Importance

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Abstract

Telephone line service type identification is provided to a telephone technician in the field by the placement of one or more tuned circuit(s) across the telephone line. In one embodiment, an inexpensive tuned circuit such as a ceramic resonator forms a telecom service resonator ID device which is placed across a telephone line, either at the central office or at the customer premises. Injection of a test current at a predetermined frequency, and a suitable amplitude of the same indicates to the technician aspects of telecom service to that particular telephone line (e.g., the existence of POTS, ISDN, and/or xDSL) and or use of the telephone line by a home network such as HPNA. In another embodiment, a telecom service transponder ID device is formed to provide line service identification to an interrogating line technician. The telecom service transponder ID device is activated when the test signal including an appropriate frequency is present to cause excitation in the telecom service transponder ID device. The resonator and transponder devices preferably have very high impedances at all frequencies except at the desired resonant frequency, and thus avoids violation of telephone service standards. The resonator or transponder ID devices may be placed anywhere along the telephone line, but preferably at the customer premises, or in installed equipment utilizing the telephone line. More than one resonation frequency may be implemented with parallel tuned circuits to indicate additional features of service on the telephone line (e.g., the number of services, the existence of a data service, etc.). The frequencies of resonance of the tuned circuits are preferably chosen to exist between the spectrum utilized by the various operating services.

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First Claim