Field tracking is a controlled study of a population of electronic equipment under field operating conditions. A field tracking study (FTS) is primarily used to evaluate product reliability performance in order to verify product conformance to reliability objectives and requirements. The planning, implementation, and analysis of FTSs are described with reference to practical experience with tracking studies on numerous digital transmission systems.>

The D5 Digital Terminal System is the new generation of channel banks. It is an automated transmission terminal system with stored-program control, and uses state of the art hardware and software. The D5 system has an extensive program to ensure high reliability and quality which includes the following elements: objectives and budgeting, reliability studies,hardware reliability enhancement, software quality assurance, qualification, production quality, and tracking. This paper discusses this comprehensive program, generic in nature, from the design stage through the field tracking of the product. While the investment in the program is not small, it has paid for itself many times over.