atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Caller id issue

I’m not going to be any help the original problem/question as I’ve never seen intermittent problems with Caller ID… But seems some posters were not familiar with the acronym “OE” … That’s “Office Equipment.” (Also known in some parts as LEN.) It’s the line side port of the C. O. switch. Testing there does remove all cable and cable length concerns.

Like I said in an earlier post, I’m not familiar with the Siemens switch. I know that the OEs have been changed. We’re they changed in such a manner that the line was moved to a location in the switch that would share no common cabling or equipment with the original OEs? In a 5E switch I would suggest moving to another Line Unit or another SM. I don’t know the equivalent in a Siemens. Someone mentioned deleting and rebuilding the line. I have seen this work before on flakey troubles. Let us know the outcome. I’ve never encountered the type of trouble that you’re describing.

I must agree. There have been WAY too many posts to a legitimate topic with customer-premise or OSP wiring suggestions. Come on guys, read the entire thread before you throw in less than two cents worth. A problem tested at the CO main frame pretty much rules out "CAT5" station wiring BS suggestions (that was an exaggeration). A CO main frame is nothing like a few blocks placed on the wall for a key system by any stretch of the imagination. Please read the entire thread before you post; you aren't helping anybody by tossing in Community College Telecom 101 suggestions to a seasoned telco technician.

It's great to offer assistance, but some posts in this thread are clearly indicative of no prior review. Rest assured, a telco technician with 40 years' experience doesn't need to be told to "test it at the demarc".

I will say that the Siemens ESWD does have a mind of it's own. I will also say that I've heard from a few local Verizon techs in this area that phantom problems seem to be shelf-related if that offers any help. If the OE used for replacement is in the same shelf or bay, the problem will continue.

Is this a stand-alone or a remote? A question worth asking.

I am not sure what is meant by stand-alone. The switch is located in a manned central office. Of the 7 lines in question, none are in the same shelf. This was something I thought of right off the bat. I can't seem to find anything in commen, except they all originate in the same office. I appreciate the help. By the way, I have 13 years with MaBell. The central office tech has the 40.

A stand-alone switch is sometimes called a Host. It has the central processer, handles the billing, and has most of the trunking. A remote is a switch without a central processer and it has limited trunking and billing capacity. It is connected to a Host switch by either T1s or by some type of higher speed fiber or radio facility. It could be a particular T1 or facility that is causing the problem.

I’m assuming the Siemens will allow detailed call traces to be done. Why not make your test calls while the C.O. tech does call traces. When you hit a failure, maybe the call traces will point to a specific path. Maybe repeated test calls will point to a failure.

Someone asked if the failures seemed to happen at certain times. If they do, maybe the switch has some hourly or quarter hour reports that have some information that would match the time of the failures.

Unless it's changed that would be a tandem switch. The way I'm reading Phony it's the CO switch.

Hey, Phony McRingring (hehehe… that user-name cracks me up) … Where are all these calls that you test for CID coming from?

Here’s why I ask… Is it possible you have a faulty or ill provisioned trunk group INTO the switch that’s not delivery the CID info for the local switch to pass on?

What I was referring to is the C.O. switch or the Class 5 switch. Maybe different companies use different terminology. Tandem switches that I dealt with were further up the chain. They had trunk fields terminating from and to the Class 5 offices. They routed the calls between Class 5’s and to other Tandems. What I was used to was in the 5E world was you had the Host or stand-alone switch. You had RSMs (Remote Switch Modules) or ORMs (Optical Remote Modules) that were connected to the host. The RSMs connected via T1 umbilicals. If memory serves me correctly the ORMs connected by a minimum of 4 T3s. There may be newer technology available now. In the DMS there were similar configurations. The remotes used to be referred to as REMs.

The DMS or 5E Host handles the bulk of the billing and trunking. The generic program resides in the central processor of the Host or stand-alone switch. The various types of remote switches function in much the same manner as an SM or PE Bay in the Host C.O. They can continue to process calls if the path to the Host is cut. The call processing is usually limited to calls within the module. There could be some calls outside the module if it is equipped with any trunking equipment. Usually a 911 emergency function is available.

The test calls I made came from either my cell phone, or a line in the central office. Unfortunately, the job was passed on to a switch expert and I have not been contacted by anyone involved since Friday afternoon. I may not ever find out what happened. I did ask the manager who escalated the job to let me know, but I do not have a lot of faith that will happen. Thanks again.

In any scientific endeavor, tests must be made with the fewest possible unforeseen variables.

With all due respect for your experience and diligence, (and we are impressed with both) every time you tell us more info, you make the detective work harder, rather than easier.

It is quite late in the game to admit that some of your test calls were from a cell phone. That in itself introduces a plethora of variables that can skew the results of your testing.

Telephone problems, while seemingly complex at first, can generally be reduced to a set of variables that is not unwieldy. As a wit on this forum often says, "It's all tip and ring."

We old farts do not consider a cell phone to be useful for anything resembling real telephony, especially when trying to test CO weirdness.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but we all have been there, done that, and we are sympathetic.