What does this diagnostic output mean?

I recently had a fault with my broadband connection. It turned out to be a fault with the ISP's or teleco's equipment. My ISP posted this diagnostic, but while I understand it in general, I'd like to to know more about the details.

I'm assuming that ATM means Asynchronous Transfer Mode and PPP means Point to Point Protocol. It was this that my router was indicating as the fault.

xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status: Circuit In Sync

General Information
NTE Status: NTE Power Status: Unknown Bypass Status:

Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 9.0 17.0
SNR Margin: 25 15
Errored Seconds: 0 0
HEC Errors: 0
Cell Count: 0 0
Speed: 448 8128
TAM Status: Successfully executed operation

Network Test: Sub-Test Results
Layer Name Value Status
Modem pass
Transmitter Power (Upstream) 12.4 dBm
Transmitter Power (Downstream) 8.8 dBm
Upstream psd -38 dBm/Hz
Downstream psd -51 dBm/Hz
DSL pass
Equipment Vendor Name TSTC
Equipment Vendor Id n/a
Equipment Vendor Revision n/a
Training Time 8 s
Num Syncs 1
Upstream bit rate 448 kbps
Downstream bit rate 8128 kbps
Upstream maximum bit rate 1108 kbps
Downstream maximum bit rate 11744 kbps
Upstream Attenuation 3.5 dB
Downstream Attenuation 0.0 dB
Upstream Noise Margin 20.0 dB
Downstream Noise Margin 19.0 dB
Local CRC Errors 0
Remote CRC Errors 0
Up Data Path interleaved
Down Data Path interleaved
Standard Used G_DMT
INP
INP Upstream Symbols n/a
INP Upstream Delay 4 ms
INP Upstream Depth 4
INP Downstream Symbols n/a
INP Downstream Delay 5 ms
INP Downstream Depth 32
ATM Reason: No ATM cells received fail
Number of cells transmitted 30
Number of cells received 0
number of Near end HEC errors 0
number of Far end HEC errors n/a
PPP Reason: No response from peer fail
PAP authentication nottested
CHAP authentication nottested

UPDATE

I've just had a status update from my ISP:

The issue was with equipment and software at your local exchange which your services goes through

So no real help there in telling me whether it was a hardware or software problem.

dsl-modem

ChrisF

Posted 2010-12-27T11:37:07.490

Reputation: 39 650

Any particular bit? – Matthieu Cartier – 2010-12-27T12:30:49.227

@neurolysis - the bits that have fail next to them – ChrisF – 2010-12-27T18:39:24.427

Chris - I see your edit. That's your answer. The local exchange is the building that holds the other end of your phone line. What further answer are you looking for? They had a problem, they fixed it. What are you trying to find out, and why is this answer insufficient for you? Unless you were a telecom technician, more details won't help you out, and if you were a telecom technician, you'd be asking different questions. – mfinni – 2011-01-05T15:54:41.460

@mfinni - I was curious as to whether it was a hardware or software issue. Saying "it was at the exchange" doesn't really answer that question. – ChrisF – 2011-01-05T16:00:37.463

They claim that it's both. Why does it matter to you? If you need more details, you can keep asking them and they may or may not give you answers that matter to you. None of us work there, so we can't give you the details you're after. – mfinni – 2011-01-05T16:04:00.207

@mfinni - I was hoping that the diagnostics would indicate which it was, but if that's not the case then that's the answer. – ChrisF – 2011-01-05T16:04:55.917

OK - you're asking for way more details than an ISP would typically give an end-user. They showed you a trace from DSL equipment that found a problem at the ATM layer. The fixed the error and you're back up. Unless you're a telecom tech, telling you what was wrong won't mean much to you, and even if you were a tech but didn't work there, it still might not mean that much. Someone may have accidentally disabled your port. A line card may have fried. Who knows? Why does it matter? – mfinni – 2011-01-05T16:08:33.107

@mfinni - curiosity, pure and simple ;) – ChrisF – 2011-01-05T16:18:02.227

Understood - if you want more true understanding of this stuff, you're just about going to have to go to work for an ISP or other telecom provider, or work for a company that has a lot of telecom needs. – mfinni – 2011-01-05T16:27:41.397

Answers

to put dsl broadband to the most basic level, the telephone cable comes out at the exchange and goes in to splitter equipment, half goes to the telco/phone side, other goes to the ISP.

ATM is basically a physical transfer layer, it is level 1 on the OSI model, and used as the physical link.

PtPP gets performed at the link layer, it needs a physical connection (in your case, ATM) and is basically responsible for linking your device (in this case, a router) to the endpoint within your ISP.

So, from that log, ATM tried to transmit 30 frames/cells, but none were received back - a dead connection, or no one on the other end. Because of this, no PtPP can be established.

William Hilsum

Posted 2010-12-27T11:37:07.490

Reputation: 111 572

Given that there was nothing wrong with my hardware, where would have the fault been? – ChrisF – 2010-12-27T18:40:11.477

It is hard to know for certain without knowing your ISP's network, however, I would say that the problem was most likely at the local exchange as ATM is usually the earlies part of the connection. If it was within your ISP, it would most likely be ATM works but PtPP fail. The most common reason, believe it or not is network technicians unplugging incorrect cables. – William Hilsum – 2010-12-29T03:09:01.963

+1, A DSL modem communicates with DSLAM equipment, which is what the test was run on (apparently). The ATM section shows cells trasmitted, and no near end failures, so the first hop in the ATM network worked, but something later didn't. It's impossible to tell exactly where, but one can assume it was a downed link in the ISDN/SoNet/Etc network. Most of these backhauls are redundant, so it's strange that it failed, but it happens. – Chris S – 2010-12-29T16:50:46.997

Given that you have told us that the ISP said the fault was on their equipment, what is it that you want us to tell you? They didn't have a fault on the line, because you have modem and DSL as a "PASS", so it was somewhere in their ATM equipment, most likely.

mfinni

Posted 2010-12-27T11:37:07.490

Reputation: 526

It's largely curiosity and wanting to know why something suddenly failed. – ChrisF – 2010-12-28T14:09:14.990

So ask them... Unless we worked there, we can't tell you any more than you've already been told. – mfinni – 2010-12-28T14:11:18.663