Methods and apparatuses for determining loop characteristics using an extended voice-band modem

A machine-readable medium that provides executable instructions, which when executed by a processing system, cause said processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving one or more sets of downstream multi-carrier tones over a local loop;
• transmitting upstream multi-carrier tones;
• sampling the downstream carrier tones to generate a first multi-tone signal, the first multi-tone signal having a plurality of component frequencies within a spectrum band of an extended voice-based modem;
• sampling the upstream carrier tones to generate a second multi-tone signal, the second multi-tone signal having a plurality of component frequencies within the spectrum band;
• dividing a signal power of at least one component frequency of the first multi-tone signal by a signal power of at least one component frequency of the second multi-tone signal to determine a ratio value;
• and
• determining a characteristic of the local loop based upon the ratio value.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• an extended voice-band modem;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon one or more executable instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to receive one or more sets of downstream multi-carrier tones over a local loop, transmit upstream multi-carrier tones, sample the downstream carrier tones to generate a first multi-tone signal having a plurality of component frequencies within a spectrum band of the extended voice-based modem, sample the upstream carrier tones to generate a second multi-tone signal having a plurality of component frequencies within the spectrum band, divide a signal power of at least one component frequency of the first multi-tone signal by a signal power of at least one of the component frequencies of the second multi-tone signal to determine a ratio value, and determine a characteristic of the local loop based upon the ratio value.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• an extended voice-band modem;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon one or more executable instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to receive one or more sets of downstream multi-carrier tones over a local loop, transmit upstream multi-carrier tones, sample the downstream carrier tones into a multi-tone signal having a plurality of component frequencies within a spectrum band of the extended voice-based modem;
• divide the plurality of component frequencies of the multi-tone signal into a lower frequency set of component frequencies and a higher frequency set of component frequencies, divide a signal power of the lower frequency set of component frequencies by a signal power of the higher frequency set of component frequencies to determine a ratio value, and determine a characteristic of the local loop based upon the ratio value.