North American Network Operators Group

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RE: T1 short-haul vs. long-haul

  • From: Michel Py
  • Date: Thu Jul 22 11:35:36 2004

> What is the "demarc"?

The demarc is the service demarcation. On your side of the demarc,
things are your responsibility. On the telco side of the demarc, it's
your provider and/or the LEC responsibility.

http://192.20.13.157/planner/tab003a.pdf look at figure 1
http://192.20.13.157/planner/tab003b.pdf look at figure 1
http://192.20.13.157/planner/ip.html
[note: this is for AT&T, but other carriers are similar]

> Is it the jack/punch-block where the SmartJack is connected to?

Maybe, maybe not.


> What is an "MPOE"?

Minimum Point Of Entry. That's where the LEC brings the cables from the
street into the building. Unless you own the entire building, this
typically is a closet (on the first floor, no temperature control) that
the building manager and/or every tenant will have access to and that is
not located in your office.

> What is the "NIU"?

The box that converts the signal from the street (that can run for
miles) into the signal you find on the smartjack (that can only go a few
hundred feet). Although I don't like the term, it's some kind of a
digital modem. The smartjack is dumb (no lights); the NIU is the brains
of the smartjack, what has the lights and can be looped. 

> Where is the SmartJack normally located? In your offices
> or somewhere else in the building (maybe some room where
> the cable to the CO is terminated)?

- If you don't ask for extended demarc, it will be located in the MPOE
room. 

- If you do ask for extended demarc (which I strongly recommend), either
the smart jack will remain in the MPOE and your provider will bring a
router (which becomes the demarc) in your office, or your provider will
extend the smartjack (which will remains the demarc) in your office.
Whether or not they move the NIU (which is preferred since you can look
at the lights but will be difficult) or only move the jack itself is not
your problem, all you really care is that they move their responsibility
line, the demarc. You want the location of the demarc in WRITING.

What you want is your provider to be responsible for the circuit coming
into YOUR office, not the building. If you don't have this, you will get
that:

> David Lesher wrote:
> They all have finger splints from overuse;
> pointing to each other.

No comment.

And some of that:

> Mark Radabaugh wrote:
> The usual method is to declare no trouble found
> and close the ticket (especially if the ticket
> is approaching 24 hours....).

a.k.a. "It works on my side".

Also common is the "problem fixed while testing": there was never
anything wrong but it started working again when they begun to test :-D

Michel.