Interesting comment in today's Herald: The question being asked in telecommunications circles is, how did it happen? Such systems are supposed to be fail-safe. Had a contractor put a digger through a fibre optic cable servicing the exchange, everyone would have understood. But not so the failure of a complex marriage of computer equipment from several international suppliers. Protecting the network from backhoe surgery is easy -- you just throw in diverse paths around any potential single point of failure. A "complex marriage of computer equipment from several international suppliers" on the other hand sounds like a recipe for disaster :) --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
Joe, People in glass houses should not throw stones. You know from your own experience within various Telco's and ISP's that while a state of system nirvarna and continuous operation is highly desirable, sometimes the reality falls short of these goals. Roger De Salis Joe Abley wrote:
Interesting comment in today's Herald:
The question being asked in telecommunications circles is, how did it happen? Such systems are supposed to be fail-safe.
Had a contractor put a digger through a fibre optic cable servicing the exchange, everyone would have understood.
But not so the failure of a complex marriage of computer equipment from several international suppliers.
Protecting the network from backhoe surgery is easy -- you just throw in diverse paths around any potential single point of failure.
A "complex marriage of computer equipment from several international suppliers" on the other hand sounds like a recipe for disaster :)
--------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
-- \_ Roger De Salis Cisco Systems NZ Ltd
On Wed, Mar 08, 2000 at 12:32:51PM +1300, Roger De Salis wrote:
People in glass houses should not throw stones. You know from your own experience within various Telco's and ISP's that while a state of system nirvarna and continuous operation is highly desirable, sometimes the reality falls short of these goals.
Oh, no criticism of Telecom or anybody else was intended. The point was that the Herald thought that a fibre cut was a predictable reason for a service outage (it's not, really, since you expect them) while interop between multitudinous providers' kit is a given. I am well aware of the realities :) Joe --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog
participants (2)
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Joe Abley -
Roger De Salis