Common control failure alarm apparatus

Abstract

A local alarm circuit and a remote alarm circuit carry out a plurality of failure monitoring and alarming functions for each of a plurality of digital groups (digroups), of time division multiplexed channels that are time multiplexed together on to a common bus. The local and remote alarm circuits utilize common control techniques and are of a similar circuit configuration. Each alarm circuit comprises an alarm timing store having a shared recirculating memory, and an alarm status store with a shared recirculating memory. The timing store serves to integrate and time failure indications for each of the digroups, and the status store maintains a continuing real time record of the alarm status for each digroup. When the timing store counts out a predetermined failure duration for a given digroup, the alarm status record for the digroup is changed and an alarm signal is generated. Once an alarm is registered for a digroup, the timing store then serves to integrate and time failure-free indications for the digroup. That is, it counts out a predetermined failure-free duration (after appropriate maintenance action has been taken) before it terminates the alarm state record in the status store and the alarm signal.