical applications
ISO/IEC TR 18053:2000 is primarily a reference tool that improves clarity and interoperability across CTI and telecommunications projects:
- Ensures consistent terminology in CSTA Phase III implementations, vendor documentation, and API specifications
- Aids software developers and integrators building CSTA-compliant CTI applications or gateways
- Supports system architects and network engineers when mapping telephony services to computing functions
- Helps test labs and QA teams create unambiguous test cases and conformance statements
- Useful for standards writers, trainers, and technical authors preparing documentation or training materials
Who should use it
- Telecommunications engineers and CTI integrators
- Application developers implementing CSTA APIs
- PBX and contact center solution vendors
- Test/QA engineers and interoperability labs
- Standards bodies, technical writers, and trainers
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 18051:2000 (CSTA Phase III - Services for CSTA) - cited as the normative reference and the services specification that the glossary supports.
Using ISO/IEC TR 18053:2000 helps teams reduce ambiguity, speed integration, and improve cross-vendor interoperability in CSTA-based telephony and CTI systems.