Slashdot Mirror
NYC's Educational Dark Fiber Network
An anonymous reader submits "A group of educational leaders in New York City has created a new fiber backbone network off previously layed but unused fiber. Connecting many city NYSERNet members (the Museum of Natural History, CUNY, Mt. Sinai-NYU Medical, Cornell Med., Columbia Med., and Columbia's primary campus), the newly activated backbone connects to Internet2 and commodity Internet and intends to be largely used for video streaming. Original plan info here."
Yep. Life is fair.
The main reason for a glut of dark fiber is not actually the dot-com bust, contrary to popular belief. The main reason is the use of Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM). This allows A LOT more data to be sent over the same pipe as before, thus rendering the majority of that fiber useless. Don't get me wrong, the dot-com bust had a MAJOR impact on the use of fiber, but it wasn't the main factor in the dark fiber glut.
What witty sig? I can't be witty, I'm a Methodist.
I think it is more likely that DWDM equipment allows fiber someone already owns to be used more efficiently. I don't know of any company that gets rid of fiber they have because they put DWDM on a couple of strands. Its like saying that there are more video games on the market because we all have more free time now days. Sure, DWDM lets you cram more data down a particular strand of fiber, but the need for capacity is increasing too, and laying new fiber is very expensive (especially transoceanic fiber).
Here in Rome (that's in Italy for any Republicans who might be reading /. ...) there a lots of little blue corrugated plastic tubes sticking out of the pavement of my district with plastic bath plugs and bits of string closing them off. Of course most of these plugs have been pulled off, so you can see that the tubes are empty. I have been told - but cannot confirm - that these were intended to carry fibre optic cables in some abandoned enterprise. Since the hard work has been done it seems a pity not to use them.
Science fiction for grown-ups...
Monterey County CA, the maintenance guys were looking in some "unmarked" panels in the basement in the Salinas offices, and "found" about 200 strands of dark fiber. Apparently during the reign of one of the iterations of our local cable service (TCI/AT&T/Comcast, AT&T did it I know it :), they "knew" that fiber was the future and laid fiber all over the place, then they sold out to comcast without hooking any of it up.
:)
Montery started by connecting to schools and cities down the 101 highway, when MCOE lost antenna space for their educational television feed, they ran it down the fiber backbone, without causing any lag in any of the connections. So now places that were running 56k frame relays are now flying with 45mb to their router. They actually have a bigger connection than my isp
I just need a small space, near the router, I will stand, I don't need a chair, I just want to FEEL the bandwidth, please?
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Does anybody know of any resources or maps concerning the location and availability of dark fiber? I am sure there is a great deal of it laying out there along the roadside, in the sewers, and under the sidewalks just waiting for an application. Unfortunately, it's a pain in the ass to find out who owns what, and who to contact in your area. Some maps or perhaps a dark fiber market would be nice. Any suggestions?