Automatic Line Testing

If you have a BT provided ADSL, FTTC or FTTP line, then on the Control Pages you are able to set automatic line testing. This is in addition to the One off Line Tests that can be run.

It is often useful to run a line test as soon as a line drops, or on a regular basis to help diagnose a fault. For example, if a line is frequently dropping then it is useful to run a line test as soon as it drops to test if it is in sync or not. If the router is keeping sync by dropping, then the fault may not lie in the phone line.

Running tests every hour is useful when diagnosing a fault line as the results will show changed in the line speed, profile and how many errors are occurring.

This feature has often been used by staff, but was added the the customer Control Pages in January 2014.

Type of Tests

For ADSL we will run a 'Status Test' - this will report back the sync speed, the profile, and errored seconds.
For FTTC and FTTP we will run an 'End to End' Test - this will report whether the test equipment has detected a fault and, where applicable, line sync speeds and interleaving depth.

These tests (status and end to end) are non-intrusive and should not cause the line to drop.

Up/Down Testing

We the line connects and drops we will run a test. This can be useful to see if it drops and stays in sync.

There is an option to just run a test on the up or down event rather than all. When set, we will run tests for 2 weeks.

Regular Testing

We can run daily or hourly tests. These can be useful to see variations in the quality of the line and for on going monitoring.

When set, we will run tests for 2 weeks.

Results

The results can be viewed in the 'log' section at the bottom of the Line page. A 'pin' will also be added to the CQM graph when the test is run.

An example End to End test result:

BT Test E2E Access Test/DCN:Inconclusive OR test pass. Unable to find the fault.
Down:40.0 (39.9/39.7/39.9) Up:10.0 (10.0/10.0/10.0)
NA 0.128M-40M Downstream, Interleaving Off - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Interleaving Off
In Sync Pass:GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000 GEA service test completed and no fault found

An example ADSL Status test result:

BT Test XDSLStatusCheckTest:Pass OK.pass OK. Circuit In Sync
BRAS=7150Kb/s FTR=6502Kb/s MSR=8128Kb/s ServOpt=1 I/L=A
Up Sync=832Kb/s LoopLoss=6dB SNR=11.6dB ErrSec=0 HECErr=0 Cells=6414
Down Sync=8128Kb/s LoopLoss=12dB SNR=15.5dB ErrSec=0 HECErr=0 Cells=6205