our communications systems is too thin

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

From: redpoll!fmsystm!fmsys!macy@uhura.neoucom.EDU
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 11:56 EDT
Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM
Reply-To: macy@telemax.com
Organization: F M Systems/Telemax  Medina, Ohio USA




In article <telecom13.637.4@eecs.nwu.edu> msilano@access.digex.net
(Michael Silano) writes:


> Well as of about 11:30 this morning, no long-distance calls were being
> completed to the midwest or western United States through MCI.  Seems
> that they had a fiber cut (the customer service rep didn't know where)
> and that MCI was experiencing disruption over much of their network.


A primary fiber trunk was cut between Akron and Cleveland, OH by a
road crew installing signposts.  MCI has a major network switching
node just south of Cleveland in North Royalton.  This fiber was its
primary east coast connection.


> What ever happened to network redundancy and/or rapid rerouting?


Third party and unsubstantiated information:


1. MCI no longer uses its old microwave routes for backup as they
   used to.  They were deemed to costly to maintain.
2. Some traffic was diverted to their alternate southern route
   (this may be a Wiltel route they share.)
3. Much traffic was switched to alternate carriers via MCI
   interconnections at nodes in the east, but on a delayed
   basis.  It appears these are activated by hand rather than
   by network control computers.


This is the second major MCI national outage from road crew fiber
"backhoe fade" in this area in two years. My contacts told me they had
learned their lesson last time ... and MCI has a reputation for
learning from their mistakes (as opposed to just being cheap).




Macy Hallock N8OBG  Voice:+1.216.723.3030  Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com
Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc.   152 Highland Drive   Medina, Ohio 44256 USA 
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