Ameritech Services, Inc.

William J Hanby

Arthur J Varga

Christopher F Simanonis

Bruce R Kuhn

John C Barton

Michael F Lathrope

A full duplex digital transmission, high-capacity digital, facility loop-back test, diagnostics and maintenance system having a digital transmission facility, transmission medium, and at least one microprocessor-based, full duplex facility loop-back diagnostics interface is located at predetermined end-user locations within the system. The system is capable of initiating a facility loop-back test and predetermined diagnostics for a predetermined digital transmission span and customer premises equipment at the location of the network interface for a specified end-user. The facility loop-back diagnostics interface has a performance monitoring mode of operation and a maintenance facility loop-back mode of operation. The diagnostics interface can be activated from a remote location and is compatible with and supports a particular protocol, specifically LAP-B protocol. The diagnostics interface has integral performance monitoring capabilities for nonintrusive multiple diagnostics testing and on-line monitoring of multiple predetermined performance characteristics for associated DS1 communications channels, or a specified DS1 communications channel, and customer premises equipment at the network interface. The microprocessor of the performance monitoring unit for the facility loop-back diagnostics interface is synchronized with an internal clock that is driven by conventional power. There is also a long-life battery for preventing historical performance data from being corrupted during a power loss. When the diagnostics interface is in the performance monitoring mode of operation, historical performance data pertaining to predetermined performance characteristics and criteria can be retrieved by utilizing the extended superframe, or superframe, embedded operations channel.

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Bloomingdale, IL, United States of America

William J Hanby