Patent ID: 6975706

Claim:
A method of determining the location of an open fault along a wireline, serving digital subscriber equipment at a location remote with respect to a central office facility, said location of said fault being determined relative to a line card installed in said central office facility, said method comprising the steps of: (a) applying an electrical stimulus to said wireline from said line card; and (b) at said line card, measuring capacitance parameters of said wireline in response to said electrical stimulus applied in step (a), and determining from said measured capacitance parameters the distance from said line card to said open fault; and wherein step (a) comprises applying a prescribed frequency to said wireline, and step (b) comprises measuring admittances of tip and ring portions of said wireline to derive a sum distance value representative of the sum value of conductor lengths of tip and ring portions of said wireline and the difference value between conductor lengths of said tip and ring portions of said wireline, and processing said sum and difference values to determine the distance from said line card to said open fault.