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August 13, 2007
Have Some Backbone! Show me your PLATs
Recently, the discussion between some select friends and myself centered around the Minneapolis bridge collapse. As too often happens the PSTN network performed poorly.
While my friends, were using this to discuss why end to end IP was our inevitable future. I was looking at it and wondering what the cables were like. Did the bridge cut any cables across the river? What is the real (physical not logical) routing between the local switches and the network tandems?
The reason I ask is that for all the redundancy we brought into the network with SONET, I believe we still have network tandems that are not paired. Nor are we using IP (or ATM) to move traffic as a distributed network should. I believe that for some bizarre reason (which probably translates to "billing"), we are letting the PSTN guide the routing of calls rather than putting IP to the test.
From my own experience, I was embarrassed when Hurricane Floyd flooded the tandem by me in Northerb New Jersey and no outbound calls could be made. If it had happened in the New Jersey LATAs the result would have been no 911 completion. IP could have solved this problem easily.
On the other side, the submarine fibers that broke due to an earthquake in January showed the corollary. No commitment to the Internet's backbone resulted in poor service locally. It was not a priority for many policy makers. All the PSTN circuits were restored in a timely manner while the Internet was a secondary goal.
So, here I am asking for the layout of your network. Proof to me I am wrong and the commitment to IP is there. Have some Backbone.
Posted by carl at August 13, 2007 11:11 AM