Northern Telecom Limited

Northern Electric Company Limited

Stanley D Rosenbaum

Reinhard W Rosch

Calvin Plett

Brian A Sutherland

Zdenek J Holy

Paul Fong-Yan Hung

Francois Y Tremblay

Joseph F Darveau

Martin Ridgway Handforth

Donald S McGinn

Stanley A Gores

Douglas Roy Colton

Magdy H Keriakos

A telephone line interface circuit comprises a controlled voltage generator for selectively generating a ringing voltage waveform for a telephone line or a supply voltage for a drive circuit for the telephone line, and a switching circuit interconnecting an output of the controlled voltage generator, the drive circuit, and the telephone line accordingly. In order to avoid creating a potentially hazardous condition on the telephone line, an interlock is provided between enabling of the controlled voltage generator and switching of the switching circuit, and software and hardware monitoring functions monitor operation of the control software and the controlled voltage generator and disable the controlled voltage generator in response to fault conditions or unusual behavior.

Hazard prevention for telephone line interface circuits

An active impedance line interface circuit for connection to a two-wire telephone line comprises tip and ring unity gain d.c. amplifiers having outputs d.c. coupled via feed resistors to tip and ring wires respectively. Loop current and common mode current conducted via the feed resistors are monitored individually and converted to digital signals supplied to a digital control circuit, which can be programmed to provide desired operating conditions. Digital control signals produced by the control circuit are converted into analog signals and used to control currents passed by current sources through resistors at inputs of the d.c. amplifiers, thereby determining voltages at the d.c. amplifier inputs and hence on the tip and ring wires. These d.c. voltages are smoothed by capacitors used for coupling an a.c. signal to the d.c. amplifiers. The voltage control facilitates reverse battery operations without a relay, protection against faults, and adaptive adjustment of the line interface circuit to the line in dependence upon the monitored currents.

Telephone line interface circuit with voltage control

A two-wire telephone line is supplied with d.c. feed from a drive circuit including two amplifiers via which a transmission signal is supplied to the line. Output potentials of the two amplifiers determine a loop current on the line, which is monitored and used to control a supply voltage for the drive circuit, the amplifier output potentials being offset from the supply potentials by headroom voltages to accommodate the transmission signal. The resulting current limiting voltage control acts iteratively to converge the supply voltage and a target voltage which is inversely dependent on an amount by which the loop current exceeds a predetermined value, the rate of convergence being fast for high loop currents for rapid response and slow for small differences to provide stable operation. The headroom voltages can be increased to nearly the supply voltage to reverse the polarity of the d.c. feed while maintaining current limiting.

Method of providing d.c. feed to a telephone line

An automatic protection and recovery method for a telephone line interface circuit is described. The interface circuit monitors current on the line, and in the event of a fault producing an excessive current a protection relay interrupts a connection of the interface circuit to the line, and the interface circuit monitors common mode voltage on the line. The interface circuit is reconnected in response to the monitored voltage being below a relatively high threshold. If a second interruption results, the interface circuit is then reconnected in response to the monitored voltage being below a lower threshold. If a further interruption results, the interface circuit enters a ground fault recovery process. The method facilitates protection and rapid recovery from arbitrary fault conditions on the telephone line.

Protection and recovery of telephone line interface circuits

A two-wire telephone line interface circuit comprises a driver circuit for supplying direct current on the line, a controlled voltage generator, a sensing circuit for monitoring the line current, a control circuit for controlling an output voltage of the voltage generator, and a switching circuit. The control circuit controls the switching circuit to supply, as a supply voltage for the driver circuit, a battery voltage in an on-hook state of the line or the controlled output voltage of the voltage generator in an off-hook state of the line, this output voltage being controlled to provide off-hook current limiting. The control circuit also controls the switching circuit to selectively supply the controlled output voltage of the voltage generator as a signalling voltage to at least one wire of the line for high voltage signalling, e.g. ringing, on the line. Desirable forms of the switching circuit are described.

Telephone line interface circuit with voltage switching

Wideband telephone line interface circuit

High voltage converters are disclosed. The converters include at least a pair of transistor switches provided on the secondary windings of a flyback transformer. The transistor switches are controlled to be conducting, variably conducting and non-conducting so that the power flow between the transformer and a load can be controlled. Various configurations of a connection switch network are also disclosed.

High voltage converter

A telephone subscriber line is connected to a SLIC via contacts of an isolation relay. Line voltage on the line side of the relay contacts, and line current on the SLIC side of the relay contacts, are detected during opposite polarity half-cycles of an a.c. fault on the line, and the contacts are opened to protect the SLIC if the voltage and/or current is excessive. The interruption of current causes the line voltage to rise to maintain the protection for the duration of a fault.

Protection arrangement for a telephone subscriber line interface circuit

A typical active impedance line feed circuit includes tip and ring amplifiers being controlled in response to signals at tip and ring voltage taps by control circuit to exhibit a.c. impedance and d.c. resistance characteristics for the purpose of supplying energizing current via tip and ring terminals for tip and ring leads of a two wire communication line. In one example of the active impedance line feed circuit, improved operational tolerance of longitudinal interference and of a ground fault condition is provided by a d.c. amplifier being responsive to voltages at the tip and ring terminals. The circuit is characterized in that an inverting input of the d.c. amplifier is connected via resistors to the tip and ring voltage taps. In operation, the d.c. amplifier provides complete cancellation of all common mode signals at the tip and ring voltage taps and a compensation circuit is also connected between the tip and ring voltage taps and is responsive to the output of the control circuit for compensating for non-symmetrical current, the non-symmetrical current being introduced between the tip and ring voltage taps by normal operation of the control circuit, thereby, a threshold of ground fault current limiting action is substantially constant under all operating conditions. The d.c. amplifier is conveniently manufacturable in integrated circuit technology along with the remaining amplifiers in the active impedance line feed circuit.

Active impedance line feed circuit

An amplifier with double rail output being a switchable to single rail output is provided by power pumping circuitry which is controllable by an error detector to deliver modulated power pulses from a d.c. power source to on-following current steering circuits for coupling to either or both of first and second output terminals. In one embodiment the amplifier is envisaged in an integrated circuit form wherein the current steering circuits are provided by switched voltage multipliers of novel structure so that voltage stress of some capacitive elements is reduced, thereby reducing the area these elements would otherwise occupy in the integrated circuit.

Amplifier with double rail output

Voltage multiplier and voltage multipliers in an amplifier with double

A typical active impedance line feed circuit includes tip and ring amplifiers being controlled to exhibit a.c. impedance and d.c. resistance characteristics for the purpose of supplying energizing current for tip and ring leads of a two wire communication line. Protection from excessive heat generation in an instant of a ground fault on the communication line is provided by a d.c. amplifier having an input resistively connected to the tip and ring leads and an output connected via a resistive unidirectional current path to an input of the ring amplifier. A ground fault occurrence causes the resistive unidirectional current path to become conductive and reduces the current flow in the ring lead by causing the output voltage of the ring amplifier to vary in the direction of ground potential. The output of the d.c. amplifier is also useful for improving circuit tolerance of longitudinal interference.

Active impedance line feed circuit with improved ground fault protection

A supervision filtering function is included in a line circuit wherein tip and ring voltage amplifiers supply energizing current to a two wire communication line via tip and ring primary windings of a transformer and tip and ring feed resistors. The tip and ring amplifiers operate in response to a control circuit which is differentially responsive to resistively coupled voltage signals corresponding to current flows in the tip and ring feed resistors, and which is also differentially responsive to a.c. signals from a secondary winding of the transformer being coupled via a resistive capacitive network to an amplifier in the control circuit. An output of the amplifier provides a supervisory signal. A feed switch is operable by a ring signal to conduct ringing currents to the communication line via the tip and ring feed resistors to the exclusion of the tip and ring primary windings. A control switch is also operated at the same time by the ring signal to open circuit the secondary winding of the transformer such that a resistive capacitive network causes the amplifier to function as a low pass filter to reduce a.c. signal components in the supervisory signal.

Active impedance transformer assisted line feed circuit with supervision

Normal operating range of an active impedance line feed circuit is extended to at least that of a prior art passive resistance line feed circuit. The active impedance line feed circuit includes tip and ring feed resistors in series with outputs of tip and ring amplifiers for coupling a.c. signals to a two wire communication line with an effective source impedance as defined by an a.c. feedback network in response to differential currents in the communication line. Effective output direct current incremental resistances of the tip and ring amplifiers are controlled by a d.c. control circuit connected across the tip amplifier. In an instant of an OFF HOOK communication line of less than a certain resistance a predetermined constant direct current is supplied by controlling the output direct current incremental resistances to be high. In an instant of the communication line resistance being too high, as in the case of a longer line, the output direct current incremental resistances of the tip and ring amplifiers are controlled to approach a few ohms such that at least a minimum energizing direct current is suppliable from the active impedance line feed circuit over an extended range of communication line.

Communication lines for example telephone loop circuits are typically terminated with line feed circuits such that d.c. and a.c. terminating impedances are dissimilar. The line feed circuit includes tip and ring feed resistors of similar ohmic values for supplying the communication line with energizing current. An a.c. terminating impedance of greater ohmic value than the d.c. terminating resistance is provided by a negative impedance circuit which is a.c. coupled across the communication line, in shunt with the feed resistors.

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Ottawa, Canada

Stanley D Rosenbaum