Slashdot Mirror
Inside a Verizon Wireless Superswitch
An anonymous reader writes "Geek.com has posted a walkthrough of a Verizon Wireless Superswitch, a 45,000 square foot, $50 million facility. From the article: 'The Superswitch we visited, located in Orlando, Fl., is one of about 25 across the US. These control centers are designed to handle mobile calls, SMS, MMS, and mobile broadband for their respective regions. This particular Superswitch faces a somewhat unique problem given its unfortunate proximity to extreme weather conditions, and as such is re-enforced to survive a Category 5 hurricane and still provide service to its area. While definite numbers were unavailable, this center handles millions of calls and texts, as well as tens of thousands of gigabytes of mobile data on an average day, and is designed to scale up rapidly for large events or emergencies.'"
"While finite numbers were unavailable," WTF does that mean?
Look, I know these articles are user submitted, but there's really no harm in correcting spelling and grammar; in fact it would make this site look more professional.
The word is reinforced. "re-enforced" sounds like the enforcement of a rule didn't work well enough the first time, so it had to be enforced again.
Wow, I looked at that headline and my brain saw "Inside a Verizon Wireless Sandwich".
Must eat lunch on time.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The solar super-storm, like the one 1859, should make life interesting. Imagine being unable to use your cell phone or internet for week - and you have the Japan situation.
Take a close look at the equipment in the slideshot photo covering the admin's desk. :-D
Ferrari emblazoned acer monitors and a thinkpad. This is my kind of setup
I love the vernacular "switch". It's a telco switch. Not to be confused with the more nerdy (and hopefully slashdot-friendly) network switch. As in Layer 2 of the OSI model. Because the $50 gigabit switch sitting on my desk can handle "tens of thousands of gigabytes of data a day" as well. Maybe I'm just not impressed with telco stuff, being a network nerd and overall "virtual protocol" kinda guy. Just wanted to point out if you're thinking network switch like I was, you won't be comparing apples to apples.
FLR
Two of the generators run simultaneously when not relying on battery live to power the facility in an emergency, and the third generator acts up in case of failure. In the event that another facility is unable to keep two generators running, a mobile generator that has been built into a large trailer is able to be delivered and used to keep the lights on. With two very large gasoline tanks underneath the facility, the generators are able to work with the batteries to keep the facility running as smooth as possible during a crisis.
Man, they need a new third generator if it acts up in case of failure. Also, how many large facilities use gasoline to fuel their generators? the whole thing reads like someone a little too star struck about being allowed inside the fence.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
...were all the AT&T ads being shown as I viewed the pictures.
The one where they all find out they are de facto breaking the law if they don't? Ignore the fact that sending the copy may be de jure illegal, as de jure does not matter in these instances.
This article does not appear to have gone through any sort of editing process, it also does not appear to have been written by someone familiar with the subject matter.
Additionally, if you are a tech news site and have the opportunity to tour a Verizon data center, maybe come back with more than 9 pictures from a cell phone camera.
If I were building a superswitch, it would easily be category 5e or category 6 ready.
If you're invited inside a big datacenter and want to take good pictures, at least rent an ultra-wide-angle lens. These pedestrian shots of individual wiring cabinets feel extremely flat.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
That's huge! I wish we had a word to describe such a large figure. I will attempt to create one. I will call this value "ginorbyte". One ginorbyte of mobile data is approximately equal to one terabyte of regular data.
Any of those pictures could easily have come from the itsy-bitsy Rural LEC I used to work for. None of those photos really show me anything SUPER! It just looks like any other CO in the world. That said, I'm sure it's massive and there were opportunities to take much more impressive photos than this. Close ups of telco racks will always look like close ups of telco racks, no matter where they're at.
oh, you mean like ten terabytes? so just say ten terabytes.
"superswitch"... you mean a place where lots of audio and data communications converge in a large central building designed for lots processing? hmm, kinda like a DATACENTER? so just say datacenter.
this writer is a moron.
must be a recent setup, as it seems that there have been no "temporary" quick-fixes applied.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I worked in a field related to telco a few years ago now, and NEBS-rated equipment used to be generally mandatory. Most servers were also using 48 VDC.
Anyone know if this is still a big deal? Or have the telcos moved to more "commodity" stuff in recent years?
You mean like a MSC?
This looks like it was written by someone who knows nothing of how cell phones work.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
all of verizon's central offices look like this in a major city.
been in one... you have seen them all...
...in this wireless superswitch :)
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. -- Groucho Marx
...to picture # 3, you can see one of the cables says "to NSA". They really are pulling out all the stops to compete with AT&T.
We donâ(TM)t just want our mobile devices to work, we demand it.
Tell me why the cruel, popular kids were spit-balling the geeks, when this human pocket protector with the swank haircut was roaming free? Sense of priorities in life: off scale low.
Actually, what we really demand are subsidized handsets. After that deal with the devil, we're pretty much powerless to influence any other aspect of how the system works.
And somebody tell that guy to clean off his cell phone's camera lens. Every single picture had a hazy blur - like fingerprints over the lens.
I expected to see a bunch of pictures of random wiring cabinets, and I did see a bunch of pictures of random wiring cabinets, and somehow failed to get excited about it.
sic transit gloria mundi
You haven't had a real walk-through of a communications complex unless you're hurried past the unobtrusive "storage room" that has weird electronic humming coming from it.
Anybody else notice the array of cellphone on a rack in one of those pictures? What was that about? TFA didn't seem to say (I only skimmed it)
ERROR: SIG NOT FOUND (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?:
...is what makes a switch the Superswitch.
... Ernestine (Lily Tomlin) with a plugboard and an attitude.
Have gnu, will travel.
Finally, I understand why we need Category 6 Ethernet cable. Because it "is re-enforced to survive a Category 5 hurricane".
And that's also why IPv4 is not good enough and we need IPv6, I guess.
God it is all so simple. They should just go the extra mile and get Cat-11 and Ipv11 /spinal tap
And they have a busted old Nortel phone sitting on the desk. I guess the telcos really do have VoIP.
If it's anything like any of the other telco installations I've seen, the facility is *always* running on battery power. Telcos run just about everything off 48 volts DC. City power runs rectifiers to keep the batteries charged. If city power fails, the batteries just begin discharging. The generators come online if city power is out for more than a minute or so.
This is a much better system that most "data" centers, with multiple conversions from AC to DC and back, automatic transfer switches, etc.
Additionally, telco COs usually have two sets of batteries, two sets of wiring in the building, and all the equipment has two power inputs.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
"You mean like a MSC?"
Well, it's Verizon. They're a CDMA (IS-95/2000) carrier, so they prolly have a different acronym. MSC is a GSM term, and it seems like the competing standards have to come up with their own terminology for everything.
I do agree that this article and its author were lacking.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Can anybody explain the mobile handsets wired up to the rack in what look like hand-free brackets in picture #3?
I'm just really curious that they do that (why actual handsets?), and what for?
And it'll be curtains for the data center's infrastructure.
Very, very poor location for a high level center people.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
A triple shot of powerful, room-sized generators as well as four massive rows of very large batteries are in place should the lights go out. . .
. . . the whole (generator) room is sunk a bit deeper than the rest of the facility to ensure anything that could happen would be contained to the room.
So the batteries and generators are below the level of all other flooring.
During flooding, won't water flow first to the lowest point in the building?
Ask Me About... The 80's!
Read the article before trolling. Verizon called it a Superswitch, not the author. The visit to the building was a planned event by Verizon PR during CTIA: Mobile Focus, ALSO in the article.