Method and apparatus for analyzing and mitigating noise in a digital subscriber line

An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform the following steps:

• receiving data indicative of a level of stability of a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) link;
• determining whether the data indicates a level of stability of the DSL link that is above or below a minimum threshold;
• if the level of stability of the DSL link is below the minimum threshold:
• comparing a noise level associated with the DSL link before a time of failure with a noise level associated with the DSL link after the time of failure;
• if a difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure exceeds a threshold, then characterizing the difference in noise as a stationary noise associated with the DSL link;
• if the difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure is below the threshold, investigating whether the failure is associated with a loss of power to the DSL link or a severe impulse noise event and characterizing the difference in noise accordingly;
• and
• recording the characterization of the noise associated with the DSL link.

A apparatus to characterize noise associated with a digital subscriber line (DSL) link, comprising:

• collecting means for receiving data indicative of a level of stability of a DSL link;
• analyzing means for:
• determining whether the data indicates a level of stability of the DSL link that is above or below a minimum threshold;
• if the level of stability of the DSL link is below the minimum threshold:
• comparing a noise level associated with the DSL link before a time of failure with a noise level associated with the DSL link after the time of failure;
• if a difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure exceeds a threshold, then characterizing the noise as a stationary noise associated with the DSL link;
• if the difference between the noise level before and after the time of failure is below the threshold, investigating whether the failure is associated with a loss of power to the DSL link or a severe impulse noise event and characterizing the noise accordingly;
• and
• recording the characterization of the noise associated with the DSL link.