North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: MCI WorldCom fiber cut - Syracuse, NY
Let's not forget backhoe-operator school. Probably about 6 hours are dedicated to safety around power lines, gas lines, etc. I don't think "other utility" services and even mentioned. Deepak Jain AiNET On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Matthew D. Lammers wrote: > > Andrew, by far one of the best explanations I've read! Excellent > illustrations. You're suppositions are indeed correct. > > In addition to which, fiber doesn't emit a nice electrical signature that > can be detected easily, making it hard to avoid. Plastic, glass, > fiberglass, kevlar and the other elements of most fiber runs lay invisible > to many detection devices that rely upon metals content or electrical > impulse emission (crosstalk, noise, EMF...) for detection purposes. > > Now, some have written that we should encase these things with various > high-strength metals. I'm not willing, as an end consumer, to bear the > increased overall costs being passed to me, because $VBC laid 10,000 miles > (16 000 km) of protectively-encased fiber. Costs would be staggering. In > addition, repairs and splices more difficult in those situations where a > backhoe manages to ding up one of these things and cause an actual cut. > > In my part of Ohio, the engineering maps get updated way to infrequently > to suit my comfort level. We have a 3 year old fiber run into our NOC > that is still not known to most of the high-cap techs that come out here. > In fact, the local gas company was boring new pipe into the ground a few > months ago, and weren't even aware of the fiber laying 50 feet (17 m) > away. All other services we're clearly marked. As already stated, since > fiber doesn't kill, people are complacent and wreckless around it. > > -Matt. > > > > Andrew Odlyzko wrote a while back: > < > < > < Could the explanation be simpler? Effects of gas pipeline and > < water main breaks tend to be localized because they supply > < commodity goods, and there is local storage (and, especially in > < case of water, local supplies) of those. Hence such breaks > < affect fewer people. The gas supply to my kitchen does not > < depend on maintenance of uniform pressure in all the gas pipelines > < from the well off the shore of Louisiana all the way to New Jersey; > < my supplier has enough gas stored around here to keep pumping for > < quite a while even if a pipeline in Kentucky is cut. On the other > < hand, when a fiber gets cut in Ohio, and I am trying to get some > < bits from California, it does not help me to know that somebody > < in Pennsylvania has terabits on her server that she is willing > < to ship to me. > < > < Andrew > < > > > -- > Matthew D. Lammers, > Columbus, Ohio, US > >
|