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The Backhoe, The Internet's Natural Enemy
Juha-Matti Laurio writes "Experts say last week's Sprint outage is a reminder that with all the attention paid to computer viruses and the latest Windows security holes, the most vulnerable threads in America's critical infrastructures lie literally beneath our feet. A study issued last month by the Common Ground Alliance, or CGA -- an industry group comprised of utilities and construction companies -- calculated that there were more than 675,000 excavation accidents in 2004 in which underground cables or pipelines were damaged." I estimate that one third of those accidents occured within the 5 block radius surrounding my office.
Nothing is for certain.... Take the big power outage of 2003, which lasted for several days, why would the Internet be any different?
So someone cut through an internet-carrying line with a backhoe? Well, it's still a much higher chance of staying safe than aboveground lines. I think we just need a better system of marking stuff. Unfortunately, all error ends up being human, so things like this will continue to happen until our robotic overlords finally take over. Oh well.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
It is funny, but a company will spend tons of money to buy high-availability products, fail over connections, redundant machines, and it only takes one backhoe to bring it all down. At our company, we are trying to figure out how to use cable over telephone pole (business class cable) as a backup in case we get "dug up", which would provide a new level of reliability, but I am sure somewhere out there there is still some unavoidable single point of failure that no amount of money can overcome.
So the DHS wants to protect this infrastructure by making the location of such lines protected. Which of course is not going to help the situation because when you call Dig Safe they wont know whats under you. So you run the risk of severing more cables, and you run the risk of injury to the workers. I tip my hats to them.
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According to the article, in 2004, nearly half of the accidents were caused by on-site workers not checking with the proper support numbers for underground cables and/or pipelines.
I wonder just how much those incidents would be reduced if companies were fined a stiff penalty for digging without calling these numbers. The type of astronomical fines/penalties levied against virus writers would seem very appropriate in these cases, given the type of economic damage that can be caused by telecom outages.
I'm glad to see that a national calling center is being established (similar to 911, according to the article). Now, it will be easier for workers to call. But I still think we need the other half: better (financial) incentive to make those calls in the first place. -- Paul
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The flaw is in the fact that all these people have to do the right thing. In this case, if some low-level Sprint employee reads the map wrong, a whole state can be without internet access. If some dipshit with a jackhammer doesn't call first, a whole block can be without access.
The better method is to devise a system with sufficient redundancy so that this is more rare than it is. The question is whether consumers are willing to pay for it in the form of somewhat higher rates.
Backhoes don't care. Why? I'll relate a similar wire cut story. I was called out to our local airport to fix a problem with one of the airlines ground to air radios. This lets ground crews communicate with the flight crew. It is separate from air traffic control. In one room was the radio. In another room several doors down was a monitor speaker that could hear the conversation. I determined there was nothing wrong with the monitor speaker and nothing wrong with the audio and most likely a broken wire. The room separating the radio and speaker was quite large. The wire was run through the ceiling. I had to lift up many a ceiling tile to trace the wire and find the break.
I found the break. The wire had been cut and tied off. There was barely enough wire to splice the two back together. Once repaired the monitor speaker worked again. I was told later by the airline employees, airport facility workers had redone the ceiling in that one room. To me it appeared the workers found the wire in the way of their job, didn't know or didn't care what it was hooked to and simply cut it and tied it off out of the way.
Backhoe operators probably have the same mentality. They want to get their work done. If they cut a cable, it doesn't affect them. They are just doing their job. To solve this problem I would recommend burying fiber next to gas lines. The fiber should be coated with a material that bursts into flame 30 seconds after it exposed to air or cut. Not only will the backhoe operator cut the cable he'll break the gas line as well. The 30 seconds delay is to build up enough gas for a nice explosion. Sure it'll be a mess, but that's one backhoe operator who won't cut any more fiber.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
/Somebody had to bring it up
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
But he won't be able to rescue you...
Union rules.
Things like this happen. It's regrettable, and can be avoided. But not with the current system. I've been in the business of placing underground cable for almost ten years and have seen many such cuts. The main reason? Laziness. Yep good ole plain laziness. We ALWAYS see a cable that we are going to cross by HAND before by power tool. As long as we know it is there. Many of the cuts that our company experience are caused by lack of locate marks. You simply can't avoid what you don't know about. And sometimes it comes from trusting the marks to much. Minnesota law gives us two feet from the mark. In other words, if we dig AT LEAST two feet from any mark on the ground we are not liable for the cut. The problem with this is that locating devices are notorious for being out of adjustment or simply being used in an incorrect fashion. There are companies that get paid to locate for the big telcos and cable companies. They often schedule themselves so tightly that they rush the job and locate very sloppily. I've personally seen marks up to twenty feet off. And you have to understand it from our perspective. Time is money. If it takes longer to find the cable than to simply cut and fix it, then it comes down to which will cost the least. If the marks are more than that two feet off, it doesn't cost us a dime. We try to never do this, but there have been times when we felt it needed to drive a point home to the locators that we need acurrate marks. AS stated earlier.we try to never do this. I have personally looked for one cable for a full day before giving up. Most of the time it comes down to cooperation between the construction company and the locators. We have in the last few years started to locate many things ourselves in an attempt to speed up and make the process less painful. So don't automatically blame the contractor. It may just not be their fault.