[127682] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Danny McPherson)
Thu Jul 8 15:52:14 2010
From: Danny McPherson <danny@tcb.net>
In-Reply-To: <7965.1278602764@localhost>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 13:51:36 -0600
To: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Jul 8, 2010, at 9:26 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
>>=20
>> I'm not familiar with cable break splicing procedures, but is it even=20=
>> possible to pay extra to have your splice done first? I would think=20=
>> that the logistics of splicing are such that the guy down in the hole=20=
>> doesn't know whose traffic is on each strand in the bundle
>=20
> Exactly - which is a case for just having everybody's traffic mingled =
on
> a very busy 12-pair rather than several 96-pair with lots of dedicated =
links,
> *everybody* ends up back in service a lot faster...
>=20
> And remember - this industry has more trouble with backhoes and =
would-be
> copper thieves than terrorists. Anybody who is defending against =
terrorists
> by increasing their vulnerability to backhoes is, well...=20
Having done a good bit of manual copper and [old school fusion] fiber =
splicing=20
for a few years as an outside plant monkey in the Army Signal Corp and a=20=
short stint thereafter as a contractor, I assure you that prioritization =
can make a=20
significant different with large cable damage, in particular when single =
wire/pair
splicing is done. Copper multi-pair splicing still allows specific =
bundles to be=20
prioritized as well, sorta the same as fiber.
Given that cuts and other damage usually requires splicing on two ends,
some bit of coordination is required but mostly trivial, in particular =
with large
copper cable (e.g., 2400 pair). Of course, in fairness to Valdis's =
comment,=20
setup time on both ends is often the dominating factor, although bundle=20=
1 to bundle 96 is an 2400 pair copper cable could be several hours or =
more. =20
Of course, physical plant prioritization is only the dominating factor =
when=20
last mile damage occurs. It's more useful and commonly employed when=20
intermediate facility failures happen - prioritized regrooming of =
critical=20
services is sometimes even automated, and often results in, err.. less =
critical=20
services being booted until full restoration has occurred.
-danny
=20
