[25367] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: MCI WorldCom fiber cut - Syracuse, NY
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Deepak Jain)
Wed Oct 6 15:51:48 1999
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 14:40:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Deepak Jain <deepak@ai.net>
To: "Matthew D. Lammers" <lammers@zeus.netset.com>
Cc: Andrew Odlyzko <amo@research.att.com>, nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <199910061707.NAA19461@zeus.netset.com>
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Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Let's not forget backhoe-operator school. Probably about 6 hours are
dedicated to safety around power lines, gas lines, etc. I don't think
"other utility" services and even mentioned.
Deepak Jain
AiNET
On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Matthew D. Lammers wrote:
>
> Andrew, by far one of the best explanations I've read! Excellent
> illustrations. You're suppositions are indeed correct.
>
> In addition to which, fiber doesn't emit a nice electrical signature that
> can be detected easily, making it hard to avoid. Plastic, glass,
> fiberglass, kevlar and the other elements of most fiber runs lay invisible
> to many detection devices that rely upon metals content or electrical
> impulse emission (crosstalk, noise, EMF...) for detection purposes.
>
> Now, some have written that we should encase these things with various
> high-strength metals. I'm not willing, as an end consumer, to bear the
> increased overall costs being passed to me, because $VBC laid 10,000 miles
> (16 000 km) of protectively-encased fiber. Costs would be staggering. In
> addition, repairs and splices more difficult in those situations where a
> backhoe manages to ding up one of these things and cause an actual cut.
>
> In my part of Ohio, the engineering maps get updated way to infrequently
> to suit my comfort level. We have a 3 year old fiber run into our NOC
> that is still not known to most of the high-cap techs that come out here.
> In fact, the local gas company was boring new pipe into the ground a few
> months ago, and weren't even aware of the fiber laying 50 feet (17 m)
> away. All other services we're clearly marked. As already stated, since
> fiber doesn't kill, people are complacent and wreckless around it.
>
> -Matt.
>
>
>
> Andrew Odlyzko wrote a while back:
> <
> <
> < Could the explanation be simpler? Effects of gas pipeline and
> < water main breaks tend to be localized because they supply
> < commodity goods, and there is local storage (and, especially in
> < case of water, local supplies) of those. Hence such breaks
> < affect fewer people. The gas supply to my kitchen does not
> < depend on maintenance of uniform pressure in all the gas pipelines
> < from the well off the shore of Louisiana all the way to New Jersey;
> < my supplier has enough gas stored around here to keep pumping for
> < quite a while even if a pipeline in Kentucky is cut. On the other
> < hand, when a fiber gets cut in Ohio, and I am trying to get some
> < bits from California, it does not help me to know that somebody
> < in Pennsylvania has terabits on her server that she is willing
> < to ship to me.
> <
> < Andrew
> <
>
>
> --
> Matthew D. Lammers,
> Columbus, Ohio, US
>
>
