larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (08/23/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0307m08@vector.dallas.tx.us> myerston@cts.sri.com writes: > Maybe EVERYBODY is right. What is Central Office is called depends > largely on who you talk to and what you are talking about. Some > (maybe not all) variations: > o Base/Control Group. What the engineers call it. Used to be > assigned by Western Electric. Base unique to location, > control group to switching entity. Form XXXX-CX as in > 6A97-C4 equals a 1AESS in LA Grand (see below) > o Common Language ID. A combination of the place name > contracted (they spell out how) and, if necessary, a number. > PLALCA02 equals Palo Alto, California 02. I >think< that > this is where the billing location comes from. > ... The writer of the above articles mentions Common Language, which is a somewhat arcane [to the uninitiated, at least] method of standardizing designations for central office, outside plant and customer locations, along with standardizing designations and options for transmission and certain types of switching apparatus. The Common Language Identification Code system was developed by AT&T as a standard means of describing customer and telephone company facilities and circuits on a world-wide basis. However, the particular usage of the Common Language codes as mentioned in the referenced article is not correct, unless it is someone else's Common Language. :-) There are two types of Common Language coding, one for locations and one for transmission/switching equipment, but I will confine myself to the particular case of locations, which are referred to as CLLI (Common Language Location Identification), and are an 11-character mnemonic code in the form of AAAA-AA-NN-XXX or AAAA-AA-XXXXX, which further breaks down as follows: Character Positions 1-4 = Place Abbreviation Character Positions 5-6 = State, Province or Territory of Canada, or country Character Positions 7-11 = Location within the place In the case of telephone company buildings, character positions 7 and 8 form a building code, and 9 to 11 form a building subdivision, Traffic Unit, Plant Unit or Administrative Unit. Place codes used to be assigned solely by the Bell System Common Language Bureau which was part of Bell Telephone Labs; this function is now some part of AT&T, but I don't know the exact department or location. An example of the CLLI data listing for the CO where I live is: CLCT-NY-CC-CG0, where CLCT refers to Clarence Center, CC refers to a central office building location, and CG0 refers to an ESS end office, "unit" 0. An alternative method of encoding the above (which was NOT implemented) would be CLCT-NY-CC-741, where the 741 is the ANC (All Number Code). Note that there is no area code imbedded in the CLLI data. The rules for CLLI encoding are complex and arcane beyond belief, and in many instances character positions 7 to 11 are hardly mnemonic in nature. When my CO was a 35E97 SxS and was located in a different building (a new building was built for the 3ESS), the CLLI was: CLCT-NY-MA-SG1. There is a slight significance to the building codes CC and MA: CC no doubt refers to Clarence Center Rd. where the new CO is located, and MA referred to Maple St. where the old CO was located. Intuitive, huh? I'll give a few more CLLI examples just to show how this works: BFLO-NY-BA-891 Buffalo, NY Bailey Ave. CO, 891 1ESS apparatus BFLO-NY-BA-F10 Buffalo, NY Bailey Ave. CO, MDF location BFLO-NY-BA-AT4 Buffalo, NY Bailey Ave. CO, Traffic Assignment Office BFLO-NY-BA-01T Buffalo, NY Bailey Ave. CO, EAS tandem apparatus BFLO-NY-CH-001 Buffalo, NY Children's Hospital centrex apparatus located on customer premises BFLO-NY-SP-822 Buffalo, NY South Park CO, 822 1ESS apparatus BFLO-NY-SP-AT3 Buffalo, NY South Park CO, Traffic Assignment Office BFLO-NY-SP-A10 Buffalo, NY South Park CO, COSMOS computer There will be a surprise quiz on CLLI codes next week. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"