IMT-2000

International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), better known as 3G or 3rd Generation, is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Compared to 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink with HSPA+). Thus, 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined the third generation (3G) of mobile telephony standards – IMT-2000 – to facilitate growth, increase bandwidth, and support more diverse applications. For example, GSM (the current most popular cellular phone standard) could deliver not only voice, but also circuit-switched data at download rates up to 14.4 kbps. But to support mobile multimedia applications, 3G had to deliver packet-switched data with better spectral efficiency, at far greater bandwidths.

While EDGE is part of the 3G standard, most GSM/UMTS phones report EDGE (“2.75G”) and UMTS (“3G”) network availability as separate functionality.

APPLICATIONS

The bandwidth and location information available to 3G devices gives rise to applications not previously available to mobile phone users. Some of the applications are:

·         Mobile TV - a provider redirects a TV channel directly to the subscriber's phone where it can be watched.

·         Video on demand - a provider sends a movie to the subscriber's phone.

·         Video conferencing - subscribers can see as well as talk to each other.

·         Tele-medicine - a medical provider monitors or provides advice to the potentially isolated subscriber.

·         Location-based services - a provider sends localized weather or traffic conditions to the phone, or the phone allows the subscriber to find nearby businesses or friends. 

Cheque truncation system(eDesk)

Cheque Truncation System (CTS) or Image-based Clearing System (ICS), is the conversion of a physical cheque into a substitute electronic form for transmission to the paying bank. Cheque truncation eliminates cumbersome physical presentation of the cheque and saves time and processing costs.

In India, is a project undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India – RBI, for faster clearing of cheques. CTS is basically an online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically.
                      Truncation means, stopping the flow of the physical cheques issued by a drawer to the drawee branch. The physical instrument is truncated at some point en route to the drawee branch and an electronic image of the cheque is sent to the drawee branch along with the relevant information like the MICR fields, date of presentation, presenting banks etc.

Cheque truncation, would eliminate the need to move the physical instruments across branches, except in exceptional circumstances. This would result in effective reduction in the time required for payment of cheques, the associated cost of transit and delays in processing, etc., thus speeding up the process of collection or realization of cheques.

Banks and financial institutions use cheque truncation systems (CTS) to manage this process. These systems have to deal with two main processes, outward clearing and inward clearing.

Ø  In outward clearing the deposited items are scanned and the operator performs amount entry, account entry, item verification, balancing and bundling of the items at the branch level. The items are then sent to a service branch.

Ø  In inward clearing, the items received from branches are processed in the service branch where the operator performs amount entry, account entry, item verification, balancing and bundling of the items. Once verification is complete, the items are sent to the clearing house. Those items that failed validation due to discrepancies are sent back to the originating branch to be corrected.

Expected Benefits

For Banks:

1)   Banks can expect multiple benefits through the implementation of CTS, like faster clearing cycle means realization of proceeds of cheque possible within the same day.

2)   It offers better reconciliation/verification process, better customer service and enhanced customer window.

3)   Operational efficiency will provide a direct boost to bottom lines of banks as clearing of local cheques is a high cost low revenue activity.

4)   Besides, it reduces operational risk by securing the transmission route.

5)   Centralized image archival system ensures data storage and retrieval is easy.

6)   Reduction of manual tasks leads to reduction of errors. Customer satisfaction will be enhanced, due to the reduced turn around time (TAT).

7)   Real-time tracking and visibility of the cheques, less fraudulent cases with secured transfer of images to the RBI are other possible benefits that banks may derive from this solution.

For Customers:

1)   CTS / ICS substantially reduces the time taken to clear the cheques as well enables banks to offer better customer services and increases operational efficiency by cutting down on overheads involved in the physical cheque clearing process.

2)   It also offers better reconciliation and fraud prevention.

3)   CTS / ICS uses cheque image, instead of the physical cheque itself, for cheque clearance thus reducing the turn around time drastically.

eDesk

eDesk is a generic reference to image processing (cheque truncation) products developed and owned by VSoft Corporation, a software company based in Duluth, Georgia, US and Hyderabad in India.

VSoft Corporation’s eDesk Capture™ solutions addresses the capture, validation, processing, archive and transmission of cheque images from all points of presentment. The features in eDesk allow financial institutions to automate deposits at branch tellers, branch back counters, and merchant locations of varying volumes and value, and image enabled ATMs.

Functions

• Teller Capture – Image cheques at the teller counter
• Branch Capture – Image cheques at the branch back office
• Merchant Capture – Enable corporate and business customers to send image cheques to the branch. Merchant Capture allows them to image cheques at their office and send the electronic data and images securely to their branch
• ATM / CDM Capture – Capture and securely transmit cheque images from image enabled ATMs and Cheque Deposit Machines.

eDesk's flexible architecture facilitates the deployment of business rules that are appropriate for each point of presentment and institution. The solutions also address the need for multi-institution capability from the outset, making it ideal for organizations processing transactions from multiple institutions.

eDesk Capture solutions allow merchants and corporations to capture cheque images at the convenience of their locations, and send them electronically to their financial institutions.

Features

• Compatible with wide range of industry standard scanners
• Automated amount recognition (CAR/LAR)
• Intelligent repair image system (IRIS™) for automated correction.
• Image Quality Assurance
• Duplicate item detection
• Intuitive user interface

Some eDesk Products

• eDesk Branch™- Teller
• eDesk Branch™-Back Counter
• eDesk Merchant™- Capture
• eDesk ATM/CDM

Network Tap

Network Tap

A network tap is an external monitoring device that mirrors the traffic that passes between two network nodes. A tap (test access point) is a hardware device inserted at a specific point in the network to monitor data.

A network tap usually has four ports. The first two ports connect to the two network nodes at either end of the wire that the tap is monitoring. The additional ports connect to the monitoring devices that receive the mirrored packet flows.

Network tap manufacturers build their products to be resilient and transparent so as to minimize or eliminate the effect they can have on production traffic. Taps designed to mirror the traffic without impeding the flow of the production traffic.

   

NETWORK TAP CIRCUITS

NETWORK TAP MACHINE

Tap manufacturers also strive to make the device resilient in the event of a hardware failure. Some taps will draw power from the network itself rather than rely on its own power supply. Many taps are engineered to allow traffic to continue passing through them even if the tap itself stops functioning.

File Transfer Access Method (FTAM)

File Transfer Access Method (FTAM), also known as File Transfer Access and Management or Electronic File Transfer Access Method (EFTAM), is an ISO standard (8571) that specifies methods of transfering files between networked computers. FTAM is based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and is similar to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Network File System (NFS).

FTAM can be broken down into functional categories known as service classes, as follows:

•        Transfer class, which facilitates the simple exchange of files.

•        Management class, which facilitates the creation, modification and deletion of files.

•        Transfer-and-management class, which facilitates directory navigation and manipulation.

•        Access class, which facilitates operations on file access structures

Phantom Dialing

Phantom Dialing

1) On a computer using a dial-up connection, phantom (meaning ghost) dialing is a term used to describe what occurs when a computer's auto-connect feature has been enabled and the computer attempts to dial out and establish an Internet connection on its own.

2) In mobile wireless communication, phantom dialing is a term used to describe what occurs when a user unintentionally presses a pre-programmed auto-dial number on their cellular telephone keypad and unintentionally initiates a phone call.

When emergency services receives a phone call, the operator must, by law, remain on the phone long enough to determine whether or not the call is an emergency. If the operator listens and determines that the call is probably a result of phantom dialing, they may terminate the call, but must dial back the caller and verbally confirm that there is no emergency. Phantom dialing can be prevented by using the cell phone's keyguard, a feature that locks the keypad, or by disabling the auto-dial feature.

64-bit processor

64-bit processor

A 64-bit processor is a microprocessor with a word size of 64 bits, a requirement for memory and data intensive applications such as computer-aided design (CAD) applications, database management systems, technical and scientific applications, and high-performance servers. 64-bit computer architecture provides higher performance than 32-bit architecture by handling twice as many bits of information in the same clock cycle.

The 64-bit processor is backwards compatible with older applications and operating systems; it detects whether an application or operating system is 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit and computes accordingly. This is essential for enterprise situations where purchasing new software is not feasible.

Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, and AMD currently develop or offer 64-bit processors.

Clock Cycle

In a computer, the clock cycle is the time between two adjacent pulses of the oscillator that sets the tempo of the computer processor. The number of these pulses per second is known as the clock speed, which is generally measured in Mhz (megahertz, or millions of pulses per second) and lately even in Ghz (gigahertz, or billions of pulses per second). The clock speed is determined by a quartz-crystal circuit, similar to those used in radio communications equipment.

Some processors execute only one instruction per clock cycle. More advanced processors, described as superscalar, can perform more than one instruction per clock cycle. The latter type of processor gets more work done at a given clock speed than the former type. Similarly, a computer with a 32-bit bus will work faster at a given clock speed than a computer with a 16-bit bus. For these reasons, there is no simple, universal relation among clock speed, "bus speed," and millions of instructions per second (MIPS).