ActionTec V2000H User manual

Implementation of Physical
layer of a network via
practical analysis
Capstone Project MINT 709
Parul Khara

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Abstract
Telecommunications is world’s largest industry, bringing people together. Its establishment
took a long time and it is in continuous improvement till date. The telecommunication state of
art infrastructure in present day is the combined result of hard work that the network
engineers and field technicians put in over the past century. I can guarantee that this
infrastructure will be far more advanced in the future than we can imagine. The network is
growing with each passing day and it is all attributed to the people who are building it. This is
the main reason which inspired me to take this course in the first place. The fascination for
networking started as a kid when I wondered how my computer was connected to a world wide
web. Data being sent and received from one computer to other fascinated me.
Looking at the vast network of cables and wires laid underground and aerially, it is not hard to
estimate the effort which goes into the repair and maintenance of these things. If we have to
remain one day without internet at our homes due to a faulty wire it is a disaster. And it would
mean a financial loss for any enterprise running today if their networks went down. As such the
toughest part is the maintenance of the networks. For the physical medium of a network, this
job is done by Field Technicians who are working at the physical end ; installing and repairing all
the telecom connections.
This project majorly revolves around the implementation of physical layer of a network. The
project stems from the fact that as internetworking graduates, one can have a future job
prospect as a field technician but there are critical aspects of the nature of this job, which need
to be studied and practically analyzed. I have given my best efforts to discuss the various
aspects of the work a field technician might be involved with and the various tools used by
them.
Submitted to:
Dr. Mike MacGregor
Director MINT Program &
Professor Department of Computing Science
Submitted by:
Parul Khara

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Acknowledgement
This project is incomplete without expressing my gratitude to the people whose supervision
and guidance made it possible. First and foremost I would like to thank Mr. Mike Agouros(CEO,
Dialtone MD Inc) my mentor in personal as well as professional life. He has greatly influenced
me and his constant feedback & guidance has made this project worthwhile the effort. My
entire training for the install and repair is attributed to Mr. Jim Brouwer who taught me the
practical usage of most of the tools discussed in this project. Mrs. Karen Ehrenholz( IT
Administrator, Dialtone MD Inc) is my friend at the workplace who has always encouraged me
and her positive vibes have kept me going.
On the academic front, I would like to thank Mr. Shahnawaz Mir for always answering my
queries and doubts whenever I have had any. In fact my journey in this course started by
learning the basics of networking taught by him. I am also grateful to Prof. Mike McGregor who
allowed me to go ahead with this project in the first place. Had he not believed in my rationale I
would not have been where I am today. Professor McGregor is an inspiration to not only me
but also all the students of the internetworking program who look up to him.
On a personal note, I would like to thank my wife Sumedha for always being there for me, for
critically accessing my work and providing good suggestions to improve upon what I had
already done. Her constant encouragement has not only helped me in this project but during
the entire course of my degree.

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Table of Contents
1. Install and Repair of Telecom Lines.................................................................................................................7
1.1 Transmission Lines .....................................................................................................................................9
1.1.1 Powering the Telephone System......................................................................................................10
1.2 Cable Characteristics................................................................................................................................12
1.2.1 Type of Cables ...................................................................................................................................14
1.2.2 Color Codes........................................................................................................................................14
1.3 PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)...........................................................................................16
1.3.1 Connections at CO.............................................................................................................................17
1.3.2 CO Tools.............................................................................................................................................20
1.3.2 Connector Terminations ...................................................................................................................21
1.3.3 BIX Installation ..................................................................................................................................23
1.4 Serving Area Concept Box/JWI/XCONN ..................................................................................................25
1.4.1 SAC to House components................................................................................................................29
1.4.2 Binding post blocks ...........................................................................................................................30
1.4.3 Tools Used .........................................................................................................................................34
1.5 Terminal Types .........................................................................................................................................35
1.5.1 Binding Post Counting.......................................................................................................................36
1.5.2 Clear Capping.....................................................................................................................................37
1.5.4 Protectors, Bonding and Grounding.................................................................................................38
1.5.5 Terminal Wiring.................................................................................................................................39
1.6 NID (Network Interface Device)...............................................................................................................40
1.6.1 NID Install and Upgrade....................................................................................................................42
1.7 Drops ........................................................................................................................................................46
1.7.1 Attaching Drops.................................................................................................................................49
1.7.2 Aerial drop routing............................................................................................................................52
1.7.3 Attaching Underground Drops..........................................................................................................54
1.7.4 Repair a Buried Drop.........................................................................................................................56
1.8 POTS Splitter.............................................................................................................................................57
1.9 Alarm Jacks...............................................................................................................................................58
1.10 Reviewing Different types of Order.......................................................................................................62
2. ADSL................................................................................................................................................................65
2.1 DMT (Discrete Multi-tone Modulation) ..................................................................................................68
2.1.1 DMT2 .................................................................................................................................................68

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2.1.2 ADSL 2+..............................................................................................................................................68
2.1.3 VDSL2.................................................................................................................................................69
2.2 Inside of an RDAC (Remote Data Acquisition and Control) ....................................................................70
2.3 Inside of SAC.............................................................................................................................................71
2.4 Factors affecting ADSL .............................................................................................................................72
2.7 Installation................................................................................................................................................74
2.7.1 Loop Bonding.....................................................................................................................................75
2.7.2 Premise Equipment...........................................................................................................................77
2.7.3 Testing a Bonded connection ...........................................................................................................78
3. TELUS OPTIK TV ..............................................................................................................................................80
3.1 TELUS Optik TV Service ............................................................................................................................80
3.1.1 Optik TV STB......................................................................................................................................81
3.1.2 Optik TV Features..............................................................................................................................81
3.2 Wireless settings ......................................................................................................................................82
3.3 Configuring the Actiontec Wireless Network Extender ..........................................................................83
3.3.1 Connecting the WCB3000N...............................................................................................................83
3.3.2 Telus Actiontec V1000H/V2000H/T1200/T2200 GUI:......................................................................85
3.3.3 Logging into the WCB3000N .............................................................................................................85
3.3.4 Changing the default Username and Password...............................................................................85
3.3.5 Configuring the WCB3000N ..............................................................................................................86
3.4 Wireless STB Setup...................................................................................................................................87
3.5 Coax and IPTV...........................................................................................................................................88
3.6 BLAST Test (Broadband Loop and Service Testing).................................................................................90
Example of Blast Test done........................................................................................................................92
3.7 Technician Responsibilities......................................................................................................................95
4. Gigabit Passive Optical Network ...................................................................................................................99
4.1 CO –OLT (Optical Line Termination) .....................................................................................................100
4.1.1 Drop Cables .....................................................................................................................................102
4.1.2 ONT (Optical Network Terminator)................................................................................................102
4.1.3 ALU ONT ..........................................................................................................................................103
4.2 Three Types of Fiber Drop......................................................................................................................103
4.3 Static IP over GPON................................................................................................................................109
4.4 COAX Clarifier.........................................................................................................................................111
5. Telus Metaframe..........................................................................................................................................114

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5.1 Field Link.................................................................................................................................................114
5.2 Fits and E.Fulfillment..............................................................................................................................120
5.3 DSL Expresse...........................................................................................................................................124
5.4 Inssider Office.........................................................................................................................................128

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1. Install and Repair of Telecom Lines
Telecommunication is the most developing juncture from past 200 years, from drum & smoke signals to
satellite & internet networks. This boom of technology has gone through many phases such as electrical
telegraph, telephone, radio & television, video telephony to mobile (cellular) and computer networks.
In this section, we will cover install and repair for putting up a telephone connection from Central office to a
residential or business place. We will cover its network setup describing each component in detail.
In order to understand what a field technician do, we will go through some basic fundamental principles and
methods.
Sound Waves
When you speak, air is forced from your lungs through your vocal cords, and out your mouth. The
result, of course, is your voice.
Much the same way that a pebble, when thrown into a pool, will create waves of water, the
vibration of your vocal cords produces waves of air. It is these sound waves that make your voice
audible.
The sound waves have various “frequencies” and “amplitudes” that are the result of your
vocalization.
Frequency and Amplitude
Frequency and amplitude are two characteristics that you use to describe a signal. When you listen
to music, or carry on a conversation, you are experiencing both frequency and amplitude, although
those terms are not usually the first ones that come to mind.
People generally interpret frequency as higher or lower tones or pitches. A higher frequency sound,
such as a small dog’s yip, has a “higher” pitch than a lower frequency, such as a big dog’s growl.
We perceive amplitude in terms of how loud or soft a sound is. An ocean liner’s horn has a large
amplitude, where as a whisper is a much lower amplitude.
When you speak, sound waves travel outwards, and will leave an impact on the ear of your listener,
causing their eardrum to vibrate with the same frequencies and amplitudes that were spoken. As a
result of this vibration, your listener will hear what you have said.
As the frequencies and amplitudes of your voice are continuously variable, your voice is considered
to be an analog signal. This fact will become important later on as we discuss how your analog voice
is carried in the telephone circuit.
Frequency is measured in terms of cycles per second. That is, the number of times per second that
the signal will complete a transition from its lowest to highest amplitude and back again. This is
known as oscillation.
Figure 1: Oscillation

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The unit of measure for a cycle is 1 Hertz (Hz), and is measured relative to 1 second. A signal that
oscillates 10 times per second would have a frequency of 10 Hz. A signal that oscillates 60 times per
second would have a frequency of 60 Hz.
When speaking of high frequencies, it becomes cumbersome to use the unit Hz. Instead, multiples
of the following units are used -
1 Kilohertz (kHz) 1,000 Hz
1 Megahertz(MHz) 1,000,000 Hz
1 Gigahertz(GHz) 1,000,000,000 Hz
For example, 1,500 Hz is the same as 1.5 kHz.
Amplitude is typically measured with the relative unit called the decibel (dB). It is a relative unit
because it does not indicate the exact amplitude of a signal. Rather, it indicates how much louder or
softer (stronger or weaker) one signal is compared to another.
Voice Frequency
Most of the energy in your voice is centered around 400 Hz. The frequencies of the vowel sounds
are contained in the range of 100 to 2,500 Hz (2.5 kHz), while the consonants are in the range of 2
kHz to 3.4 kHz.
Depending upon their age, a human is able to detect sounds in the frequency range of about 10 Hz
to 20 kHz. However, the frequency range required for voice communications is quite narrow;
between 300 Hz and 3 kHz is all that is necessary for conversations to be intelligible.
Sound Wave to Electrical Energy
In order to deliver your voice across the telephone circuit, the sound waves must be converted from “air
energy” to electrical energy. This is done with “transducers” in the handset of the telephone.
A transducer is simply a device that converts one form of energy to another.
The transducer, or microphone, in the mouth-piece of your telephone handset vibrates (much like a listener’s
eardrum) in response to the frequencies and amplitudes of your voice and creates corresponding “waves” of
AC (Alternating Current) electrical energy.
These electrical signals are carried across the telephone network to the receiver’s telephone, where the
transducer in the ear-piece (speaker) of their handset converts them back, from an AC signal, to sound
waves.
Delivering electrical signal from your telephone to the destination requires two things to happen –
The destination for the call.
The path to take to reach the destination.
In order to indicate to the telephone system what telephone you want to be connected to, you must send
the destination phone number to the telephone system Central Office (CO). In other words, you need to dial
the phone number.
When you dial the phone number, you are “signaling” the destination address to the telephone system. This
signal is communicated to the CO by a series of known frequencies, or tones, that represent the individual
numbers and symbols on a telephone keypad. When you touch the keys on the keypad, their corresponding
tones are generated and sent to the CO. This is commonly known as touch-tone dialing.
DTMF Dialing
The formal designation for touch-tone is DTMF, which stands for Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency.
With DTMF, each number or symbol on the telephone keypad is represented by a specific
combination of two tones.
Whenever you press a key on your telephone keypad, the combination of tones is chosen from a set
of fixed frequencies. This combination of two, or dual, tones from multiple frequencies is where the
DTMF name is derived.
For example, when you press the “5” key, the frequencies 770 Hz and 1336 Hz are sent to the CO.
This process is repeated for each key you press.

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Figure 2: DTMF dialing
1.1 Transmission Lines
The signal between your telephone, the Central Office, and the person you are calling, flows along a
transmission line of some kind. A transmission line is any medium over which the signal can flow. This could
be copper wiring, such as twisted Pair (TP) or Coaxial cable (COAX). It could be fiber optic cable or even
wireless. We will focus mainly on copper wiring and you will generally be dealing with one or more pairs of
copper wire. COAX is used by CATV companies to transmit their service to their customers. 2 conductor
makes 1 pair. 1 pair of wire is the transmission pathway for your dial tone service.
Types of Cable
There are different types of cables. In general, all cables serve to complete a circuit so that a signal may flow.
However, each cable type has certain characteristics that make it more or less suitable for a given application.
Twisted Pair (TP) cable is widely used in data and telecommunication installations.
PRO –TP is light-weight, easy to work with, relatively inexpensive and is capable of
supporting high-capacity data networks over relatively short distances.
CON –TP is quite susceptibility to interference (although the twists in the cable help
alleviate this to some extent) and external monitoring, making it unsuitable in high security
environments.
Signal from Central Office
We require 2 things to happen before the signal can deliver to the Central Office.
The device at the CO that receives the tones is call the Switch, Line Equipment (LE), or Office
Equipment (OE). The term changes by area.
The common types of switches you would find in a CO would be DMS 100 developed by
Nortel, 5ESS developed by Lucent and The GTD-5 EAX developed by GTE Automatic Electric
Laboratories.
Nortel DMS 100
DMS-100 Switch (Digital Multiplex System).
It was designed during the 1970's and released in 1979 and can control 100,000 telephone
lines.
To provide local service and connections to the PSTN public telephone network.
It is designed to deliver services over subscribers' telephone lines and trunks.

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Figure 3: Switches in CO, Nortel DMS 100 (Left) & Lucent 5ESS (Right)
Lucent 5ESS
5ESS (Class five Electronic Switching System).
First appeared in 1982 and was developed by Western Electric and now sold by Western
Electric's descendant, Alcatel-Lucent.
Approximately half of all US telephone exchanges are serviced by 5ESS switches.
1.1.1 Powering the Telephone System
To enable the functioning of your telephone, power must be supplied by the CO (which also supplies the dial-
tone that indicates that the system is available). We have already discussed the fact that your voice is
converted into an AC electrical signal, which is the carrier of your voice, from your phone to the CO. But that
is not the only electrical signal required by the telephone system. All electrical circuits have three basic
characteristics in common. They are:
Voltage
Current
Resistance
Voltage is the difference of electrical potential between two parts of a circuit. As you would expect,
voltage is measured in Volts.
Current is defined as the amount of electrical charge flowing on a conductor over time. You measure
this flow in units called Amperes (amps, for short) or milliamps when measuring small current flows.
Resistance is any impedance that serves to restrict the flow.
AC vs DC Circuits
Alternating Current (AC), as the name implies, is an electrical current where the direction of the
current flow changes cyclically.

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Figure 4: AC vs DC Circuit
You will be most familiar with AC circuits as those that deliver 120 or perhaps 240 volts, AC, to power
the appliances, lights and electrical outlets in your home.
The direction of electron flow in Direct Current (DC) circuits is constant at all times. DC voltages are
always trying to find a path to ground.
Telephone Circuit Electrical Requirement
Your phone’s components, including the DTMF key pad, tone generator, and transducers, require
that a Direct Current (DC) voltage be present. To be precise, the CO must provide a DC voltage of
anywhere between -48V and -52V, at a minimum current of 23 milliamps (mA), in order for your
phone to function.
The -48 to -52 volts are supplied on the ring side of the circuit, and the tip side is at ground potential
(0V DC).
There is one other electrical component of the telephone system that needs to be mentioned. It is
called Ring Voltage, which is an AC signal, and causes your telephone to ring. This ring voltage is
approximately 85V AC (must be no less than 40V), with a frequency of 20 Hz. When your phone
senses this particular voltage, it causes the ringer to activate, indicating that you have a call.
The reason that the ring voltage is AC in nature is illustrated in the following diagram.
Figure 5: Telephone electrical Circuit
As you can see, when the telephone is in the on-hook state, and waiting for a call to come in, there is
no connectivity on the cable pair (between Tip and Ring). Therefore, the DC signal path is
incomplete.
However, the ringer can still be operated by an AC signal, which does not require continuity through
Tip and Ring on the cable pair.

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1.2 Cable Characteristics
All cable has certain characteristics which will determine its operational parameters. In this section, you will
learn of the most important characteristics of copper cable.
Balance
A balanced cable is one in which both conductors are of the same type and have equal impedance to
ground or other circuits. Twisted Pair cabling are balanced cables whereas coax is usually
unbalanced.
EMF Shielding
In an attempt to eliminate or at least reduce the effects of noise and interference from outside
electrical sources, many cable types use some kind of shielding around the cable or even around
individual conductors.
This shielding is often in the form of aluminum foil, which is wrapped around the cable or around
individual pairs.
In Coax cable, the outer conductor, which is comprised of a cylinder of braded copper or aluminum
strands, servers as the shield
The twists in twisted pair cable serve as shielding, reducing the effect of Electro Magnetic Field (EMF)
interference, which is caused by the electrical field of nearby conductors such as electrical wires, or
even other telephone or data cables.
Attenuation
The reduction in signal strength along the length of a conductor. As the strength of a signal declines,
the ability for a receiver to distinguish between the signal and the noise on the cable is impaired. At
some point, the signal and the noise will be indistinguishable.
Noise
Caused by unwanted electrical impulses on the conductor as well as by the metallic nature of the
conductor itself.
Metallic or Gaussian Noise
Is caused by the constant movement of electrons in a copper conductor or idle electrical
circuit. This is the noise you will hear if you turn up the volume on a stereo that has no
signal. Metallic noise is typically disregarded in telephone circuits.
Impulse Noise
Is created by spurious electrical signals that are typically short lived. A lightning strike, the
start of a furnace, or even turning on a light switch, can all cause a short lived electrical
impulse to effect a conductor. In a telephone circuit, this is often perceived as a “pop” or
“crackle” that comes and goes in a short time period.
Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI)
Is noise that is of longer or even constant duration, and which is caused by EMF interference
from other electrical sources.
Cross Talk
EMI from other conductors, whether from the same cable pair or adjacent pairs.
The twists, in twisted pair cable, help to reduce the effects of crosstalk.
Each pair in a 25 pair cable has a different twist so this eliminates the crosstalk greatly.
Other Digital circuits, special circuits and/or DSL circuits in the same cable will affect each other.
Some having greater affects than others.

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Figure 6: Single Line with POTS and DSL connection
Resistance
The degree to which a conductor or an electrical circuit opposes an electrical current flowing through
it. It is somewhat analogous to the idea of friction, which in mechanical systems opposes the
movement of equipment. In electrical circuits, resistance is measured in Ohms. Ohms law serves to
describe the relationship between resistance, voltage and current in an electrical circuit.
Ohms law states that Resistance = Voltage / Current (R=V/I).
We typically speak of resistance in DC circuits whereas in AC circuits the term impedance is used.
While all cable has a characteristic amount of resistance built into it, which resistance is taken into
account, when a circuit is designed, and it does not adversely affect the function of the circuit.
Typically speaking, the shorter the cable, the less resistance.
For example, you wouldn’t hook up your CD player to your speaker with 1000 meters of speaker
wire. You would use the shortest wire possible.
Less Resistance = Less Attenuation = Better Signal
However, there are many things that can cause the resistance to either increase or decrease, thus
causing problems. Items and situations to be aware of include:
Connections to equipment and within equipment (i.e. hang up-switch) may become loose, dirty, wet,
broken, old (corroded). In fact, anything less than an ideal connection can increase or, in the case of
a short, decrease the resistance.
Using the CD player analogy again, you wouldn’t connect your player to your speaker with ten
chunks of speaker wire or various gauges twisted together.
Fewer Connections = Less Resistance = Better Signal
Improper resistance can throw off the cable balance, increase susceptibility to noise, cause crackling,
static, grounds, shorts and other problems.
Frequency Response
The characteristic of a cable that will determine how closely the signal that is input to the cable will
resemble the signal that is output after having traveled along the cable. Ideally, each frequency
transmitted on the cable will be received with identical attenuation. However, the reality is that not
all frequencies arrive equally attenuated. The frequency response of the cable will tell you what the
attenuation for a set of frequencies will be.
Lower frequencies travel farther distances than higher frequencies because of their wavelengths, but
higher frequencies can hold more information.
Example: AM radio (typically lower fidelity, mono) vs FM radio (higher fidelity, stereo).
Capacitance
In electrical circuits, refers to the mutual capacitance between two conductors. The result of
capacitance is that each conduct can impact the other, electrically, causing degradation of the signal.

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Inductance
The generation of a magnetic field, in a conductor, due to the fact that an electrical current is flowing
along it. Inductance raises the resistance of a conductor, thus increasing attenuation.
A given length of cable will have a certain amount of inductance, and this fact is taken into account
when circuits are created. This is the “specification” of the cable.
Short cable runs will have too much inductance and will be said to be “over loaded”, when compared
to the specification, and long cable runs can have to little inductance and are said to be “under
loaded”.
1.2.1 Type of Cables
Cable can range from 25 pairs to 2400 pairs.
Imagine to have 2400 subscribers on 1 cable.
If you miss count by 1, you would be on the wrong path to the subscriber.
Understand and know your color code, it is the basic language to counting the pairs.
CABLE NAME
CABLE TYPE
RANGE OF SIZES
CELFIL
Grease filled
Fully color coded, binder groups and pairs
6 - 2400 Pair
ALPETH (ALP)
Air Core
Fully color coded, binder groups and pairs
6 - 2400 Pair
CELSEAL (CEL)
Grease filled
Fully color coded, binder groups and pairs
6 - 2400 Pair
1.2.2 Color Codes
A standard color code system enables you to identify specific cable pairs. Each numbered pair in a 25-pair
binder group always has the same colored wires. Ten colors are used: 5 for the tip and 5 for the ring. We
typically call the pairs by TIP-RING like a red-green pair. But binder colors we call by RING-TIP colors like
ORANGE –BLACK. This way we know if someone is referring to the pair or binder.
Tip and ring
The terms “tip” and “ring” come from an earlier time when telephone operators connected calls using phone
plugs. The tip is connected to ground, while the ring is connected to −48 to –52 volts. Tip is positive and ring
is negative. Although the technology has evolved since then, “tip” is still used to denote the positive
grounded wire of a twisted pair and “ring” still refers to the negative wire connected to –48 to –52 volts.

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Ring Colors
Each color is used for rings of 5 different twisted pairs in a 25-pair binder group. These are the ring colors for
pairs 1 through 5. The sequence repeats for every 5 pairs.
Tip Colors
Each color is used for tips of 5 twisted pairs in a 25-pair binder group. The color changes for each new set of 5
pairs.
25 pair cable is comprised of a wire bundle of 50 conductors, providing a total of 25 pairs or
individuals circuits.
Cables are categorized by their ability to transmit data. Specifications include: Frequency Response,
Maximum Data Rate, Crosstalk, Length Limit and Attenuation.
Binder groups
Each bundle of 25 pairs is called a binder group. Each binder group is
wrapped in a two-colored Mylar ribbon. The sequence of binder group
colors is the same as the sequence of twisted pair colors.
So the first binder group (pair numbers 1 to 25) is wrapped in a white
and blue ribbon. The second binder group (pair numbers 26 to 50) is
wrapped in a white and orange ribbon. There are 24 binder groups (or
600 pairs).

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1.3 PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)
PSTN is known as the “world’s most complex machine”. It is the world’s public telephone network
and is consist of copper wires, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, communications
satellite, cellular networks and telephone sets.
This is all inter-connected by switching centers that is located within your city allowing any telephone
to dial anywhere in the world.
The PSTN is almost entirely digital in its core but the telephone line going into individual homes are
mostly analog using copper wires.
Since the invention of the telephone, the PSTN has grown proportionately with the increased
demands to communicate. Switching services beyond metropolitan areas were soon developed,
increasing the size and complexity of the central office.
Before we discuss what PSTN is, first you need to understand what makes PSTN function, POTS!
Plain Old Telephone Service –Offered by your Telecommunications provider as a phone line.
Many POTS network connected together makes up the PSTN.
We will discuss all the components one by one which comprises a part of PSTN with POTS network in it. Also
we will discuss what types of wires and specific tools are used in different departments which enable us to
say HELLO and stay connected with our family and friends.
Central Office
As we discussed in the previous unit, the device in the CO that receives the signal from the telephone is called
the Switch (also known as Line Equipment, Office Equipment).
It is responsible for –
Supplying power to the telephone circuit.
Responding to signals sent from the telephone
Sending the ring signal to your telephone when a call is made to you
Communicating information, such as caller ID, to your telephone
Getting your call on the path from your telephone, to the telephone of the person you are
calling
Maintaining and delivering the features of your phone service (i.e. name/number display)
Figure 7: Office Equipment

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Switch Signaling
In order for you to make a phone call, you would need to signal the CO switch and the CO to signal back to
your telephone and vice versa. This communication back and forth is known as Signaling.There are several
types of signaling the telephone system can handle but the most common one is known as Supervisory
Signals which occur before and after a conversation has been established. These signals are known as –
On-Hook - Known as the Normal or Inactive State and exists when your telephone is “on-
hook” and not connected to a talk path in the CO.
Off-Hook - Known as the Calling State, this signal indicates your intent to make a call but, as
yet, there is no talk path connected through the CO.
Talking - Known as the Talking State, where your phone is off-hook and a talk path exists
through the CO.
Release/Disconnect - Indicated by an on-hook signal while connected to a talk path through
the CO.
Information signal –
•Dial Tone - Informs the subscriber that they may start to dial.
•Ringing - Indicates that the called line has been reached and ringing has started.
•Line Busy - Called line was reached but was already in use.
•All Trunks Busy - Local switch paths are busy.
Control signal –inform the CO of the call destination and are indicated by interrupting the
DC current flow on the line (pulse dialing) or by the generation of tone signals (DTMF or tone
dialing.).
Data Burst: To send information such as caller ID from the CO to your telephone. Your
telephone interprets this data and displays the appropriate information on its display. You
can hear this data burst by using your Buttset (Butt-in) and this signal is typically sent after
the first ring.
1.3.1 Connections at CO
MDF, RACK or Frame
Main Distribution Frame or Rack - The rack where a jumper cross connects from the LE/OE
to the Feeder cable going out the SAC/JWI.
HDF
Horizontal Distribution Frame is connected to the Switch/LE/OE. You may also find ADSL
connections blocks on this side of the Rack.
Figure 8: HDF Horizontal Side

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VDF
Vertical Distribution Frame is the cable going out to the SAC/JWI or directly to the
Demarcation point. A component at the VDF is the protection unit: fuses or other devices
that protect the switch from lightning, shorts with electric power lines, or other foreign
voltages coming from the Outside Plant (OSP).
Figure 9: VDF Vertical Frame
The cable leaving the Central Office to the SAC/JWI is known as the Feeder Cable, some areas call it
F1.
Figure 10: Central Office Horizontal Frame (Left) & Vertical Mounted IDF frame in CO (Right)

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Figure 11: MDF –Wire wrap Blocks
Figure 12: Protector (Left0 & MPC Mainframe Connector (QCM486) 100-Pair Connector (Right)

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Jumper Wires
Jumper wire is a short wire which is used at both CO and SAC boxes to complete an electric circuit or bypass a
break in a circuit.
Figure 13: Jumper Wires
Color code for jumper wire used are as follows:
Yellow/blue or blue/yellow - BC for most circuits
White/blue or blue/white - Alberta for SAC Boxes, UMC’s
Red/green –Alberta for Power Pairs
White/black –Alberta frames
Red/black –Express Power pairs for RDSLAMs, T1 & CLEC circuits with high voltage.
Red/green –Special Services
Working with Jumper wires
Never remove jumpers through the connecting block fanning strips
Remove jumpers from the horizontal side
Remove all clearance jumpers
Do not leave dead jumpers in the rack
Leave 3 to 6 inches of slack
Measure from tip of thumb to tip of little finger with fingers spread
1.3.2 CO Tools
1. Northern Telecom QTH 38b - QTH38B tool used for terminating, bridging, and removing wires from 2-beam
or 3-beam, insulation-slicing, quick-clip terminals found on
QCM486 (MPC) and 391Q connectors, and on Versa blocks with
quick-clip pins. Quick connect tool lets you install and/or remove
jumpers quickly.
No need to strip jumper wire prior to terminating.
Push out the wire holder. Put the wire in it. Have the
loose end of the wire –the end to be cut off –hanging out of the
yellow side of the tool. Punch down the wire over the block pins.
Use the take-out-hook to remove old jumpers.