Tone signaling over telephone

lines A technician's primer

When planning a system that will rely on telephone circuits for tone signaling,
control or access, contact your telephony providers engineering office.

by Donald E. Koehler
If your future plans call for tone signal-
ing or control of remote base stations,
polled receivers or other communications
equipment, this article is sure 10 be of
interest to you or to your technical and
maintenance staff. The technical charac-
teristics of telephone lines, both switched
and "nailed up" circuits; the kind of tests
frequently used by telephony providers
and some simple troubleshooting you can
do using imbedded telephone tones will
be covered. One word of caution: al-
Koehler teaches at the University of Alaska,
Anchorage.
liw------uuJ
though the information presented here is
referenced to documents from Bellcore
(the telephone "standard" setter of the old
Bell operating companies), always check
with your local provider to see what test-
ing you may perform and what equipment
voltage levels are acceptable to their spe-
cific equipment-these vary widely in
some parts of rural North America.
The telephone lines that you are most
likely to use in you.r control scheme typi-
cally are copper wires, twisted together to
form "pairs." The twist in the cable is
designed to reduce crosstalk between
pairs within a larger cable. If you are
going to run tones and digital data over
the same provided pair, let the provider
know about your plans. Some types of
TX
high-speed digital data can cause severe
crosstalk. These crosstalk problems can
be eliminated by line conditioning. Let's
see how lines are tested and conditioned.
The cable pair(s) you use will, if
unterminated, appear to your equipment
as a capacitor. Even if correctly termi-
nated, cable runs over longer distances
can result in the attenuation of the higher
audio or control tone frequencies. This
"frequency attenuation distortion" can
seriously affect your control circuit. In
most cases a simple lumped inductance
can balance the overall passband (fre-
quency vs. attenuation) and provide accept-
able results. If extremely long distances
are used, some type of amplification is
required.
This amplification is provided, in analog
circuits, by a device that uses a pair of
hybrid coils (see Figure I at the left) to
"split" the signal, at least temporarily, from
a two-wire circuit into a four-wire circuit.
A four-wire circuit provides for a sepa-

~ I··u·~ I
rate transmit and receive pair to boost,
J'WO-WIRE FOUR-WIRE then the amplified signal is placed back
JN OUT onto the single pair of wires by means of
a second hybrid coil. (See Figure 2 below
left.) This method of signal conditioning
has been in use for years. The only disad-
~ R}(
vantages are that the amplifier boots both
the desired signal along with any noise
present on the line, singing and the pos-
Figure 1. Using a hybrid coll to split a signal from a two-wire circuit Into a fou r-wire circuit. sibility of echo generation caused by the
hybrid coils. Checking for these "by-
products" is covered later.
Connectivity to your remote site may
be provided as a two-wire or four-wire
TX AMP switched circuit or as a permanent circuit.
lf the circuit is one or two pairs of wires
TWO-WIRE TWO-WI FIE
LINE l:INE connected between your sites without the
use of switching equipment, it generally
FIX AMP is referred to as a "nailed up" circuit. This
does not preclude the telephony provider
from conditioning or amplifying the line.
The "normal" passband of an uncondi-
tioned telephone line is between 300Hz
Figure 1. Boosted by a separate transmit and receive pair, the amplified signal Is placed back
onto a two-wire circuit using a second hybrid coll. and 4,000Hz-a range of frequencies that

28 Mobile Radio Technology February J997

 should offer flat response (levels) and condition testing is mostly automated. sending a precise set of pulses. with a
liule distortion. If your line exceeds 9 The type of tests performed by the switch known ratio of peak to average full-wave
ki lofeet. line conditioning eq uipment may can also be perfonned on "nailed up" cir- rectified voltage, into the line and mea-
be required. c uits with technician intervention. suring the resultant voltage at the far end
Testing and maintenance of the line is The tests most likely to be of benefit to of the circuit. Although this lest will detail
generally the respons ibility of the pro- you arc PAR, echo return loss and bandwidth, poor return loss and its alten-
vider. Several of the tests performed by singing/singing return loss. If your needs dant gai n and phase distortion, the test will
tclco technicians may be of interest to arc strictly digital data, then the bit-error not define noise, jitter, IM D or other fac-
you. If the circuit is switched- that is, if rate (BER) test is the only one that is tors that can degrade control tones.
it runs through a modem digital switch in needed to test for line quality. The PAR Echo on the line is the differen ce be-
the local ·'central office," th en circuit or ··peak-to-average ratio"' test consisL'> of tween the original signal and its echo. re-
sulting from the two-10-four wire inler-
faces found in most central office equip-
ment main distribution frames or transi-
tion points. Echo return loss measures loss
(distonion) between 560Hz and l.965Hz,
whereas singing return loss (low) defines
the distortion between 2601-!z and 500Hz;
and singing return loss (high) covers
2,700Hz to 3,400Hz. This is especially
I'!,~....
.v - ............
- · · -·-
· -_--: :.....
~---iEq·~
-
s-
important if CTCSS tones must be recov-
ered by your control equipment.
--- - - -- ------ For data-only circuits, BER testing re-
quires the use of a protocol analyzer or a

The tests most likely to be

of benefit are PAR, echo
return loss and singing/
singing return loss. For
digital data, the BER test
is the only one needed to
test for line quality.

N.F. Device
Receive only Freq. R1ngu (MHz) (dB) Type Price purpose-built data test sci. First, the line
P30VO, P35VO, P.dOVO, P45VD 30-35, 35-10, 4().45, 45-50 <1.3 15 0 DGFET $ 44.95 you use is connected back onto itself at
P30VOG, P35VOG, P40VOG, P45VOG 30-35, 35-40, 40-45, 45-50 <0.5 26 + 12 GaAsFET S109.95 the far end. This is called looping. or
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P150VDA, P160VDA. P170VDA 15().160, 160-170. 170.180 <1 .1 15 0 OGFET $ 56.95 loopback. and can be performed at either
P150VOG, P160VOG, P170VOG 150-160, 160-170, 170.180 <0.5 24 + 12 GaAaFET $ 109.95 th e line or control end. Most modern
P450VO, P460VO 450-450, •60-470 < 1.8 15 -20 BIPolar $ •9.95
modems and channel ser vice unit/data
P450VDA. P460VDA 450-460, 460-470 < 1.2 16 -20 BIPolat $ 74.95
P450VOG, P460VOG 450-460, 460-4 70 <0.5 16 + 12 GaAsFET $109.95 service units (CSU/DSU) can be forced
P800VOG,P830VOG, P860VOG eoo.a30.~.~ <0.6 19 + 12 GaA1FET $ 119.95 into a loopback with a specific to ne. Then.
lnllne (rl 1wltch1d) once the loopback is established, a data
s~vo, SP35VD, SP40VO, SP45VD 3().35,35-40, 4().45, 45-50 <1.4 15 0 DGFET $ 74.95
stream is sent through the circuit. Errors
S~. SP36VDG, SP40VDG, SP45VDG 30·35, 35·40, 4().45, 45-50 <0.55 26 + 12 GaAsFET $139.95 caused by noise, jitter, phase drops or ex-
SP1!50VO, SP160VD, SP170VO 150-160, 160-170, 170.180 <1.6 15 0 DGFET $ 74.95 cessive distortion arc quickly spotted. If
SP150VOA, SP160VOA, SP170VOA 150-160, 16().170, 170.180 <1 .2 15 0 DGFET $ 88.95
SP150VDG, SP160VOG, SP170VOG 150-160, 16().170, 17().180 <0.55 24 + 12 GaAsFET $139.95 the BER exceeds your requirements, call
$P450VO, SP460VD 450·460, 4G0·470 <1.9 15 -20 Blpolar $ 79.95 the telephony provider to initiate a trouble
SP450VOA, SP460VOA 450·480, 46().470 <1.3 16 - 20 Bl polar $104.95
SP450VOG, SP460VOG 450-460, 46().470 <0.55 16 + 12 GaAsFET $139.95 ticket. Working with the provider will lead
to a better understanding of your needs.
E"ry pn11mplln1< la p19elslon 1llgnld on ARR'• H1w1111 Packard HP8970A/HP34SA a111M>l·lh••rt nolae llgure Analog signaling schemes allow you to
me ter. RX only prumpllfi1rs a,. for receive appllcallon1 only. lnllne prumpllfi.,.. al9 rf swl1ch1d (for uae perform some simple tests prior to con-
wl1h transcelve,..) end handle 25 wat11 1ransmlner power. Mount lnlln1 pr11mpllll1rs be1w"n 111nscelwer
and power amplllier for high power appllcallona. Sys11m SIN lmpro"ment &-14 dB typlcel. Other ama1eur, tac ting your telephony provider. The first
c:ommerclel and ap41elal p,..1mpllf11,.. anllable In th• step. and an important one, is to record
1-1000 MHz range. Pluae Include $2 •hipping In U.S.
the measurements of line levels measured
Advanced end Canad1. C.0.0. orde,.. 1dd $2. Air mall to foreign
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Receiver p19ampllller 1od1y and s ta rt hHrlng llkl never before I
ti on-often called a demark (s hort for
Research demarc ation point). Us ing the correct

Box 1242 • Burlington, CT 06013 • 860-485-0310

Clrclo (14) on Fest Fact Card

30 Mobile Radio Tec/1110/tigy February 1997

 load, typically 6000 to 9000. or a bridg-
ing transformer, measure the voltage de-
livered lo your site with a known or stan-
dard source providing a tone at the control
end of the circuit. For switched (dial-up)
circuits, dial the number for the local of-
fice "milli watt signal." This is a tone
( l ,004Hz) produced at a precise levcl-
usually lmW (0.775Vac @ 6000.) and ter-
mjnuted correctly for the equipment in use.
Measure and record this (and other lone)
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32 Mobile Radio Tech11ology Fcbnmry 1997
signal levels at both the control and line
equipment (remote) end of the circuit.
Leave a record of measured levels at both
the local and remote site to aid in any
future troubleshooting that may be re-
quired. After all, problems seldom occur
during business hours.
With record in hand, you can feed a
known signal 10 the remote site and check
for excessive attenuation. In switched cir-
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Cenified
Quality
System
either end of your circuit can help to
pinpoint potential problems quickly. To
lest for possible problems with distortion
requires the use of a notch filter. signal
gcnerat0r. ac voltmeter and some pa-
tience. If you have access 10 more ad-
vanced equipment. such as a sweep gen-
erator and oscilloscope, you can perform
similar tes1s much more quickly. By set-
ting your sweep generator 10 provide a
signal between 300Hz and 4,000Hz, you
can monitor the results at the opposite end
with your oscilloscope. This approach
may trigger unwanted responses from cen-
tral office equipment. Central office
equipment is often controlled by tones
within the voice frequency (VF) passband.
To avoid trouble, check with your local
provider before such tests arc performed.
Equipment used by most tclco technicians
uses as few as three, and as many as 23,
separate (non-sweeping or fixed) tones to
perform tests for bandwidth and distonion.
When planning a system that will rely
on telephone circuits for tone signaling,
control or access, contact your telephony
provider engineering office to:
o detennine the technical characteris-
tics of the 1elephone circuits available for
your use.
o discuss 1he type of equipment and sig-
nals you plan to install and use.
o ask whm support will be available for
repair of potential problems.
o find out what kjnd of testing you will
be penni11cd to perform and how to best
express this infom1ation to the telephony
provider's technical staff.
o confirm the costs of any technical as-
sistance required and provided, and the
limits of responsibility.
Document these discussions, and pro-
vide a copy to your provider. If a problem
docs arise, records are always belier than
a memory-and much safer as well.
Acknowledgement
The Bcllcorc "Redhook" of engineering srnn-
dards was used as a reference in 1hc preparation
of this article.
Recommended reading:
Clarke, Martin P., Networks a11d
Teleco1111111111ica1io11- Desig11 a11ti
Operation, John Wiley and Sons,
ISBN 0-47 1-92799-6.
Vi si t the Bellcore web site,
(www.bellcore.com), and the "Te-
lephony 101" document on the
Northern Telecom site (www.
11or1el.co111) to learn more about the
public switched telephone network
(PSTN).