Maintenance procedures

Written on 4:13 PM by ooe

Cost effective and timely maintenance is an important component of any telecommunications product. This can be difficult to achieve in the LLU situation as responsibility for maintenance is divided between two or more operators. Clear demarcation points between areas of responsibility are crucial to effective transparent processes and to ensure a good customer experience. In the UK the NICC DSL Task Group addressed this concern early in the development of LLU. The unbundled loop is defined between two demarcation points located at the network termination point in the customer premises (usually a telephone socket) and at the handover distribution frame in the LLU operator room or distant location. A clear and unequivocal specification of the performance of the unbundled pair was written and agreed by the DSL task group. It was expressed in terms that could be measured by either BT or the LLU operator and took account of the skills and tools available to the workforce. The specification provided a base from which DSL Task Group developed a code of practice for maintenance activities that allowed each operator to understand their responsibilities under fault conditions.