Figure 1: Remote and Local T3 Loopback

To configure loopback capability on a T3 interface, include the loopback statement at the [edit interfaces interface-name t3-options] hierarchy level:

Packets can be looped on either the local router or the remote CSU. Local and remote loopback loop back both data and clocking information.

To exchange BERT patterns between a local router and a remote router, include the loopback remote statement in the interface configuration at the remote end of the link. From the local router, you issue the test interface command.

For more information about configuring BERT, see Interface Diagnostics. For more information about using operational mode commands to test interfaces, see the Junos OS Operational Mode Commands.

For channelized T3, T1, and NxDS0 IQ interfaces only, you can include the loopback payload statement in the configuration to loop back data only (without clocking information) on the remote router’s PIC. In payload loopback, overhead is recalculated. For T3 IQ interfaces, you can include the loopback payload statement at the [edit interfaces ct3-fpc/pic/port] and [edit interfaces t3-fpc/pic/port:channel] hierarchy levels. For T1 interfaces, you can include the loopback payload statement in the configuration at the [edit interfaces t1-fpc/pic/port:channel] hierarchy level; it is ignored if included at the [edit interfaces ct1-fpc/pic/port] hierarchy level. For NxDS0 interfaces, payload and remote loopback are the same. If you configure one, the other is ignored. NxDS0 IQ interfaces do not support local loopback.

To determine whether a problem is internal or external, you can loop packets on both the local and the remote router. To do this, include the no-keepalives and encapsulation cisco-hdlc statements at the [edit interfaces interface-name] hierarchy level and the loopback local statement at the [edit interfaces interface-name t3-options] hierarchy level, as shown in the following example:

With this configuration, the link stays up, so you can loop ping packets to a remote router. The loopback local statement causes the interface to loop within the PIC just before the data reaches the transceiver.

To turn off the loopback capability, remove the loopback statement from the configuration:

You can determine whether there is an internal problem or an external problem by checking the error counters in the output of the show interface interface-name extensive command, for example:

For channel 0 on channelized interfaces only, you can include the loopback statement at the [edit interfaces interface-name interface-type-options] hierarchy level. The loopback setting configured for channel 0 applies to all channels on the channelized interface. The loopback statement is ignored if you include it at this hierarchy level in the configuration of other channels. To configure loopbacks on individual channels, you must include the channel-type-options loopback statement in the configuration for each channel. This allows each channel to be put in loopback mode independently.

For example, for DS3 channels on a channelized OC12 interface, the sonet-options loopback statement is supported only for channel 0; it is ignored if included in the configuration for channels 1 through 11. The SONET loopback configured for channel 0 applies to all 12 channels equally. To configure loopbacks on the individual DS3 channels, you must include the t3-options loopback statement in the configuration for each channel. This allows each DS3 channel can be put in loopback mode independently.