DSL line card echo canceler-based mechanism for locating telecommunication line fault
First Claim
1. A method of determining the location of a fault along a wireline, serving digital subscriber equipment at a location remote with respect to a central office facility, said location of said fault being determined relative to a DSL line card installed in said central office facility, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a line card electrical stimulus to said wireline from said central office facility;
(b) at said DSL line card, measuring a response of said wireline to said electrical stimulus applied in step (a), and generating an output from which the distance from said DSL line card to said fault is determined; and
(c) processing said output generated by said DSL line card in step (b) to determine in which portion of said wireline said fault is located; and
whereinstep (b) comprises establishing attributes of a digital echo canceler, andstep (c) comprises analyzing attributes of said digital echo canceler to derive a measure of distance from said DSL line card to said fault.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A digital subscriber loop line card-installed mechanism conducts parametric measurements on the wireline to which the line card is connected, and adjusts taps of an echo cancellation operator in accordance with the response of the wireline to an electrical stimulus imparted to the wireline. The echo canceler tap coefficients are then processed to determine the location of a fault, such as a short circuit, open-circuit and the like, on the wireline. Fault information measurement data is then reported to a supervisory control location, which dispatches the appropriate technician to resolve the cause of the problem.
55 Citations
31 Claims
-
1. A method of determining the location of a fault along a wireline, serving digital subscriber equipment at a location remote with respect to a central office facility, said location of said fault being determined relative to a DSL line card installed in said central office facility, said method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) applying a line card electrical stimulus to said wireline from said central office facility; (b) at said DSL line card, measuring a response of said wireline to said electrical stimulus applied in step (a), and generating an output from which the distance from said DSL line card to said fault is determined; and (c) processing said output generated by said DSL line card in step (b) to determine in which portion of said wireline said fault is located; and
whereinstep (b) comprises establishing attributes of a digital echo canceler, and step (c) comprises analyzing attributes of said digital echo canceler to derive a measure of distance from said DSL line card to said fault. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
7. A method of determining the location of a fault along a wireline, serving digital subscriber equipment at a location remote with respect to a central office facility, said location of said fault being determined relative to a line card installed in said central office facility, said method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) applying a line card electrical stimulus to said wireline from said central office facility; (b) at said line card, measuring a response of said wireline to said electrical stimulus applied in step (a), and generating an output from which the distance from said DSL line card to said fault may be determined; and c) processing said output generated by said DSL line card in step (b) to determine in which portion of said wireline said fault is located, and wherein step (a) comprises applying a wideband signal to said wireline from said DSL line card, and step (b) comprises generating coefficients of an echo cancellation operator in accordance with the measured reflection response of said wireline to said wideband signal, and generating an output representative of said coefficients of said echo cancellation operator. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
14. An arrangement for determining the location of a fault along a wireline serving digital subscriber equipment at a location remote with respect to a central office facility, said location of said fault being determined relative to a DSL line card installed in said central office facility, comprising:
-
an electrical stimulus generator within said central office facility; a line card measurement unit installed in said DSL line card, which is operative to measure a response of said wireline to said electrical stimulus, and to generate an output representative of in which portion of said wireline said fault is located; and a processing unit that is operative to process said output generated by said line card measurement unit to derive a measure of distance from said DSL line card to said fault; and
whereinsaid electrical stimulus generator is operative to apply a wideband signal to said wireline from said DSL line card, and said DSL line card measurement unit is operative to generate coefficients of an echo cancellation operator in accordance with the measured reflection response of said wireline to said wideband signal, and generate an output representative of said coefficients of said echo cancellation operator. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A method comprising:
-
(a) conducting electrical measurements upon a wireline from a digital subscriber loop (DSL) line card installed at a central office facility; (b) reporting results of said electrical measurements conducted in step (a) to a processing unit separate from said DSL line card; and (c) processing said results of said electrical measurements reported in step (b) at said processing unit to determine which portion of said wireline contains a fault; and
whereinstep (a) comprises stimulating said wireline to establish attributes of a digital echo canceler, step (b) comprises transmitting information representative of said attributes of said digital echo canceller to said processing unit, and step (c) comprises analyzing said attributes of said digital echo canceler to derive a measure of distance from said DSL line card to said fault; and
whereinsaid attributes of said digital echo canceler correspond to tap coefficients thereof. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
-
Specification