Portable DSL Line Tester

Rugged line-powered handset for copper/DSL line qualification.

A line-powered portable test handset for technicians installing and maintaining copper telephone lines — measuring impedance, noise and baseband/FFT response to qualify lines for DSL.

We designed a portable Test Telephone handset for technicians installing and maintaining copper telephone lines. The test handset is line-powered, and measures line impedance, noise, baseband and FFT analysis to measure frequency and pulse transmission capability, to verify the quality of installations for DSL. At the time the product was developed, this required significant research into low-power but high computational power digital signal processing. The product has a reputation for being robust and is still considered one of the standards in the field.

Core Capabilities

Field-grade line qualification powered entirely from the line under test.

• Line-powered operation — No batteries — drawn entirely from the line under test.
• Impedance, noise & FFT — Baseband and FFT analysis to qualify lines for DSL.
• Low-power DSP — High computational throughput at very low power.
• Field-proven robustness — Long regarded as a standard handset in the field.
• Line-powered — No external supply needed
• Impedance / noise / FFT — Measurements for DSL