Abstract:
An arrangement of plural filter circuits on a single card, and interconnection and mouthing of numerous cards on a single rack to facilitate maintenance, is provided for use in a telco. In each of the filter circuits, there is a first plurality of inductors connected in series in a first leg of a balanced line configuration of filter, a second plurality of inductors connected in series in a second leg of the balanced line configuration of filter, and a plurality of capacitors connected as cross branches between terminals of the inductors. A substrate supports the capacitors and the inductors, wherein each of the inductors is a toroidally wound inductor comprising a toroidal core of magnetic saturation inhibiting material. The saturation inhibiting core material allows reduction in size of a cross-sectional dimension of the core to approximately the cross-sectional dimension of one of the capacitors. For telco equipment, a set of connectors is mounted in a back plane of an enclosure for receiving the cards, and a plurality of bypass switches are disposed in the set of connectors for bypassing voice signals around corresponding ones of the cards. The bypass switches are placed in a state of conduction upon removal of a corresponding one of the cards from the set of connectors.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is based on and claims right of priority in three provisional patent applications having Ser. No. 60/088,172 filed Jun. 5, 1998, Ser. No. 60/088,173 filed Jun. 5, 1998, and Ser. No. 60/088,260 filed Jun. 5, 1998, the contents of which are incorporates herein in their entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to telephone communication equipment and, more particularly, to a compact configuration of circuitry employed in separation of video/data signals and voice signals in the central office of a telephone company (telco) and at the customer premises. 
     Telephonic communication among homes, businesses, and other facilities is accomplished in well-known fashion via one or more central offices of a telephone company with the electrical signals being communicated via pairs (twisted pairs) of electrically conducting wires. Voice signals are transmitted in a frequency band of a few kilohertz (kHz), typically 0-4 kdz, Wherein the twisted wire pair can carry signals ranging from DC (direct current) to the high frequency cutoff of the transmission circuitry. For normal voice signal transmission the high frequency cutoff is in the range of approximately 3-4 kHz. However the twisted wire pair is capable of transmission of electrical signals of higher frequency suitable for computer modem digital communication, and for compressed video signals such as video signals transmitted in the MPEG-2 format. Unlike transmission of such signals by coaxial cable and by satellites wherein the signals are modulated onto carriers, in the transmission of the signals via the twisted wire pair there is no use of a carrier and the signals are transmitted in their baseband format. As a result, there is considerable interest in the use of telephone lines of the telephone company (telco) for communication of high speed modem signals and compressed video signals in addition to voice signals among the homes, businesses, and other facilities who are the telephone subscribers. 
     In the communication, via the telephone lines, of the combined signals of voice plus video, or other higher frequency signals such as the high speed data transmitted by modem signals, the fidelity of the voice signal is enhanced by separating the voice signal from the high frequency signals. The high frequency of signals which carry video and/or data may be referred to hereinafter as the video signals for convenience of description. Voice circuitry, such as transmitter and receiver, is employed for handling the voice communication, and RADSL (rate adaptive digital subscriber line) circuitry is employed for handling the video and the data. At the telco and at the subscriber, the voice and the video are handled separately by the voice and RADSL circuits, while between telco and the subscriber, both voice and video are communicated by a common twisted pair. 
     In the telco, maintenance of the numerous racks of cards presents a problem in that there is a need for bypassing the voice channels of cards which are being extracted for service so as to enable a continuation of service even during the absence of the card. While such bypassing can be accomplished by a manual switching of circuitry, a manual procedure represents an inconvenience and introduces complications to the maintenance process. Furthermore, it is desirable to construct the circuits with a configuration amenable to a compact packaging of the filters of numerous circuits upon a single card, thereby reducing the storage space and increasing accessibility of the circuitry to maintenance personnel. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The aforementioned problems are overcome and other advantages are provided, in accordance with the invention, by a construction individual ones of filter circuits, an arrangement of plural filter circuit on a single card, and interconnection and mounting of numerous cards on a single rack to facilitate maintenance. 
     In a communication system employing the invention, a low pass filter is employed at the telco for each telephone communication channel, and another low pass filter is employed at the subscribe terminal. In each case the low pass filter serves for separation of the video from the voice. Each of the filters employs a common form of construction of inductors and capacitors, arranged in a balanced line configuration (inductors in both legs of the ladder with capacitive cross branches), wherein, in accordance with a feature of the invention, each of the inductors is provided with a toroidal core. Thereby, the inductor provides a desired amount of inductance while presenting a lower insertion loss to the circuit. The lower insertion loss, in turn, allows for increased distance between subscriber and telco. In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the size and material composition of the toroidal core of an individual one of the inductors are selected to prevent the inductor from being driven into saturation. In the construction of the low pass filter, plural inductors are located in a common plane, such as on a printed circuit board, with axes of the toroids being parallel. This inhibits magnetic coupling between the inductors. Capacitors of the filter are located alongside the inductors to facilitate manufacture and packaging. 
     At the telco, eight filters for eight subscriber channels are constructed on a single Eurocard, which may be referred to hereinafter as a card for convenience. Fifteen cards are mounted on a rack and connect via a set of connectors through a back plane of a cabinet to circuitry of the central office and the subscribers. Surge protection for each communication channel is provided by a sidactor, also located on the card. On each card, a common mode choke, generally employed in telephone circuits, is connected between the surge protector and its corresponding filter. During normal operation, all communications between the central office switching equipment and an individual subscriber pass through a respective filter located on one of the cards. 
     In accordance with the invention, a switching connector is also provided on the back plane for each of the cards. The switching connector comprises a set of spring tangs, each of which serves as a bypass in a respective one of the telephone communication channels for communication of voice, but not video, between the subscriber and the central office switching equipment upon removal of the card for service. The system of switching connectors permits servicing of individual cards without requiring removal of an entire shelf or rack of cards. 
     In each of the low pass filters, inductors of differing values and capacitors of differing values are to provide the desired filter characteristics. In the case of cards mounted in the rack at the central office, it is convenient to place all components, including the filter components, the chokes, and the surge protectors on one surface of the substrate of the card. In a similar fashion, a low pass filter is employed in a subscriber station in series with a telephone for noise reduction. 
     It is noted also that, the features of construction of the filters are useful also for connection of the telephone channel, the twisted pair of wires, at a subscriber terminal. With respect to emplacement of a low pass filter at the entry point of the twisted pair at a subscriber home or other facility, it is noted that a suitable electrical configuration of the low pass filter is the same as that described above for the filters located on the card. However, in the case of the card mounted filter at the central office, the filter design is for an impedance of 900 ohms while, for the filter located at the subscriber entry point, the filter design is for 600 ohms. To accomplish this change of impedance, the values of the filter components of the subscriber low pass filter differ from the values of the corresponding components of the central-office low pass filter. 
     Locating a low pass filter at the subscriber entry point allows a filtered incoming signal to be split among plural telephone circuits of the subscriber. Alternatively, such a filter may be connected to each subscriber telephone, in which case the power splitting filter at the entry point is not needed. The subscriber filter may be constructed on a substrate using toroid inductors in a manner similar to that described above for the central office filters. However, the construction of the subscriber low pass filter is simpler than the construction of the central office card because the components of only one filter channel are supported by the substrate of the subscriber filter. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
     The aforementioned aspects and other features of the invention are explained in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing figures wherein: 
     FIG. 1 shows diagrammatically the components of a telephone communication system including a shelf of filter cards interconnecting central office equipment with customer premises; 
     FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a filter card of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a sectional view through a connector element taken along the line  3 — 3  of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a stylized view of a cabinet containing plural shelves of the filter cards; 
     FIG. 5 shows an electrical schematic diagram of one of a plurality of low pass filters located on a filter card of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 6 is a plan view of one of the filter cards, the view showing locations of inductors and capacitors of a set of 8 low pass filters disposed on the filter card; 
     FIG. 7 is a plan view o an array of socket connector elements located along a back plane in a cabinet of FIG. 1 for supporting an array of the filter cards disposed as a shelf in the cabinet; 
     FIG. 8 is an electrical schematic diagram of a filter, similar to construction of a filter of FIG. 5, and a suitable for use at customer premises; 
     FIG. 9 is a plan view of the filter of FIG. 8; 
     FIG. 10 comprises FIGS. 10A,  10 B and  10 C which show a housing enclosing the circuitry of FIGS. 8 and 9; 
     FIG. 11 shows a circuit similar to that of FIG. 8; 
     FIG. 12 is a plan view of the circuit of FIG. 11; 
     FIG. 13 comprises FIGS. 13A,  13 B and  13 C which show a telephone mounting fixture adapted for receipt of the filler of FIGS. 8 or  11 ; and 
     FIG. 14 is a wiring diagram showing interconnection of telephone conductors within the equipment of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     Identically labeled element appearing in different ones of the figures refer to the same element but may not be referenced in the description for all figures. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows diagrammatically interconnections among components of a telephone communication system  2  including central office switching equipment  22  and an assembly of racks which may be referred to as a cabinet  24  for housing filter cards  26 . The cards  26  contain filters  28  for respective ones of subscribers channels of the communication system  20 . The switching equipment  22  and the cabinet  24  are located in a telco of the system  20 . Within the cabinet  24  numerous ones of the filter cards  26  are arranged on racks or shelves  30  permitting easy connection and replacement of individual ones of the cards  26  by means of connection assembly  32 . In accordance with a feature of the invention, the connection assembly  32  includes a plurality of socket connector elements  34  mounted to respective ones of the filter cards  26 , and a plurality of pin connector elements  36  located on a back plane circuit board to be referred to as a back plane  38  of the filter shelves  30 . Also included within the connection assembly  32  is a set of switches  40  connected in respective ones of the subscriber telephone channels for bypassing signals, as will be described in further detail, during replacement of a filter card  26 , and line protection element  42  located on respective ones of the cards  26  for protection of the respective cards  26  from electric surges. 
     In the operation of the system  20 , long distance telephone communications are provided via lines  44 , shown carried by telephone poles  46 , to and from the switching equipment  22 . Long distance transmission of video and/or data, as well as Internet services is provided by a set of modems  48 , for RADSL service, connected via the back plane  38  to respective ones of the subscriber channels. The modems  48  provide connection between the respective channels to a local video source  50  and an Internet service provider  52 . Connection to each of many local telephone customers is provided via a main distribution frame  54  of e telco connected between socket connector elements  36  of the back plane  38  and phone lines  56 , shown carried by telephone poles  58  to the customer premises. 
     As has been discussed above, the filter cards  26  are to be arranged, in accordance with the invention, in a manner which facilitates replacement of defective ones of the cards  26  while ensuring minimum downtime of the communication system  20  and minimal inconvenience to the customers. To accomplish this objective, numerous filter circuits for numerous ones of the subscriber channels are constructed on a single one of the filter cards  26 , and numerous ones of the filter cards  26  are contained within a single one of the shelves  30  of the cabinet  24 . Furthermore, the arrangement and physical configuration of the connector elements  34  and  36  of the connection assembly  32  permits an individual one of the filter cards  26  to be installed or removed with automatic bypassing of critical telephone communication during the process of replacement of the filter cards  26 . 
     Each of the filters  28  comprises both inductors and capacitors to provide a low-pass frequency response over a range of 0-4 kEz. Reduction in the physical size of the individual filter circuits of the respective filters  28  is accomplished by the use of toroidal inductors formed with toroidal cores comprising strata of amorphous metals which allows for relatively large telephone circuit currents (100 mA plus signal current) without saturation of the core and without inducing excessive signal loss. These features of the invention of described below in further detail. 
     As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the socket connector element  34  comprises a set of pin-receiving cavities  60  disposed on a tongue  62  of the element  34 , wherein only a few of the cavities  60  are shown to simplify the drawing. The socket connector element  34  is affixed to one end of the filter card  26 . The cavities  60  are arranged parallel to each other and include metallic liners  63  to contact corresponding set of pins  64  of the socket connector element  36  upon insertion of the tongue  62  into a receiving slot  66  of the pin connector element  36 . Various ones of the cavities  60  connect with various terminals of the low pass filters  28 , as shown by lines  67  connected to the cavity liners  63 , wherein various ones of the cavities  60  are assignee to the video and voice signals of various ones of the communication channels of the system  20  of FIG.  1 . 
     In the case of cavities  60  reserved for communication of voice telephony signals, the bypass switch  40  is operatively connected between a pair of corresponding mating pins  64  in each of the respective channels. For each of the channels, the switch  40  is constructed as a strip conductor terminating in a pair of spring loaded tangs  68  positioned for contacting a corresponding par of the pins  64 . The strip conductor, as indicated at  70 , is partially embedded within the insulating material of the connector element  36 , as shown in phantom, to serve as a shorting bar between a corresponding pair of the pins  64 . The movable outer ends  72  of the tangs  68  are free to swing out and contact the corresponding pair of the pins  64  under the condition wherein the tongue  62  is at a distance from the receiving slot  66 . Upon insertion of the tongue  62  into the receiving slot  66 , the tongue  62  pushes against the tangs  68 , at d forces the tangs  68  away from the pair of the pins  64 . Thereby, upon insertion of the tongue  62  into the receiving slot  66 , the pins  64  connect the filter card  26  to voice telephone lines  74  and  76 , shown also in FIG. 1, to enable operation of the filter  28  and the protection element  42  within the corresponding communication channel of the system  20 . Upon extraction of the filter card  26  from the shelf  30 , the tangs  68  move back short the pair of pins  64  to form the bypass between the telephone lines  74  and  76 . 
     This construction of the switch  40  avoids the need for a separate relay circuit, such as that disclosed in the aforementioned provisional applications. However, it is noted that in the event it is desired to us a standard form of connector without modification of the connector to include the tang  68 , then the bypass arrangement disclosed in the aforementioned provisional patent applications may be employed wherein one contact of the connector for each of the filter cards  26  may be employed for activation of a bypass relay. 
     The foregoing construction of the filter cards  26  facilitates emplacement of the cards  26  in the arrangement of shelves  30  within the cabinet  24 , as illustrated in FIG.  4 . The pin connector elements  36  which receive the socket connector elements  34  of the respective cards  26  are located along the back plane  38 , also illustrated in FIG.  4 . Thereby, the cards are accessible t maintenance personnel, and are readily serviced by extraction and insertion into the respective shelves  30 . 
     With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, FIG. 5 shows the schematic diagram of a filter  28  disposed on a filter card  26  (FIG.  1 ). In a preferred embodiment of the invention, it has been found to be efficient to construct eight of the filters  28  on a single one of the filter cards  26 , wherein the arrangement of the filters  28  is shown in FIG.  6 . In the arrangement, the components of a filter  28  are arranged serially along a row on the card  26 , there being two of the filters  28  within one of the rows. A total of four rows within the card  26  provides for a total of eight of the low pass filters  28 . 
     As shown in FIG. 5, the fiter  28  comprises four toroidal double-wound inductors  78  of which individual ones of these inductors  78  are further identified as inductors T 1 , T 2 , T 3  and T 4 . In the inductor T 1 , there are two windings which are wound and connected to their respective so as to serve as a common mode choke which introduces cancellation of relatively high frequency component signals, such as video signals, which may be present at the filter  28 . The four inductors  78  are connected serially between a first end  80  of the filter  28 , and a second end  82  of the filter  28 . Audio signals can travel in either direction in the filter  28  so that either end  80  or  82  may be regarded as its input end. The inductors T 2 ,  13  and T 4  have their respective windings arranged with connection of their respective signals so that an audio signal input at end  80  can travel along the filter  28  without interference from a video/data signal input at end  80 . Therefore, within the audio frequency range, the filter  28  is reciprocal to the flow of signal in either direction. Three capacitors  84 , further identified as capacitors C 1 , C 2  and C 3 , are included within the circuitry of the filter  28 , wherein the capacitors C 1 , C 2  and C 3  follow respective ones of the inductors T 2 , T 3  and T 4 . The configuration of the filter  28  is recognized as a double ladder wherein the coils of the inductors are located at side arms of the ladder, and the capacitors  84  are connected across the side arms between terminals of the inductors. 
     The configuration of the circuitry of the filter  28  of FIG. 5 provides for six poles in its frequency response, the frequency response extending from DC up to approximately 4 kHz. The six-pole response provides for a sufficiently sharp cut off in the frequency response to avoid contamination of the audio signal with any frequency components of the relatively high-frequency video/data signals described hereinabove with reference to FIG.  1 . The surge protection element  42  comprises a sidactor, identified in the figure as VR, and is connected across the two input terminals at the end  80  of the filter  28 , and includes a center tap connected to ground. By way of example in the construction of a filter  28 , the common mode choke T 1  has an inductance of 8 mH. Each of the inductors T 2 , T 3  and T 4  has an inductance of 15.3 mH. The capacitors C 1 , C 2  and C 3  have values of capacitance of, respectively, 0.08 uF, 0.056 uF, and 0.015 uF. The filter  28  has a line impedance of 900 ohms. 
     The high-frequency video/data RADSL service lines, described above with reference to FIG. 1, also come in contact with the terminals at the first end  80  of the filter  28 . The card  26  (FIG. 6) also carries the RADSL service lines to the respective ones of the filters  28 , these lines having been deleted in FIG. 6 to simplify the drawing. As noted in FIG. 1, connections to the filter  28  for any one customer channel include the central office switching equipment  22  for access to the long distance phone customer, the modems  48  connecting with the video/data of the RADSL service, and to the telephone of the customer premises  86 . These three connections are also found in the filter  28 , as shown in FIG.  5 . Thus, in addition to the RADSL service lines at the first end  80 , the terminals at the first end  80  also connect with the telephone loop (tip and ring lines) of the central office switching equipment  22 , and the second end  82  of the filter  28  is connected via the main distribution frame  54  to a phone, such as the telephone  88  at the customer premises  86 . The RADSL service is brought along two conductors which serve also for transmission of voice signals for phone service at the telephone  88 . This leaves two spare lines in the case of four-conductor cable as, for example, in the line  56  (FIG.  1 ). Therefore, the customer has, in add ion to the phone service, also the video, shown at  90 , and is also provided with a further low pass filter  92  for separation of the phone and the video signals. 
     An important feature of the invention is the arrangement of the filter components on the card  26 , the shown in FIG.  6 . This convenient arrangement is enabled by use of a construction of the inductors  78  in which each of the inductors  78  has of a form of a toroid. By way of example, one such toroidal inductor  78  is presented on the card  26  in FIG. 2, the inductor  78  being presented for purposes of illustration, it being understood that numerous ones of the inductors  78  are present, as shown in FIG.  6 . As shown in FIG. 2, the inductor  78  comprises winding turns  94  disposed on a toroidal core  96  in radial planes of the core  96 . 
     As it is well known in the construction of inductors, the amount of inductance is dependent on the number of turns of the wire, and is dependent also on the volume of the core material enclosed by the wound wire. Therefore, to construct an inductor of specified inductance on a relatives core, additional turns of wire are required. This introduces a problem in the situation wherein a relatively large amount of current, such as the aforementioned DC ring current of 100 mA, is present because the large amount of current may place the material of the core in saturation. The condition of saturation is to be avoided in an inductor employed in a filter because this introduces changes in the inductance and the frequency response of a filter processing the aforementioned telephone audio signal. 
     There are two solutions to his problem, namely, the use of a relatively large core volume with a reduced number If winding turns, as taught in the above referenced provisional patent applications, wherein inductors are arranged on both sides of a substrate. Alternatively, as in the preferred embodiment of the invention, one may use a core material that resists saturation. This results in a construction of the filter  28  with inductors of relatively small physical size and enables the arrangement of the filter components on one side of the subs rate, as shown in FIG.  6 . 
     The inductor core employed in the preferred embodiment of the invention is fabricated of amorphous metals, including NiFe, disposed in circumferential strata about a central point of the toroidal core. Such a core, is referred to as a tape-wound core. As a result, in the arrangement of the preferred embodiment (FIG.  6 ), the outer diameter of the inductor, core plus windings, is comparable in size to the transverse dimensions of one of the capacitors  84 . As a result, all of the components of a filter  28 , as depicted in FIG. 5, may be arranged serially along a row of the card  26 . In addition, the magnetic field of a toroidal inductor is contained, almost completely, within the core, thereby avoiding mutual inductance among the inductors of a single filter as well as with inductors of neighboring filters. 
     With reference again to FIG. 1, it may be desirable to reduce the total number of modems  28  by use of multiplex equipment, indicated at  98 , to allow a sharing of the available modems  48  among a much larger number of customers. Such modems may be positioned along the back plane  3 , indicated in FIG.  4 . This produces an overall compact configuration to the cabinet  24 . 
     FIG. 7 shows a plan view of the assembly of the pin connector elements  36 , previously described with reference to FIG.  2 . The view of FIG. 7 shows the back side of a connector elements  36 , the backside being opposite the front side which mates with the cards  26 . The front side is indicated in phantom at  102  and includes the receiving slots  66  portrayed in FIG. 7 as simply a set of dots representing the connector pins within the slot  66 . The back side is portrayed in solid line at  104 , and shows a set of connectors which provide electrical connection to points external to the rack such as the switching equipment  22  (FIG.  1 ). These connectors are to be described further with reference to FIG. 14 where they are identified as connectors J 17 , J 20  and J 23 . 
     With reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, there is provided a description of the low pass filter  92  located at the customer premises  86  (FIG.  1 ). The filter  92  comprises two inductors  106  comprising a double-wound toroidal core of the same material as that disclosed for the filter  28  (FIG.  5 ). The filter  92  has the configuration of a double ladder network, as does of the filter  28 , wherein the inductors form the side rails. The filter  92  further comprises two capacitors  108  connected transversely across the ladder between terminals of the inductors  106 . For ease of reference, the inductors  106  are further identified as T 1  having a value of 3.9 mH and T 2  having a value of 8.4 mH. The capacitors  108  are further identified as C 1  having a value of 0.047 uF and C 2  having a value of 0.022 uF. The line impedance of the filter  92  is 600 ohms. This configuration of filter is a four-pole filter with values of inductance and capacitance being selected to provide for a sharp cut-off spectral characteristic beyond the audio frequency range. The filter components are arranged serially along a substrate, as shown in FIG.  9 . The filter  92  connects with two conductors of the incoming line  56 . Even though the line  56  four conductors, only two of the conductors serve for the transmission of voice and video/data signals. The filter  92  is operative to prevent passage of the video signals to a telephone but communicates the audio signals via the filter components to a terminus of the filter connecting with the telephone  88  (FIG.  1 ). By preventing passage of the video signals to the telephone, the filter  92  insures clarity of the received voice signal by preventing the generation of intermodulation products among the video and data signals into the telephone. The remaining two conductors of the line  56  serve no function with respect to the transmission of the voice and he video signals, but serve as a bypass about the filter for providing electric power, by way of example, for powering an electrical device such as a lamp. 
     FIG. 10 shows a modular housing  110  suitable for enclosing the filter  92  of FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 10B shows a side view of the housing  110 , with a left end (FIG. 10A) having a socket  112  for receiving a four-conductor cable, and a right end (FIG. 10C) having a four-conductor cable  114  with a slug  116  connected thereto. The physical size of the modular housing  110  is sufficiently small to permit connection of the filter  92  within an existing telephone line found on customer premises. 
     FIGS. 11 and 12 shown an alternative configuration of the filter  92 , identified in FIGS. 11 and 12 as  92 A. The description provided above with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 applies also to the filter of FIGS. 11 and 12 except that, in the case of the filter  92 A, there is only one inductor  106  and one capacitor  108  having values respectively of 5.8 mH and 0.033 uF. The filter has a line impedance of 600 ohms. The filter  92 A can be housed within the modular housing  110 , or even within a housing (not shown) smaller than the housing  110 . 
     FIG. 13 shows a wall fixture  118  in the form of a mounting plate wherein, in FIG. 13A there is shown the backside which faces a wall and includes a socket  120  for connection with an external telephone line. FIG. 13B shows an end view of the fixture  118  having a socket  122  for receiving a cord for electrical connection of video, data and voice signals. FIG. 13C shows a cover plate  124  which is attached to the fixture  118  with the aid of screw-receiving holes  126 . The plate  124  has a plug  128  for making electrical connection with conductors disposed within a wall to which the filter  118  is to be mounted. The low-pass filter  92  or  92 A is readily attached to the plate  124 . This demonstrates the convenience of the physically small size of the filter  92  or  92 A for mounting within various existing packages. 
     The connections of the telephone signal lines in FIG. 1 are explained in greater detail in FIG.  14 . Various connectors through which the signal wires are routed are identified by the legends J 1 , J 17 , J 20  and  323 . The J 1  connector is located at the back plane  38  and provides for interconnection of the signal lines between respective ones of the filters  28  and other parts of the communication system  20 . Both tip and ring lines of a loop are shown, as well as tip and Wing lines of RADSL. Loop tip and ring lines are routed via the  317  connector to the lines F 4  (FIG.  1 ). Connection between the back plane  38  and lines  74  (FIG. 1) is made via the  20  connector. Connection between the back plane  38  and the RADSL is made via of the J 23  connector. 
     It is to be understood that the above described embodiments of the invention are illustrative only, and that modifications thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, this invention is not l be regarded as limited to the embodiments disclosed herein, but is to be limiter only as defined by the appended claims.