Networking / Beginners

Getting the Basics of Dedicated Outbound Troubleshooting

When you troubleshoot a dedicated circuit, you do it in the reverse order that you troubleshoot switched phone lines. If you have a problem calling Hoboken, New Jersey, on a switched phone line, for example, you should perform your troubleshooting before you call your carrier and open up a trouble ticket. When it comes to dedicated circuits, however, you begin your troubleshooting after you open the ticket.

The reason you should open your trouble ticket forthwith is because you don't have many testing options on a circuit without the aid of a technician from your carrier. You might know that your circuit isn't working, but only your carrier can tell that 10 of your channels are in an RMB state and 14 are in IDL. Even if you know the problem you are experiencing is caused by your hardware, you should still open a trouble ticket to receive help validating the source.

Remember The troubleshooting steps in this tutorial deal with a simple dedicated long-distance voice circuit with one local loop provider. If you have a type 2 or type 3 circuit that involves more than one carrier to deliver the local loop, the troubleshooting process is more involved. One thing I do suggest is that you put all the carriers involved in your circuit on a conference call at the same time.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Troubleshooting Your Dedicated Circuits
  2. Identifying the Level of Your Problem
  3. Identifying circuit variables in circuits that are DS-3 or larger
  4. Identifying DS-1-level circuit variables
  5. Identifying DS-0 or individual channel issues
  6. Categorizing the Nature of Your Problem
  7. Understanding dedicated call quality issues
  8. Understanding circuit failure issues
  9. Opening a Trouble Ticket for Your Dedicated Circuit
  10. Letting your channels be your guide
  11. Remembering the first rule of troubleshooting
  12. Remote made busy: RMB
  13. Installation made busy: IMB
  14. Avoiding permanent IMB status
  15. Managing Your Dedicated Trouble Ticket
  16. Getting the Basics of Dedicated Outbound Troubleshooting
  17. Step 1: Rebooting your hardware
  18. Understanding your trouble ticket options
  19. Step 2: Intrusively testing: Looping the CSU
  20. If looping the CSU fails
  21. Using a T-1 test set
  22. Step 3: Looping the NIU
  23. Getting the scoop on loops
  24. Step 4: Looping to your T-1 jack
  25. If you can't loop the T-1 jack
  26. Step 5: Looping the CFA point
  27. Following a Dedicated Troubleshooting Shortcut
  28. Validating the Circuit You Are Testing
  29. The Basics of Dedicated Toll-Free Troubleshooting
  30. Step 1: Identifying a provisioning issue
  31. Step 2: Redialing your dedicated toll-free number
  32. Step 3: Validating your dedicated RespOrg
  33. Step 4: Validating the DNIS configuration
  34. Step 5: Head-to-head dedicated toll-free testing