Loop Plant Electronics: Maintenance and Administration of Loop Electronics

A watchword in our telephone system today is reliability. Since the loop is an element in every customer's telephone circuit, its reliable performance is essential. However, when loop electronic devices such as pair gain systems are employed, equipment is added to the loop and the potential for failure is increased. It is one purpose of this paper to present the maintenance philosophy, procedures and features for the SLCm-40, SLCTM-8, and LSS systems. The other purpose is to describe the administration of such loop pair gain systems. Since pair gain systems encompass only a small percentage of loops in any operating company district, maintenance procedures must be designed to fit within the existing operational structure. Therefore, it is appropriate to briefly define the current loop operations environment. 1055 1.1 Loop operations environment In the loop area the Customer Services Department is responsible for assignment, installation and maintenance of telephone service. The assignment of a particular facility to a customer's order for telephone service is accomplished by the Assignment Center. Assigners use records of cables, crossconnection boxes, and distribution cable terminals to select a spare facility from the customer's home back to the serving central office. Their facility assignment is then forwarded to the installation forces for completion. The installation forces are responsible for installing the customer's station sets, wiring his home, installing drop wires and interconnecting cable pairs in crossconnection boxes.