Telephonic communications – Diagnostic testing – malfunction indication – or electrical... – Of centralized switching system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-30
2001-12-11
Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Diagnostic testing, malfunction indication, or electrical...
Of centralized switching system
C379S001040, C379S015050, C348S192000, C370S346000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06330305
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains to a system and method for locating faulty elements in a telephonic distribution system.
Telephonic distribution systems continue to expand at a rapid rate and increasingly the designs of such systems are hierarchical with many subtended branches. Such systems are used for transmitting combined video and telephone signals via a fiber/coaxial cable and are connected to system elements such as launch amplifiers, extender amplifiers, bridge amplifiers, tap amplifiers and customer premise equipment. Such a system is disclosed in “Combining Apples and Oranges, The Fiber/Coax Network: parts 1-4, Telephony, Jan. 24, 1994, Feb. 7, 1994, Feb. 21, 1994 and Mar., 7, 1994, “Hybrid Fiber-Coax Access Networks” Bell Labs Technical Journal Volume 1, Number 1, Summer 1996 and “Generic Requirements and Objectives for Fiber in the Loop Systems” Bell Communications Research Inc., Technical Reference TRNWT-000909, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.
Existing tests and procedures for locating faults in a telephonic distribution system are run at off-hours, typically between 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., when call activity in the telephonic distribution system is at a minimum. In addition to the disadvantage of running the test at off-hours, certain tests, e.g. a channel and drop test, require that the line connection at customer premise equipment (CPE) be disconnected resulting in the disconnection of service to the customer while the test is being conducted.
A CPE is equipment located at the end customer. The channel and drop test only determines whether a fault exists in the CPE or in the telephone network upstream of the CPE. To locate a fault using the channel and drop test, an analysis is performed beginning at the customer premise equipment (CPE) and working back toward a central office to find the location of the fault. This results in potential lost revenue and other problems associated with discontinuity of service to the customer. Accordingly, the channel and drop test is not suited for repetitive operation during business hours.
Furthermore, tests such as the channel and drop test provide less meaningful information for the locations of faults when used on telephonic distribution systems having a hierarchical design with numerous subtending branches because the identity of an upstream element causing the fault is not easily discerned in such telephonic distribution systems. Upstream elements are upstream of the CPE and downstream from the central office.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A system and method is provided in accordance with the invention for determining the location of a faulty element in a telephonic distribution system having a plurality of endpoint elements. The invention provides an endpoint verification code for each of the plurality of endpoint elements, a memory verification code corresponding to the endpoint verification code for a selected one of the plurality of endpoint elements, polling of a selected endpoint element for the endpoint verification code, and comparing the endpoint verification code from the selected endpoint element with the corresponding memory verification code for the selected endpoint element.
Another aspect of the invention provides for analyzing the indication of endpoint element performance to determine which of the endpoint elements are faulty and for automatically creating an endpoint map of the system having individual representations of the plurality of endpoint elements together with a fault indication at the individual representation of each endpoint element determined to be faulty.
In another aspect of the invention, a plurality of endpoint elements are interconnected through different ones of a plurality of upstream elements and performance information about the endpoint elements obtained through the plurality of upstream elements is automatically analyzed for indications that any of the upstream elements are faulty. A faulty endpoint indication is automatically analyzed to determine whether any of the upstream elements are faulty.
In yet another aspect of the invention a report is generated identifying faulty elements and corresponding location coordinates.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5329308 (1994-07-01), Binns et al.
patent: 5475732 (1995-12-01), Pester, III
patent: 5699402 (1997-12-01), Bauer et al.
patent: 5774992 (1999-02-01), Caporizzo
patent: 5835580 (1998-11-01), Fraser
patent: 5854824 (1998-12-01), Bengal et al.
patent: 5886989 (1999-03-01), Evans et al.
patent: 5892535 (1999-04-01), Allen et al.
patent: 5946373 (1999-08-01), Harris
Jones James B.
Knerr Barry F.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Tieu Binh
LandOfFree
System and method for locating faulty elements in a... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method for locating faulty elements in a..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for locating faulty elements in a... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2589918