North American Network Operators Group

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RE: Attacks Expose Telephone's Soft Underbelly

  • From: Kevin Gannon
  • Date: Mon Oct 15 09:46:04 2001

On Mon, Oct 15, 2001 at 02:15:38AM -0400, Kath wrote:
> I don't see how this situation could have helped them, but only hurt them.
> I mean, if you have a physical facilities issue (severed copper/fiber
optic,
> damaged CO), then you are gonna have problems with telephone or data
service
> no matter who you use.  Plus, some of us know how long opening and
> resolution of a trouble ticket with an ILEC can take when coming from a
> CLEC, but now you could only imagine when Verizon has a serious issue,
like
> this.

My employer is one example of an alternative, and I know of several
other companies that could fit the bill as well.

MFN (www.mmfn.com) can sell a private fiber optic ring to a customer.
In many cases (and Manhattan is a good one) that can be a truly
physically diverse ring.  We have a number of customers who insist
on truly diverse rings, and things like two building entrances at
least 100 yards apart.  For the most part (because nothing is 100%
sure) it is possible to protect against any single cable cut.  The
largest problem with our service right now is that the barrier to
entry for the customer is higher than it should be -- if you need
a single T1 we can't compete.

For what it's worth, I believe it to be the case (*) that we had fiber
rings with a node in one of the trade center towers that were fully
operational (minus that node) after the disaster.  

In the end, it's often a matter of what you're willing to pay for,
or if you leave it up to your carrier what risk they are willing
to assume.  We've all fought to drive the price of T1's into the
ground, and at $200-$300 for a local circuit they aren't going to
build redundant fiber rings.  You're going to get a single run
collapsed ring every time, simple economics.  Copper services which
are still used in so many places are virtually impossible to make
path redundant due to the technologies and distance limitations
involved.

Verizon offers products that connect you to two CO's.  I've ordered
them before.  Companies like MFN can bypass CO's completely with
redundant fiber rings.  Companies like Yipes and Cogent often build
their IP services in redundant metro configurations.  Companies
like Level 3 and MFS have upscale redundant access products.  There
are alternatives that could have protected the vast majority of
the service that went down.  The problem with all of them is that
they cost more $$$'s than the non-redundant service.  I think this
event is making a lot of companies look hard at their cost control
strategies and reconsider their disaster recovery plans.  Can you
be 100% sure you'll always be up?  No.  Can you add several 9's to
the services currently available, absolutely.

* I don't work for the fiber side of the business and only know a
  little bit about the impact of this specific disaster to our
  network.



Issues still arise (I am assuming that the ring is running SDH
rather than Dark fibre) due to configuration problems SW problems
ect.

These issues do not go away no matter what the entry level in
terms of price is.

Regards,
Kevin