RE: Airplane crashing into Atlanta-NAP

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1

Michael Dillon brilliantly wrote....

The only joke here is that some people think that the Internet exchange

in

a city the size and importance of Atlanta can be adequately housed on

the

5th story of an office building.

I could understand it if Atlanta had 20 or 30 exchange points, but when
there is only one exchange the city deserves better than a mickey-mouse
5th floor operation.

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly!!!!! And who would ever imagine that an
exchange point in the basement of a mere parking garage would have
achieved the level of traffic it has!

Now that I've thrown in my share of late night sarcasm, It would interest
me greatly to understand exactly why you came to the following
conclusions:

1. The "operation" in Atlanta is Mickey Mouse
2. The floor # of a bulding affects the quality of the Exchange Point
3. The type of building affect the quality of the Exchange Point
4. A city the size of Atlanta needs more than 1 Exchange Point

Truly I would be very interested in your thoughts on these items, as
well may a few other folks on this list.

Chris A. Icide
Nap.Net, L.L.C.

2

Now that I've thrown in my share of late night sarcasm, It would interest
me greatly to understand exactly why you came to the following
conclusions:

1. The "operation" in Atlanta is Mickey Mouse

Both the Internet and the POTS system are telecommunications networks that
are vital to the modern economy. POTS moreso than the Internet right now
but the Internet is certainly heading in that direction. POTS exchanges
are always in ground floor concrete buildings with no windows or
underground. But in Atlanta they stick it up on the 5th floor of some
office building?!?!?!?

2. The floor # of a bulding affects the quality of the Exchange Point
3. The type of building affect the quality of the Exchange Point

I cannot explain these ones but have reached this conclusion from
observing how the phone company builds and locates its exchanges.

4. A city the size of Atlanta needs more than 1 Exchange Point

It has a lot more than one POTS exchange. Thus it will need more than
1 Internet exchange. Why should the packets from every video-call in the
city all travel downtown when frequently the two parties live in the same
neighborhood?

Truly I would be very interested in your thoughts on these items, as
well may a few other folks on this list.

I'm taking a long term view in which ISP's are just another form of
telephone company. Many ISP's are now getting to the size where they can
consider aquiring strategically located properties, building concrete
block exchange/colo buildings, wiring up entire office towers with
IP fiber and even running their own fibre in some case, especially in new
subdivisions.

By today's standards Atlanta-NAP may be a really great thing, but too soon
we will discover that we aren't living in "today" any more and the
standards will be different.

Michael Dillon - ISP & Internet Consulting
Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com

3

You might want to take another look at your local telco. BCtel has an
awful lot of switching gear (all the Datapac nodes, T3/fractional video
switching (including the CBC and BCTV regional feeds) and who knows
what else running from facilities located several (9?) floors above
ground level in downtown Vancouver. (I can't remember the exact
location -- it's been a few year since I was there -- but it's right
downtown, maybe on Hastings?)

--lyndon

4

Now that I've thrown in my share of late night sarcasm, It would interest
me greatly to understand exactly why you came to the following
conclusions:

(...)

4. A city the size of Atlanta needs more than 1 Exchange Point

Well, considering that the only options for the entire southeast consist
of A) Dallas, and B) DC, I'd say that you have a large amount of traffic
which has to be long-hauled at significant expense to the nearest
exchange point.

Ever since rural electrification was finished, we southerners tend to
enjoy our electronics like everyone else, and while the northeast and
California are virtually drowning in access points, and while the
mid-west has Chicago, we've got squat.

Consider if you will how much traffic comes out of places like Florida
and Research Triangle Park and the number of relatively large cities
throughout the southeast (Memphis, New Orleans, Birmingham, Nashville,
Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, Charlotte, etc.) which are proximate to no access
point.

For all of these places, Atlanta is the logical and really only major
communications hub. Virtually all of the major backbones centralize
their southeastern operations out of here, and it is the major hub for
telephoony as well.

I'd say that Atlanta is a prime battleground, and that the southeast is
the last major area of the US without a serious exchange point, which is
why I predict that there will be three competing NAPs in Atlanta within
the next six months. Of course, only one will win.

Now, if I could get one of them in my apartment...