I need to get a better understanding of the definition of early_media.

This is what is define in the Avaya documentation:

early_media Outbound calls only Early media refers to media that is exchanged before a
particular session is accepted by the called user.
For example, for outbound calls the color ring tone will be
detected as early_media by call classification.


I'm not sure what this means. Any help here would help me out.

a reference to the document you are copying text from is always appreciated because it provides more context to bound an answer within.

early media is what you hear before the far end answers the call. Back in the day, you would sometimes get announcements.... "doo dee diit! The number you are calling has been changed. The new number is XXX-YYY-ZZZZ" that is one example of something that is provided without the call entering an answered state.

In some countries alternative ring tones are allowed (usually from my experience distorted music I don't like), using early media is necessary for the calling party to hear this media. I have heard this referred to as 'color ring tone'

early media is also a term used to indicate that you want as brief of a cut through delay as possible (interval between when the call is answered and there is a talk path between calling and answering parties) and the application is willing to incur the expense doing the signaling exchanges to setup the RTP channels and receiving RTP traffic before the call is answered. While this is minor resource consumption on a single call, across a carrier's network it can add up to something significant if every call is doing it.