Patent ID: 8902958

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a programmable processor to execute machine instructions obtained from a memory of the programmable processor to implement a data collector, the data collector operative to: receive first data indicative of at least one digital subscriber line (DSL) characteristic from a first data source; receive second data indicative of at least one DSL characteristic from a second data source, the second data source being different than, and not connected or associated with, the first data source; check the integrity of the first data and the second data; and check the consistency of the first data and the second data; and the programmable processor further to execute machine instructions obtained from the memory of the programmable processor to implement a data combiner, the data combiner operative to: logically or heuristically combine the first data and the second data; and probabilistically combine the first data and the second data to estimate at least one DSL characterizing parameter given at least one conditional probability.