North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Greener grass on the other side of the fence
I've worked in technical management at both MCI and Pacific Bell. Take my word for it, DAIL-TONE is a miracle, a miracle that it's there. At 05:40 AM 6/29/98 -0500, Sean Donelan wrote: >>As an aside, it always amazes me that the Internet even works (particularly >>for an infrastructure that the unwashed masses seems to think will replace >>the existing telephone network), but I guess the same could be said of any >>chaotic (in the non-linear sense) system... > >I'm not sure the telephone network is really that robust. Think about >the SS7 network and a world with 50,000 CLEC's. Like most things, you >don't want to really know what's in the sausage. Some systems are designed >with a high degree of control, so everything works correctly. But they >often have the property of catastrophic failure when any part fails to >work perfectly, such as the cascading failures of the western power grid >last year. > >Central, hierarchial control is alluring. But there are still trade-offs. >It used to take a week (or more) to add/change/update network routes in >the prdb (and its predecessors). Perhaps acceptable when the central >control was working, but it also took that long to fix things when the >central database was screwed up. If you were really lucky, you might >be able to convince someone to do an 'emergency' change in a day or two. > >We (myself included) often express amazament how the network manages to >continue functioning. However, the system might not be as out-of-control >as some people think. It is definitely chaotic. On the other hand, it >has shown itself remarkably resiliant to the many evil things people >and nature have done. > >I'll note I'm writing this note while watching white scan lines roll over >my highly reliable TCI cable service, NOT! >-- >Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO > Affiliation given for identification not representation > ___________________________________________________ Roeland M.J. Meyer, ISOC (InterNIC RM993) e-mail: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] Internet phone: hawk.mhsc.com Personal web pages: <http://www.mhsc.com/~rmeyer>www.mhsc.com/~rmeyer Company web-site: <http://www.mhsc.com/>www.mhsc.com/ ___________________________________________ SecureMail from MHSC.NET is coming soon!
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