A Theory of Impulse Noise in Telephone Networks

This paper presents a physical theory of impulse noise in telephone networks based on the assumption that impulsive disturbances can reverberate through a network for very long periods of time. A mechanism of regeneration and propagation of disturbances through signaling circuits is proposed, and the resulting reverberation is modeled as a random walk in one dimension. Theoretical results agree surprisingly well with empirical probability distributions of inter-error intervals in data transmission. However, direct experimental evidence is lacking to substantiate (or disprove) the physical mechanism on which the theory is based.