Telephonic communications – Diagnostic testing – malfunction indication – or electrical... – Testing of subscriber loop or terminal
Patent
1997-02-21
1998-12-22
Loomis, Paul
Telephonic communications
Diagnostic testing, malfunction indication, or electrical...
Testing of subscriber loop or terminal
379 22, 379 1, 379 2, 39518213, H04M 124, G06F 1100
Patent
active
058526501
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is the national phase of international application PCT/FI95/00444, filed Aug. 22, 1995 which designated the U.S.
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a method for recovering a faulty unit, comprising the steps of defining a predetermined number of recovery periods and the maximum number of times a recovery act will be carried out during a recovery period; taking a faulty unit out of operation, recovering the unit, subjecting the unit to tests for determining whether the unit remains faulty, or is in condition (meaning that the unit, when tested, seems not to be faulty), bringing the unit back into operation if tests that have been carried out indicate that it is in condition, and setting the recovered unit under monitoring for the time of a recovery period, as a monitored unit whereby the monitored unit is again re-recovered, if necessary, provided that the number of the recovery acts carried out during the recovery period does not exceed the maximum number predetermined for the period. The invention further relates to a recovery system for recovering a faulty unit, comprising: recovery means for testing the operation of the faulty unit and recovering the unit if the tests that have been carried out indicate that it is in condition, a recovery act counter for counting the number of recovery acts that have been carried out for the unit, whereby the recovery means are arranged to monitor the operation of the unit and re-recover the faulty unit if necessary, and to change the value of the recovery act counter, if the recovery act counter has not reached a predetermined threshold value.
The term recovery refers herein to testing the operation of the faulty unit whereafter the unit is brought back into operation if it is in condition according to the tests that have been carried out (i.e. is found as a result of testing not to be faulty at the time of testing). If the tests show that the unit cannot be recovered, it will be left in an inoperative state until maintenance personnel take over the situation.
BACKGROUND ART
This invention is closely connected with an automatic maintenance system, e.g. in a telephone exchange where a maintenance system continuously monitors the operation of units included in the system. If the maintenance system detects that one of the units is faulty, the maintenance system will immediately send an alarm to a recovery system. The recovery system will then take the faulty unit out of operation, by replacing it e.g. with another unit of a similar type if the faulty unit is doubled (i.e. a spare for it is already in place and awaiting being placed in operation instead of the faulty unit). In case the faulty unit is not doubled, the operation of the system (e.g. the telephone exchange) will be interrupted in this respect until the faulty unit is repaired or replaced with another unit.
Once the recovery system has taken the faulty unit out of operation, it tests the functions of the faulty unit by means of predetermined test procedures. If the tests show that the faulty unit is in condition, the recovery system will automatically bring the unit back into operation (at least in the case where the unit is not doubled). In another case, i.e. if the tests indicate that the unit is faulty, the unit will be taken out of operation permanently, until the maintenance staff take over the situation.
The weakness of the prior art recovery system described above is that it loads the system unnecessarily in cases where the fault occurring in the unit is of such a type that the recovery system cannot detect the fault on the basis of the tests carried out by it. In this case, the recovery system repeatedly indicates that the unit is in condition, and brings the unit back into operation after the tests. The maintenance system, in turn, re-detects a fault immediately once the recovered unit has been taken back into operation and sends a new alarm to the recovery system. The unit thus "bounces" back and forth in an uncontrolled manner, which causes an unnecessary load both to
REFERENCES:
patent: 5113426 (1992-05-01), Kinoshita et al.
patent: 5260945 (1993-11-01), Rodeheffer
patent: 5390231 (1995-02-01), Hung et al.
Electrical Communication, vol. 59, No. 1/2, 1985, (Harlow, Essex), M. Beyltjens et al.,"System 12--Switching System Maintenance", pp. 80-88.
Hirvonen Pekka
Hyyrynen Altti
Sarpola Jussi
Loomis Paul
Nokia Telecommunications Oy
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