[129857] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: US hunters shoot down Google fibre
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Seth Mattinen)
Tue Sep 21 14:02:59 2010
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:02:52 -0700
From: Seth Mattinen <sethm@rollernet.us>
To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <485ED9BA02629E4BBBA53AC892EDA50E0BBCAB69@usmsxt104.mwd.h2o>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On 9/21/2010 10:52, Holmes,David A wrote:
> Modern telephone pole aerial fiber uses all dialectric self-supporting
> (ADSS) technology, where the self-supporting component consists
> primarily of aramid yarn, the same material used for bullet-proof vests.
> This makes for an extremely light weight, almost indestructible fiber
> bundle. My guess is that ADSS fiber would deflect any bullets, or it
> would take a very good marksman using a very high caliber weapon to
> actually sever an aerial fiber.
>
> Now in the case described below where optical ground wire (OPGW) fiber
> is used as a component in the ground wire running at the top of high
> voltage transmission towers, it may be possible to hit the insulators at
> the top of the towers, but the ground wire itself is usually armored,
> with ADSS inside. Seems far-fetched to me.
>
Back in my ISP days it was more common for people to take pot shots at
remote equipment cabinets than the cable/fiber itself. Any field
enclosure is as easy a target as your average bullet-ridden road sign.
Although this was extremely rare; I can only recall one instance where
it was the direct cause of an outage.
~Seth
