Since none of the usual suspects have noted it, I'll give a cursory
nod to an ILEC (Verizon) fiber cut that happened mid-afternoon
yesterday in Ashburn, VA. About a thousand POTS customers were down
(including several OOB dialups of which I am aware in the Equinix
facility in Ashburn), as well as some T1 and faster loops to Equinix
and elsewhere in the immediate area. Outage was likely off the radar
because despite the big concentration of connectivity in the affected
area, the natural cost disadvantage of the ILEC meant that few
circuits of consequence were riding that fiber.
Service was resumed after approximately 12 hours. RFO given was that
the fiber cut was caused by a commercial lawnmower. Humorous comments
left as an exercise to the reader.
---Rob
Since none of the usual suspects have noted it, I'll give a cursory
nod to an ILEC (Verizon) fiber cut that happened mid-afternoon
yesterday in Ashburn, VA. About a thousand POTS customers were down
(including several OOB dialups of which I am aware in the Equinix
facility in Ashburn), as well as some T1 and faster loops to Equinix
and elsewhere in the immediate area. Outage was likely off the radar
because despite the big concentration of connectivity in the affected
area, the natural cost disadvantage of the ILEC meant that few
circuits of consequence were riding that fiber.
Service was resumed after approximately 12 hours. RFO given was that
the fiber cut was caused by a commercial lawnmower. Humorous comments
left as an exercise to the reader.
---Rob
Either raise the Blade or Lower the Fiber ! The big issue I saw as
contractor was that the fiber was laid without a tracer nor anchored as the
IEEE and building codes don't address the installation and even then the
landscapers come in and move things around. Pretty soon the fiber was right
on top and all you have to do is crack it just a little and the game is over
for 12 hours.
Peter
It also affected 9-1-1 service in Ashburn and was reported through
the normal channels. Unfortunately, the FCC no longer makes the outage
reports available on its web site.
Stuff happens, stuff has always happened, stuff will continue to happen.
Forgive me, but
Isn't Sonet usually deployed in a ring? Why the heck would a fiber this important not be?
Sean Donelan wrote:
You are making assumptions.
Large Part of Southern Utah Without 911 Service
May 20 2004
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=95368
Verizon phone service, 911 interrupted
May 20 2004
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/8711763.htm
Phone Outage Could Limit 911 Access
May 19 2004
http://www.nbc4.com/news/3324749/detail.html
Stuff happens, stuff has always happened, stuff will continue to happen.
9-1-1 is much more complex than a normal dialed telephone call, is it any
surpise it has problems every once in a while. Its always a good idea to
keep the normal 7 or 10 digit phone number for your local emergency
services some place. You don't get the benefit of automatic location; but
direct dialing has the advantage of working over any working connection to
the PSTN including wireline, cellular, voip, satellite, ham radio patch,
etc.
Dan Armstrong <dan@beanfield.com> writes:
Forgive me, but
Isn't Sonet usually deployed in a ring? Why the heck would a fiber
this important not be?
sonet, obviously, does not *have* to be in a ring, but it often is.
unfortunately, a fair percentage of the time, the additional
protection offered by a ring topology is a mirage, due to a
configuration known as "collapsed backbone". in this instance, both
pairs of fiber ride in the same conduit for some portion of the
distance (most notably laterals to building entrances, but sometimes
for a fair distance down the street). the driving factor in building
this way is usually cost savings.
while this arrangement does protect against failures of optics and
electronics (which in fairness are indeed more common than fiber
cuts), it provides no protection against hungry construction (or in
this case, lawn maintenance) equipment.
---rob
(Apologies to people from Eastern Canada…)
We in Canada refer to that as a “Newfie Ring”.
That is just bad planning on the part of the telco. Probably due to their size. The facilities people don’t talk to, or don’t like network planning people etc. etc.
Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
... or even as two wavelengths on the same pair of fibre.
It's a sick, sick, twisted world.
Joe
configuration known as "collapsed backbone". in this instance, both
pairs of fiber ride in the same conduit for some portion of the
distance
... or even as two wavelengths on the same pair of fibre.
It's a sick, sick, twisted world.
Come on, that is what we call lambda-diversity. In case your fiber fails to carry, say 1550nm in the middle of the night, you are protected with your 1590nm lambda.
I don't believe how many people engineer for physical diversity and not lambda diversity -- and then its too late.
<jk, I've been up since 6:30am>
DJ
And unfortunately, sometimes cuts might be deliberate. I havent kept up on
what the FBI came up with, but they were investigating some cuts in the
Bellingham, WA area. Same cable was cut twice over the course of 2 years.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-09-04-fiber-fails_x.htm
Dan Hanson