Telephone technician's remote assist apparatus and method
US6201853A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 13, 1999 |
| Grant date | Mar 13, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 13, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04Q1/45
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A telephone technician's remote assist apparatus connects into a telephone line to be tested by the technician from a remote location. Control signals are sent from the remote location to the remote assist apparatus over the same pair of wires of the telephone line under test. A particular control signal encoding includes two consecutive leading star (**) dual-tone multi-frequency tones. The remote assist apparatus opens the telephone line in response to at least one control signal, and the apparatus preferably automatically restores the line after a predetermined time so that the subscriber is not left disconnected. The particular control signal encoding and the automatic restoring features can be implemented without using the same pair of wires under test. Thus a method for use in testing a telephone line can include controlling by using the same pair of wires under test, but a method can also include using the particular type of encoded control signal and/or the automatic restoring features without using the same pair of wires under test.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.