Line Testing

• US 20120063499A1
• Filed: 09/11/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lantiq Deutschland GMBH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: ZOJER, BERNHARD, FERIANZ, Thomas, LINDER, Thomas, NOESSING, Gerhard
• Granted Patent: US 8,908,752 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/305 testing of physical copper line parameters, e.g. capacitance or resistance locating faults in cables G01R31/08

Abstract

Embodiments related to line testing are described and depicted. A digital subscriber line testing apparatus comprises a plurality of resistors and a switching device. The switching device comprises first and second signal inputs to couple the switching device to a signal generator output, and a plurality of wire terminals. The switching device is configured to switch the plurality of resistors into a first switching state and a second switching state.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

switching a plurality of resistors to a first state, in which a first output of a test signal generator is connected via a first resistor of the plurality of resistors to a first wire of a first digital subscriber line of a plurality of subscriber lines, and a second output of the test signal generator is connected via a second resistor of the plurality of resistors to a second wire of the first digital subscriber line;

providing in the first state one or more signals from the test signal generator to the first digital subscriber line;

measuring the resulting signals on the first digital subscriber line;

switching the plurality of resistors to a second state, in which the first output of the test signal generator is connected via a third resistor of the plurality of resistors to a first wire of a second digital subscriber line, and the second output of the test signal generator is connected via a fourth resistor of the plurality of resistors to a second wire of the second digital subscriber line; and

providing in the second state one or more signals from the test signal generator to the second digital subscriber line; and

measuring the resulting signals on the second digital subscriber line.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising,

after providing one or more signals in the first state, connecting the first wire of the first digital subscriber line to ground and connecting the second wire of the first digital subscriber line to ground;

and

disconnecting the first output of the test signal generator from the first wire of the first digital subscriber line and disconnecting the second output of the test signal generator from the second wire of the first digital subscriber line.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein in the first state the second subscriber line is connected to ground via the third and fourth resistors.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein during a transition from the first to the second state, the first wire of the first digital subscriber line is connected via the first resistor both to ground and to the first output of the test signal generator;

and wherein during the transition from the first to the second state, the second wire of the first digital subscriber line is connected via the second resistor both to ground and to the second output of the test signal generator; and

wherein during the transition from the first to the second state, the first wire of the second digital subscriber line is connected via the third resistor both to ground and to the first output of the test signal generator; and

wherein during the transition from the first to the second state, the second wire of the second digital subscriber line is connected via the fourth resistor both to ground and to the first output of the test signal generator.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the value of the first, second, third and fourth resistor is between 5 kOhm and 50 kOhm.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the switching is provided by controlling a matrix of switches, wherein a resistance value of the switches in on-state is significantly lower than the resistance value of the first, second, third and fourth resistor.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the first state, a first signal transmitted between the first output of the test signal generator and the first wire of the first digital subscriber line and a second signal transmitted between the second output of the test signal generator and the second wire of the first digital subscriber line, are substantially not low-pass filtered.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

controlling the test signal generator in the first state to output a signal inducing a wetting current in the first and second wires of the first digital subscriber line via the first and second resistors; and

controlling the test signal generator in the second state to output a signal inducing a wetting current in the first and second wires of the second digital subscriber line via the third and fourth resistors.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the test signal generator includes a first and second amplifier , wherein the first and second amplifier are controlled to provide a wetting current as well as metallic line test signals in the first and second states.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a voltage induced by the one or more signals in the first state at the first and second wires of the first digital subscriber line and determining metallic line testing parameters based on the measured voltages, and

measuring a voltage induced by the one or more signals in the second state at the first and second wires of the second digital subscriber line and determining one or more metallic line testing parameters based on the measured voltages.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing in the first state one or more signals, measuring the resulting signals on the first digital subscriber line and determining one or more metallic line testing parameters based on the measurement; and

providing in the second state one or more signals, measuring the resulting signals on the second digital subscriber line and determining one or more metallic line testing parameters based on the measurement.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more signals are provided in the first switching state during a digital data communication on at least the first digital subscriber line and the one or more signals are provided in the second switching state during a digital data communication on at least the second digital subscriber line.

13. A digital subscriber line testing apparatus comprising:

a plurality of resistors; and

a switching device comprising;

first and second signal inputs adapted to couple the switching device to a signal generator output;

a plurality of wire terminals;

wherein the switching device is configured to switch the plurality of resistors into a first switching state in which

the first signal input is connected via a first resistor of the plurality of resistors to a first wire terminal, the first wire terminal being associated with a first wire of a first digital subscriber link,

and in which

the second signal input is connected via a second resistor of the plurality of resistors to a second wire terminal, the second wire terminal being associated with a second wire of the first digital subscriber link;

and wherein the switching device is configured to switch the plurality of resistors into a second switching state in which

the first signal input is connected via a third resistor of the plurality of resistors to a third wire terminal, the third wire terminal being associated with a first wire of a second digital subscriber link;

and in which

the second signal input is connected via a fourth resistor of the plurality of resistors to a fourth wire terminal, the fourth wire terminal being associated with a second wire of the second digital subscriber link.

14. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a first and second amplifier , the first amplifier being connected to the first signal input of the switching device and the second amplifier being connected to the second signal input of the switching device.

15. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the switching device is configured to switch the plurality of resistors in such a way that, in the first switching state, the third wire terminal is connected via the third resistor to a ground connection and the fourth wire terminal is connected via the fourth resistor to a ground connection;

and, in the second switching state, the first wire terminal is connected via the first resistor to a ground connection and the second wire terminal is connected via the second resistor to a ground connection.

16. The line testing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the switching device is configured to switch the plurality of resistors in such a way, that in a transition from the first to the second switching state, the resistors are concurrently connected to both the respective signal input of the switching device and to ground via their respective switches.

17. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the line testing apparatus comprises a control circuit adapted to control the signal generator to selectively supply in a first operation mode metallic test signals to the first digital subscriber line, when the switching device is in the first switching state, and in a second operation mode to supply a wetting current to the first digital subscriber line, when the switching device is in the first switching state.

18. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the first, second, third and fourth resistor each comprise a resistance value between 5 kOhm and 50 kOhm.

19. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the switching device is a first switching device, the line testing apparatus further comprising a voltage sensing entity to sense a voltage on a digital subscriber line, a second switching device adapted to connect selected digital subscriber lines to the voltage sensing entity, and a controller adapted to control the first and second switching devices to connect the voltage sensing entity and the signal input to the same digital subscriber line.

20. The line testing apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a current sensing entity adapted to sense a current provided by the signal generators, wherein the controller is further configured to evaluate test results based on the sensed voltage and current.

21. The line testing apparatus according to claim 13, further being configured to supply the signals from the signal generators without low-pass filtering to a respectively connected digital subscriber line.

22. A digital subscriber line testing device comprising a plurality of resistance elements, each resistance element of the first plurality of resistance elements corresponding to a respective wire of a plurality of digital subscriber lines, a first plurality of switches electrically connected to the plurality of resistance elements, a second plurality of switches coupled to the plurality of resistance elements to selectively connect the plurality of resistance elements to ground;

and a line testing signal generator to provide line testing signals to the first plurality of switching elements.

23. The device according to claim 22, further comprising a current sensing entity adapted to measure the current provided by the signal generator;

a voltage sensing entity adapted to sense a voltage on a digital subscriber line; and

a third plurality of switches to electrically connect a line under test to the voltage sensing entity.