Telephone line repeater and method of testing same

摘要

A telephone line repeater (28) includes a pattern decoder/recognizer (100) which recognizes, inter alia, an input interrogating signal transmitted on a telephone network (20). The interrogating signal includes an address field (302) having at least one subfield (304) therein. The pattern decoder (100) determines that its repeater (28) is to be tested, if a predetermined subfield (304) of the interrogating signal is configured according to a predetermined select convention. When the repeater (28) recognizes that it is being addressed, a controller (110) causes the addressed repeater to "loop back", returning, in alternating sequence, test-indicative no-operation signals and diagnostic information ("DSM") signals generated by the repeater. Methods for testing a repeater and methods for testing telephone networks are also disclosed.