CLLI code

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CLLI code (sometimes referred to as CLLI name or Common Language Location Identifier Code, and often pronounced as silly) is a Common Language Information Services identifier used within the North American telecommunications industry to specify the location and function of telecommunications equipment or of a relevant location such as an international border or a supporting equipment location, like a manhole or pole. [1] Originally, they were used by Bell Telephone companies, but since all other telecommunications carriers needed to interconnect with the dominant Bell companies, CLLI code adoption eventually became universal. CLLI codes are now maintained and issued by iconectiv, which claims trademarks on the names "Common Language" and "CLLI". [1]

Contents

CLLI codes are useful to telecommunications companies for ordering phone service, for the rating of call detail records for billing purposes, and to assist in tracing calls. CLLI codes are associated with Vertical and Horizontal coordinates (frequently abbreviated to "V and H coordinates"), which were developed by AT&T researcher Jay K. Donald to provide a relatively simple method of calculating distance between two network locations. [2] Various mileage-sensitive services are priced according to the V and H coordinates associated with the two endpoints' CLLI codes. [2] [3]

Structure

The first six characters of a CLLI code represent the place the code refers to and contain two code elements:

For the various code formats, the remaining two or five characters contain one of:

There are four CLLI code formats.

Network Site Code Format

A Network Site code represents any existing or proposed building, structure, or enclosure, where there is a need to uniquely identify one or more network functions. Network Site codes are typically used to identify building locations, such as central office buildings.

Network Entity Code Format

CLLI codes in the Network Entity format are the most commonly used CLLI codes. Network Entity codes are eleven-character codes used to describe the location and function of network equipment.

Network Support Site Code Format

A Network Support Site code represents any non-building structures or outside plant equipment such as Wireless Access Points, International Boundary Crossing Points, End-Points, Fiber Nodes, Junctions, Manholes, Poles, Base Transceiver Station / Radio Equipment and Repeaters.

This format contains 6 characters representing location and a 5-character Network Support Site Code element.

The code for a communications satellite is STLT (satellite) EO (earth orbit) Q (radio location) then a four-digit identifier. [6]

Customer Site Code

A Customer Site code is used to uniquely identify customer locations. These locations are required to identify customers, circuit terminations, facilities, or equipment for each specific customer for facility provisioning or other requirements. This format contains 6 characters representing location and a 5-character Customer Site Code element.

Entities within client-owned buildings (such as Centrex installations) are coded in the same format as telephone company buildings.

Examples

HSTNTXMOCG0

This code shows two characteristics:

PTLDOR12DS0

Some telephone companies named their central offices, but did not reflect this name in the CLLI code, as in the above example with a numeric location code.

PTLEORTEDS0

The item to note in the above example is that Portland is usually abbreviated as "PTLD", but because of the relatively small number of possible combinations available in the two-character location code, the city abbreviation must occasionally be modified for locations added later, usually by incrementing the fourth character in the code.

DLLSTXRNDS1

Note that this location is actually in Richardson, Texas, not Dallas. [12] Apparently, the organizational structure of Southwestern Bell Telephone at the time considered Richardson to be within its own Dallas organization, although the cities themselves have always been legally separate.

SWASONXTSG1

NorthernTel's +1-705-642 exchange at 5 Cameron Avenue, Swastika was a throwback to a simpler era in which mechanical stepping switches rotated in response to dial pulses from rotary dial telephones. As a step-by-step exchange offers none of the calling features of an electronic or digital switch, these are becoming increasingly rare as mechanical switching equipment is displaced by electronics. This one held out a little longer than most as it was a small community in formerly independent telco territory, but was ultimately replaced by a digital remote station SWASONXTRSA controlled from Timmins TMNSONXTCG0. [14]

OTWAON080MD

Rogers is not a landline incumbent but a rival mobile telephone carrier with a block of 220000 Ottawa numbers. The Iona Street office (OTWAON08) is a co-location facility which hosts a landline exchange (incumbent Bell Canada's OTWAON08 -CG0) and three rival mobile switches (-0MD is Rogers, -3MD is Telus, -AMD is Bell Mobility), one for each major wireless carrier. [16]

Similar naming conventions apply for CLEC exchanges at a point of interconnection to incumbent carrier networks. The suffix -MD nominally refers to "miscellaneous other termination entities". [6]

MALTON22CG1

The city of Mississauga is a sprawling half-million person suburb directly west of Toronto. It is in Peel Region and therefore in a different local interconnection region, a different area code (905 instead of 416) and different, multiple rate centres (Clarkson, Streetsville, Cooksville, Malton, Port Credit; Bell Canada has no named "Mississauga" exchange despite the city's incorporation in 1973).

This individual exchange, MALTON22CG1, serves multiple rate centres with different local calling areas for each. It is located 1800 metres west of the boundary between Toronto and Mississauga, serving a major international airport (in Mississauga) and that airport's hotel strip (directly across the town line, therefore in Toronto). Callers from Markham would be a local call to the hotels but long-distance to the airport itself, even though both destinations are served by the same physical Digital Multiplex System switch.

This CLLI code identifies a wire centre (the location of the switch) only. A similar exchange on the other side of the town line (such as TOROON29DS0, located 900 metres east of Toronto's western city limits at 40 Old Burnhamthorpe Road, Etobicoke and serving multiple rate centres) would be issued a Toronto CLLI to reflect the location of the switch itself, but follow the same pattern of a more restrictive calling area for individual subscribers outside city limits. Wire centre CLLI codes therefore do not suffice to identify a rate centre or V/H co-ordinates for toll billing; any +1-416 numbers are billed as if they were in downtown Toronto.

WFISON15RS0

This is an unattended, automated remote switch housed in a small, square windowless brick building on a side street in Marysville village. It serves about 1400 people on Wolfe and Simcoe Islands in the Thousand Islands.

A Remote Switching Centre (RSC) has limited capability. It can operate autonomously to connect calls within the same exchange, but otherwise relies entirely on control via a single uplink to a host office (in this case, mainland Digital Multiplex System exchange KGTNON08CG0). [19]

An electronic or digital exchange in a small city surrounded by rural villages most often will act as an upstream host for multiple remote switching centres, one in each local village.

Related Research Articles

Present-day telecommunications in Canada include telephone, radio, television, and internet usage. In the past, telecommunications included telegraphy available through Canadian Pacific and Canadian National.

Telephony is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is intimately linked to the invention and development of the telephone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue box</span> Device for hacking telephone networks

A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. This allowed an illicit user, referred to as a "phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Numbering Plan</span> Integrated telephone numbering plan of twenty North American countries

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the telephone country code 1. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP.

Subscriber trunk dialling (STD), also known as subscriber toll dialing, is a telephone numbering plan feature and telecommunications technology in the United Kingdom and various Commonwealth countries for the dialling of trunk calls by telephone subscribers without the assistance of switchboard operators.

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The network consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables interconnected by switching centers, such as central offices, network tandems, and international gateways, which allow telephone users to communicate with each other.

In telephony, multi-frequency signaling (MF) is a type of signaling that was introduced by the Bell System after World War II. It uses a combination of audible tones for address transport and supervision signaling on trunk lines between central offices. The signaling is sent in-band over the same channel as the bearer channel used for voice traffic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Director telephone system</span> Telephone switching system used in the UK

The director telephone system was a development of the Strowger or step-by-step (SXS) switching system used in London and five other large cities in the UK from the 1920s to the 1980s.

The Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN) is a worldwide system of aeronautical fixed circuits provided, as part of the Aeronautical Fixed Service, for the exchange of messages and/or digital data between aeronautical fixed stations having the same or compatible communications characteristics. AFTN comprises aviation entities including: ANS providers, aviation service providers, airport authorities and government agencies, to name a few. It exchanges vital information for aircraft operations such as distress messages, urgency messages, flight safety messages, meteorological messages, flight regularity messages and aeronautical administrative messages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone exchange names</span> Alphabetic telephone numbering plan

A telephone exchange name or central office name was a distinguishing and memorable name assigned to a central office. It identified the switching system to which a telephone was connected, and facilitated the connection of telephone calls between switching systems in different localities.

A circuit ID is a company-specific identifier assigned to a data or voice network connection between two locations. This connection, often called a circuit, may then be leased to a customer referring to that ID. In this way, the circuit ID is similar to a serial number on any product sold from a retailer to a customer. Each circuit ID is unique, so a specific customer having many circuit connections sold to them would have many circuit IDs to refer to those connections. As an example of a use of the circuit ID, when a subscriber/customer has an issue with a circuit, they may contact the Controlling Local Exchange Carrier telecommunications provider, identifying the circuit that has the issue by giving the LEC that circuit ID reference. The LEC would refer to their internal records for this circuit ID to take corrective action on the designated circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">33 Thomas Street</span> Skyscraper in Manhattan, New York, owned by AT&T

33 Thomas Street is a 550-foot-tall (170 m) windowless skyscraper in Tribeca, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. The building stands on the east side of Church Street, between Thomas Street and Worth Street. The building is an example of the Brutalist architectural style. It is a telephone exchange or wire center building which contained three major 4ESS switches used for interexchange telephony, as well as a number of other switches used for competitive local exchange carrier services. However, it is not used for incumbent local exchange carrier services, and is not a central office. The CLLI code for this facility is NYCMNYBW. The building has also been described as the likely location of a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance hub codenamed TITANPOINTE.

Foreign exchange service (FX) is an access service in a telecommunications network in which a telephone in a given exchange area is connected, via a private line, as opposed to a switched line, to a telephone exchange or central office in another exchange area, called the foreign exchange, rather than the local exchange area where the subscriber station equipment is located.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">PSTN network topology</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone exchange</span> Interconnects telephones for calls

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telex</span> Switched network of teleprinters

Telex is a telecommunication service that provides text-based message exchange over the circuits of the public switched telephone network or by private lines. The technology operates on switched station-to-station basis with teleprinter devices at the receiving and sending locations. Telex was a major method of sending written messages electronically between businesses in the post–World War II period. Its usage went into decline as the fax machine grew in popularity in the 1980s.

Common Language Information Services encompasses several products that are in general use by the global telecommunications industry through license agreements. Common Language products combine numerics and mnemonics to establish naming conventions that telecommunication companies use to exchange critical information via Operations Support Systems and other interface mechanisms.

In the North American Numbering Plan, a rate center is a geographically-specified area used for determining mileage and/or usage dependent rates in the public switched telephone network.

References

  1. 1 2 "CLLI Codes Technical Description". Common Language Information Services. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 "The industry recognized source for routing and rating data". iconectiv.
  3. "High-Tech Dictionary - VOIP". ComputerUser, Inc. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  4. "Intercompany Responsibilities Within The Telecommunications Industry" (PDF). ATIS/NIIF 0015 Issue 1.0. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  5. 1 2 3 "Intercompany Responsibilities Within The Telecommunications Industry" (PDF). ATIS/NIIF 0015 Issue 1.0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2012-06-15.
  6. 1 2 3 4 CLLI code description, Bell System Practices (AT&T standard) Section 795-100-100 Issue 5, October 1982
  7. "West University Place city [ permanent dead link ]." United States Census Bureau . Retrieved on February 1, 2009.
  8. "Southwestern Bell exchange list". Southwestern Bell Telephone. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  9. "Telephone EXchange Name Project". Archived from the original on 3 December 1998. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  10. "Telcodata lookup". Telcodata.us. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  11. "Telcodata lookup". Telcodata.us. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  12. "Telcodata lookup". Telcodata.us. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  13. SWASONXTSG1 on telcodata.us
  14. "Local calling guide: NPA-NXX search".
  15. OTWAON080MD on localcallingguide.com
  16. OTWAON08 - Iona Street, Ottawa on localcallingguide.com
  17. "MALTON22CG1". Archived from the original on 2016-10-17.
  18. WFISON15RS0 on localcallingguide.com
  19. Despite the -CG0 suffix, Kingston's "LIberty 8" exchange (+1-613-54x-xxxx) is a Nortel DMS-100 per KGTNON08CG0 on telcodata.us