Patent ID: 8428225

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of characterizing noise associated with a digital subscriber line (DSL) link, comprising: receiving at a controller data indicative of a level of stability of the DSL link; determining at the controller whether the data indicates a level of stability of the DSL link that is above or below a minimum threshold; if the level of stability of the DSL link is below the minimum threshold, the controller: comparing a noise level associated with the DSL link before a time of failure with a noise level associated with the DSL link after the time of failure; if a difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure exceeds a threshold, then characterizing the noise as a stationary noise associated with the DSL link; if the difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure is below the threshold, investigating whether the failure is associated with a loss of power to the DSL link or a severe impulse noise event and characterizing the noise accordingly; and recording the characterization of the noise associated with the DSL link.