BT glossary

This glossary is here to help you understand some of the acronyms you may encounter in this site. Select a letter below that your word begins with.

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Abbreviation

Term

Definition

VAD

Value-Added Distributor

Analogous to value-added reseller (information technology trade term).

VANS

Value-Added Network Services

Services that add value to, for example, a basic telephone call such as advice of call waiting, call answering and so on.

VAR

Value-Added Reseller

This describes a computer dealer who does more for customers than a plain box shifter does.

VBR

Variable Bit Rate

This is an ATM service. Two types, VBR-NRT is no real time (a high speed version of Frame Relay), VBR - RT is real time.

VDU

Video Display Unit

A combination of computer monitor screen and keyboard.

VoD

Video On Demand

A service which allows you to choose from a menu displayed on your TV, a video, TV programme, or training material and play it in real time on your TV. Services, such as home shopping and banking, allowing you to interact with them via a special remote control for the TV.

Virtual circuit

A connection where bandwidth is available on demand but not permanently allocated.

Virtual office

Many tasks relying on information processing may well be handled equally effectively outside the conventional office habitat. If your job can be performed equally well from home, from a hotel bedroom, from a car or from an office hired by the hour at an airport and if the person at the other end of the phone doesn't even know you are not in a 'real' office then this 'virtual' office is just as viable as the conventional workplace. The virtual office is not another expression for solitary teleworking or for working normally from home and visiting 'the office' one day a week, although it may include these practices. The virtual office generally still implies team work as employees of a larger organisation, the essential difference being that modern information technology removes the need for 'the office' to be in one fixed place.

VPN

Virtual Private Network

A voice and/or data network which offers the features and characteristics of a private network but in fact is configured this way from a part of the public network or the internet. Users gain the economy of scale and flexibility of using public switched services.

VR

Virtual reality

The use of multimedia to create a simulation of a product or service so that a user can experience and interact with it (e.g. driving a car).

VRML

Virtual Reality Modelling Language

A language for describing 3-D models in a way that allows them to be rapidly downloaded from a web site. This term was previously known as VR Markup Language. Analogue to HTML.

Virus

A piece of malicious code which may erase data, use up system resources and use your system to propagate copies of itself to other systems. Viruses are frequently loaded by accident or without the knowledge of the system owner. Users can protect themselves against viruses by installing anti-virus software.

VoIP

Voice Over Internet Protocol

This technology allows you to make calls through your computer by the help of a microphone or headset.