Troubleshooting Continuity Issues


Before we begin troubleshooting, we should look at a standard hardware design for a dedicated circuit and see who is responsible for what section of the circuit.

Figure 10-1 shows the standard layout for a dedicated long-distance circuit, regardless of who ordered the local loop. The only variations you may have from this would be the location of your CSU (it may be inside your multiplexer). Also, the responsibility of the circuit from your local carrier may include an extended demarc point or jack in your phone room if the local carrier provided the inside wiring and not just the network interface unit (NIU).

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Figure 10-1: This diagram of a dedicated circuit shows areas of responsibility.

You’re responsible for all issues within your phone system through all the hardware and wiring to the NIU dropped by your local carrier. The local carrier is responsible from the NIU to the location where the local carrier hands off the circuit to your long-distance carrier at the Carrier Facilities Assignment (CFA) point, and your long-distance carrier is responsible for everything beyond that point. If you have any questions about the NIU, CFA, or POP listed in the diagram, check out your dedicated circuit options in Chapter 8 and look for hardware details (such as info on CSUs and multiplexers) in Chapter 4.

Any continuity issue or problem where you are taking errors on a circuit must be isolated down to the piece of hardware or carrier responsible for the issue. The standard procedure is to have your carrier test to the farthest point on the circuit, and then slowly step back until a point is reached where there is continuity without errors.

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Asking for installation trouble resolution timelines

 Tip  Trouble is handled with a bit more urgency during an installation. It may be handled more efficiently because the installation techs have more time to focus on pushing the repair than the customer care techs (who are handling multiple trouble tickets and are overloaded with escalations) usually have. If there is an issue with the local loop, you can expect some action to be taken in about three hours. If it is something within your carrier’s network, they may be able to resolve it in 60 to 90 minutes.

Always ask for an approximate repair time frame for any issue you have during a dedicated circuit installation, because you may have disconnected your old carrier from your hardware and have no phone service until the issue is fixed. If the problem is going to take more than a few hours to resolve, you will have to decide whether you need to take your phone service back to your old carrier in the meantime. This is the only difference when troubleshooting a new circuit versus troubleshooting an active circuit. Skip to Chapter 13 for basics on troubleshooting dedicated outbound call issues.

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Telecom for Dummies
Telecom For Dummies
ISBN: 047177085X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 184

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