Determining cable attenuation and loss of signal threshold

1. A method of assessing attenuation of a pulsed signal traversing a cable, comprising:

identifying a pulse in a signal received after traversing a cable;

determining first and second reference signal levels in dependence upon characteristics of the pulse;

measuring the slope of the pulse between the first and second reference signal levels;

determining an indication of cable attenuation from the measured slope;

measuring the magnitude of multiple samples of the signal;

identifying samples which occurred during a pulse in the signal;

counting the number of samples which occurred as the pulse varied between the first and second signal levels; and

determining the indication of cable attenuation as a function of the number of samples counted.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said successive samples of the signal are stored in successive locations in a memory, and the first and second reference signal levels are determined by scanning the memory locations in a reverse order to the order in which the samples were stored therein.

3. The method of claim 1 , including the step of determining a loss of signal threshold as a function of the cable attenuation.

4. A method of assessing attenuation of a pulsed signal traversing a cable, comprising:

identifying a pulse in a signal received after traversing a cable;

determining first and second reference signal levels in dependence upon characteristics of the pulse;

measuring the slope of the pulse between the first and second reference signal levels; and

determining an indication of cable attenuation from the measured slope,

wherein the first and second reference levels are 25% and 75% of the peak magnitude of the pulse.

5. An apparatus for assessing attenuation of a pulsed signal traversing a cable, comprising:

means for identifying a pulse in a signal received after traversing a cable;

means for determining first and second reference signal levels in dependence upon characteristics of the pulse;

means for measuring the slope of the pulse between the first and second reference signal levels; and

means for determining an indication of cable attenuation from the measured slope;

means for measuring the magnitude of multiple samples of the signal;

means for identifying samples which occurred during a pulse in the signal;

means for counting the number of samples which occurred as the pulse varied between the first and second signal levels; and

means for determining the indication of cable attenuation as a function of the number of samples counted.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , including a memory for storing said successive samples of the signal in successive locations of the memory, and wherein the means for determining first and second reference signal levels scans the memory locations in a reverse order to the order in which the samples were stored therein.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the first and second reference levels are 25% and 75% of the peak magnitude of the pulse.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 , including means for determining a loss of signal threshold as a function of the cable attenuation.