Sarts — an overview of remote special-service testing in the bell system

As the telephone system has grown, it has become increasingly complex. Dedicated facilities and equipment began to be offered to customers on a full-time basis. Growth of these types of services, called “special” services, presently exceed message-service growth. Because access to these types of circuits is difficult to achieve without personnel interaction or high capital investment for access relays, automation for remote testing in these services has lagged the switched message network. This paper traces testing evolution in this area and suggests the economic and service pressures that led to the concept of Switched Access Remote Testing (SARTS). We describe SARTS generally, to prepare the reader for the following and future papers that describe hardware and software in detail. The total Special Service Center (SSC) concept provides testing support for installation and maintenance within a structured organization and records and administrative system. The aim is to provide one person with control and testing of a large variety of circuits, on an end-to-end basis.