NTP NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 6 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 4. INTERNAL MAINTENANCE FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION (MAP) 4.01 The Maintenance and Administrative Position (MAP) is the primary interface between the Telco personnel and the DMS system. System tests, data interrogation and modification, and trouble analysis functions are provided. The MAP is designed to operate as a single entity for small office applications as well as a large system interface where several units can operate concurrently. It can be used in any of the maintenance and administrative environments in DMS. These include: - General maintenance; - Network Management; - Operational Measurements; - Service Analysis; - Trunk Test; - Data Modification; - Line Test. The MAP has three basic components, namely: the visual display unit (VDU), the communications module, and the position furniture. 4.02 The VDU is composed of a cathode ray tube display device and a typewriter-type keyboard for information entry. Using the VDU, and a telescoping process, Telco personnel can examine the system on several levels of detail. At each level of detail a menu of commands is displayed from which action requests can be selected. The result of a request is then displayed on the VDU. A printer associated with the VDU can be operated in parallel with it to provide a permanent copy of the display. Other printers or teletypes (TTY) can also be used for data entry and retrieval. 4.03 The communications module is based on a LOGIC 10 (Local use) or LOGIC 20 (Toll use) key telephone set. It provides the maintenance personnel with telephone links both within and out of the office and access to the office talk line. An automatic dialer, a hands-free unit and a headset may also be provided. A jack field on the position furniture is part of the trunk test facility. One jack can be used for Telco determined purposes such as connecting to a VF patch bay. The others connect to jack DMS 100 FAMILY MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS DESCRIPTION (c) NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED, 1978 NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 7 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 ended trunks through which access can be gained to any line or trunk in the office. Portable test equipment can be plugged into the jacks to perform various tests such as Echo Return Loss or Singing Point measurements. 4.04 The position furniture consists of table and shelf units which can be assembled in various configurations to provide work space and document storage for administrative or maintenance functions, and to mount the VDU and communications module components. 4.05 For more information on the MAP and it's use, refer to NTP 297-1001-110 DMS 100 Family Maintenance and Administration Position (MAP). The format, content, and classification of output messages available to the MAP user are described in NTP 297-1001-510 DMS 100 Family Output Commands Description. Input commands are dependant on the Maintenance Subsystem entered. They are described in the series of NTP's 297-1001-511 to 297-1001-518 inclusive, entitled (Maintenance Subsystem Name) Man Machine Interface Description. PERFORMANCE ORIENTED PRACTICE (POP) 4.06 The Performance Oriented Practice (POP) is a system of documentation designed to support the Telco in the operation and maintenance of the DMS 100 Family. The information it contains is of sufficient depth to support the inexperienced user but structured to permit the experienced user to bypass detailed instructions if the task can be performed from memory. 4.07 POP is task oriented rather than hardware or software oriented. It is accessed when a stimulus such as an alarm or trouble report is received. The instructions in POP then guide the user in performing the activities required to achieve the objective, i.e. retiring the alarm or clearing the trouble. Crossing hardware or software boundaries within or between subsystems does not generate a new task as long as the stimulus and objective remain the same. 4.08 The POP is packaged as an NTP. The Order procedures are separate from the Maintenance procedures. The maintenance POP is packaged as NTP 297-1001-500. For a detailed description of POP and it's use, refer to NTP 297-1001-040. DMS 100 FAMILY MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS DESCRIPTION (c) NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED, 1978 NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 8 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 FAULT ISOLATION AND RECOVERY 4.09 Fault isolation and recovery functions are performed by the maintenance system. Faults are detected by hardware such as parity check circuitry or by software checks such as checksums on messages. Isolation and recovery software locates the source of the fault, alerts office personnel and configures suspected equipment out of service to reduce the chance of affecting call processing. Diagnostics determine the cause of the fault. 4.10 The maintenance system is divided into ten subsystems. Each subsystem can diagnose faults only within it's range of responsibility. A diagnostic within a subsystem can be initiated by the same or another subsystem, the alarm system, or by maintenance personnel on a scheduled, system demand, or manual request basis. 4.11 In response to a diagnostic action the maintenance system sends a report to the maintenance terminal. There are four types of report, namely: error, diagnostic result, action taken, and status. 4.12 With the MAP facilities office personnel can use telescoping techniques to obtain ever-increasing detail about system operation until a fault is isolated to one or more replacable components. Defective components are identified in a list, and in order of most probably defective component, displayed on the VDU or teleprinter. 4.13 Details of the DMS Maintenance System can be found in NTP 297-1001-106 DMS 100 Family Maintenance System Description. SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE 4.14 The correct operation of the DMS 100 family switching systems is dependent upon the integrity of the software system. To ensure this integrity, hardware and software mechanisms are provided to continually verify its sanity. They include data table indexing range checks, audits of software structures, and a sanity timer which guards against software or micro-program loop errors not otherwise detectable. DMS 100 FAMILY MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS DESCRIPTION (c) NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED, 1978 NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 9 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 BOOTSTRAP LOADER 4.15 Bootstrapping is the process of a Central Control autonomously loading it's Program Store (PS) and Data Store (DS) from a bootstrap input device, eg. a Magnetic Tape Unit (MTU). The bootstrap loader is implemented in microcode (firmware) permanently located in the Read Only Memory (ROM) card of the CPU. Bootstrapping a DMS office can occur in one of three modes as follows: a) Dead Office mode b) Active Controlled mode c) Autoload mode All 3 modes share the same set of firmware. 4.16 Dead Office mode is used to load a nonfunctioning office. Telco personnel activate the loader by means of manual control switches located on the CPU, eg. the thumbwheel, DACT, and RESET. Progress reports identifying stages of initialization, error codes, load completion, etc. are made via the 2-digit display also located on the CPU. 4.17 The Active Controlled mode is used in a normally functioning office. The Active Central Control (CC) can process calls and, at the same time, control the bootstrap loader in the offline CC. The controlling and reporting procedures are implemented in the DMS high level language PROTEL, and are resident in PS. Manual controls by Telco personnel and loader activity reports are via the normal office I/O facilities, eg. a designated MAP or teleprinter. One use of this mode is to load a new generic program into the offline CC while the Active CC continues to run the office with the old generic. 4.18 The Autoload mode is similar to the Dead Office mode except that it is activated automatically when the system determines that the number of office re-initializations in a specified period of time have exceeded a threshold. When activated, the Autoloader proceeds to load the contents of an office image tape into PS and DS without manual intervention. This mode is particularly useful when an office is unattended. DMS 100 FAMILY MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS DESCRIPTION (c) NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED, 1978 NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 10 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 4.19 For detailed bootstrapping procedures, refer to the POP, NTP 297-1001-500. CALL TRACING 4.20 The call tracing facility can determine the characteristics of any connection set up through the office. It indicates where the specified circuit is connected in the office if a connection exists. If possible the path through the office will also be indicated. If no connection exists, the state of the circuit is determined. 4.21 Call trace requests are originated manually by Telco personnel or automatically by the system. Manual requests are initiated in the course of various maintenance procedures such as line or trunk testing. Automatic traces are initiated as a result of system detected troubles in the call connection or Telco initiated camp-on trace requests. 4.22 In both Local and Toll environments, trunks and service circuits can be traced. Local offices also provide Line Trace and Calling Line Identification facilities. These allow Telco personnel to camp-on a specified customer line by requesting an automatic trace of all calls originating on or terminating to that line every time it is involved in a call. This provides a powerful nuisance-call tracing function. 4.23 Manual requests and system outputs are made via a designated MAP or other I/O device. More details on call tracing can be found in NTP 297-1001-116 Manual Trunk Testing Description and NTP 297-YYYY-XXX Manual Line Testing Description. Call tracing procedures are detailed in POP NTP 297-1001-500. EQUIPMENT MANUAL MAKE BUSY 4.24 Equipment which is being routined or which has a service affecting fault can be made unavailable to call processing by the Manual-Make Busy facility (MMB). Using MMB, office personnel can isolate faults, perform routine maintenance on equipment, or extend an existing office without disrupting the system. All major equipment elements such as CMC, IOC, NM and PM as well as smaller equipment divisions such as communications busses (i.e. DMS 100 FAMILY MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TOOLS DESCRIPTION (c) NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED, 1978 NTP 297-1001-107 PAGE 11 PREL., ISSUE 01D01 June 22, 1978 the data port), network ports or channels, line circuits, and trunk circuits can be MMB. 4.25 Requests to make equipment MMB and system reports as to equipment status are made via the designated MAP or other I/O device. A request to make equipment MMB when it is already system made busy results in the system made busy status being overridden by the MMB request and a report issued to reflect the new busy status. If the equipment is traffic busy, the MMB request will 'camp-on' and become effective only when the equipment is idled. When the equipment does become MMB, a report is issued to that effect.