Patent ID: 7003414

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of nodes providing signal channels pursuant to a single channel plan, said channel plan having predefined characteristics including at least a center frequency, a bandwidth and a power level of a carrier signal for each of the signal channels; a spectrum analyzer; a switch capable of connecting one of said nodes with said spectrum analyzer; and a controller controlling said switch to select said one node, said controller capable of monitoring signals on signal channels provided by said selected one node by conducting a test plan prescribing performance of an automated test which compares actual measured values from monitoring the signals with expected values indicated by the predefined characteristics of the channel plan and thereby produces a test result, said test plan further configured with an alarm limit, the controller further configured to compare the test result from said test with said alarm limit, the controller further configured to control said spectrum analyzer to perform a failure time spectrum scan when the test result exceeds said alarm limit, to generate a plot of power amplitude versus frequency over the frequency spectrum of said selected one node, and to display the generated plot.