Automated trouble-shooting mechanism resident in craftsperson's portable test and communications device

A trouble-shooting mechanism is incorporated into a telephone service technician's portable computer unit, to enable a craftsperson, to respond to a trouble ticket. By analyzing multiple sources of information, including user inputs from the craftsperson, parametric data embedded in the trouble ticket, test data obtained through t he execution of local tests, and remote test data, the trouble-shooting mechanism derives and suggests a problem solving strategy that is appears accurate. The system architecture includes a trouble-shooting application engine, and an associated set of databases, one of which is a knowledge database, and the other of which is a shared, parameter database. The knowledge database contains rules and static parameters which define the characteristics and behavior of the application engine. These rule sets and information are telephone line trouble-shooting specific.