Tandem Connection Monitoring - Who has caused the impairment?

Global liberalization in the telecom sector has lead to a virtual mushrooming of new network operators and service providers. International joint ventures and new urban network operators are increasing the degree of entanglement as more and more communication resources are leased.

Larger network operators control huge networks of their own, but smaller network operators find it more economical to lease network resources. In technical terms, the result is that complete SDH paths can be routed via networks from different providers.

Smooth operation is the rule. But when faults and impairments do occur, the going gets tough. Who guarantees transmission quality? Who is responsible if end users complain of poor quality of service? Otherwise stated: Who has caused the impairment?

Synchronous systems have a way of dealing with such issues. It is known as

Tandem Connection Monitoring - TCM

Download the TCM Application Note (430K)