MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 6.1 | | Issue 1 |
Network Reference 555-661-150 | | August 1998 |
1 Introduction | | |
| Networking Concepts | | Page 1-2 |
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| Networking Concepts | 1 |
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In today’s environment—business, academic, and governmental—many organizations are setting up multiple sites to provide customers and clients with better access to products and services. Branch offices, operations centers, and specialized campuses are supported by technological advances such as local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), intranets, the Internet, videoconferencing, and protocols that enable high-speed data communications. For example, banking institutions and insurance companies often consist of a headquarters with branch offices; school systems are organized around a central administrative site that serves several schools in a district. Direct marketing retailers, utilities, and government agencies are dispersed over multiple sites, nationwide or regionally, to reach more clients or customers and to take advantage of the economies offered by specific geographic locations. All of these organizations share a common need: rapid and cost-efficient voice and data communications. For users of the MERLIN LEGEND®Communications System, Release 6.0 introduces the ability to realize significant savings and convenience benefits through the networking of geographically separate locations in private communications networks. Release 6.1 adds to the savings and convenience benefits by providing a centralized voice messaging capability for networked MERLIN LEGEND systems.
Briefly, a private communications network is an interconnected group of communications systems, which may consist of MERLIN LEGEND Communications Systems, DEFINITY®Enterprise Communications Servers (ECS), and/or DEFINITY ProLogix Solutions. People within each system, called local users, can exchange voice and data with other individuals at communications systems in the network, called non-local users. The systems in a private network may be located on the same campus, or they may be separated by thousands of miles.
NOTE:
All MERLIN LEGEND Communications Systems in a private network must be Release 6.0 or later. When centralized voice messaging is used, all MERLIN LEGEND systems that share the centralized voice messaging system must be Release 6.1 or later. While DEFINITY systems can be included in a private network with MERLIN LEGEND systems, the DEFINITY system cannot share the centralized voice mail system of the MERLIN LEGEND system, and the MERLIN LEGEND system cannot share the voice mail system of the DEFINITY system.