Apparatus and method for detecting a bridged tap and/or an end-of-line of a conventional telephone line using delay-line time-domain reflectometry

Abstract

A delay-line time-domain reflectometer includes a return detector configured to process a discharge pulse produced by discharge of a line capacitor, formed by the physical relationship of a pair of conductive wires forming a telephone line, from a predetermined DC voltage. The return detector includes a number of neural networks configured to process the discharge pulse under the control of a controller. The neural networks enable the controller to characterize the loop configuration of the telephone line, where the loop configuration includes the length of the telephone line, the position of any bridged tap connected to the telephone line and/or the length of any bridged tap connected to the telephone line.