Network Warrior, 2nd Edition

Troubleshooting T1s

The first step in troubleshooting a T1 is to determine where the problem lies. Usually, it’s cabling-, hardware-, or telco-related. Running some simple tests can help you determine what steps to take. All of these tests are invasive, which means you must take the T1 out of service to perform them.

Loopback Tests

Loopback tests involve setting one piece of equipment to a loopback state and sending data over the link. The data should return to you exactly as you sent it. When the data does not come back as expected, something has happened to alter it. Figure 21-9 shows how a loopback test might fail.

Figure 21-9. Conceptual loopback test failure

When you perform a loopback test, failed results won’t typically be as clean as ones being changed into zeros. Usually, the problem is more electrical in nature, like the scenario shown in Figure 21-10, or framing errors cause the data to become entirely unreadable.

Figure 21-10. BPVs seen during loopback test

When you’re performing loopback tests, the logical way to proceed is to start at one end of the link and move across it until the symptom appears.

CSU/DSUs generally offer the option of setting multiple types of loopback, which greatly assists in this process: you can usually set a loopback at the interface connecting the T1 ...