I'm in a NOC that is bandwidth sparse to some sites - a lot of satellite links (128-384k.)
We use Openview. We get at lot of false alarms for 'Node Down', when the alert should read 'bandwidth impaired'. The easily choked 128k link reaches capacity and dumps the low priority traffic. Naturally, the ICMP stuff like ping goes first.
They didn't - the article says that AT&T set them up, not that they were running them. IE, ATT did the design work. They are probably running on one provider, though - it's a prestige thing. All of the rings at Salt Lake were Qwest's - built for the games.
The infoworld article was interesting, though. 56 venues! Geez - SLC didn't have over fifteen, and I think the actual total was thirteen. That's scary to think about. Only using two rings means they are big and complex to serve that many sites - not great. SLC had seven primary rings for the thirteen sites, with one BIG OC-192 backup for everything.
And if the NOC is still dark, with four weeks to go, then they are WAY behind and WAYYY screwed. The Salt Lake NOC was up and running two months before the games started. Please, no commentary about the games running on Windows NT - Anything over layer 2 (Transport) was someone else's problem, not ours.
Good luck to them - I'm afraid they are going to need it.
It's amazing what you miss with the way the networks cut the olympics, and what you can see if you are there, or have an uninterrupted feed.
I worked in the NOC for the last winter games and we saw EVERYTHING - and got an appreciation for some events that on TV get totally shortchanged.
The winter event that turned out to be the most fascinating? Get this - Curling! Yeah, the one where older people throw big rocks across the ice, like winter shuffleboard. What you don't see is all the fascinating strategy that goes into each shot - the way the teams get together and spend five or ten minutes studing the angles and figuring out the best way to make each shot - while the other team watches and tries to figure out what they are thinking. It's like go, with dexterity and accuracy added into the mix.
Of course, on the network, what you see is:/cut from commercial to ice Show person picking up rock and looking down the ice Show shot Replay last moments of shot in slow-mo Commentators make wildly inaccurate observations (our favorite part, we all got a big laugh out of some of the truly stupid stuff they said)/cut back to commercials
Now, the foreign networks, they get the raw feed and can do what they want with it. At least, at the last winter games. So they CAN show the full event, uncut, if they want. Doing that, with scrolling ads at the bottom, could be a winner for NBC - IF they had the guts.
Well, I have a friend who is the network admin for her company and she experienced EXACTLY the same problem you did - "redundant" T1 lines running to the same CO; the gear in the CO went down (The ILEC steadfastly refuses to give details) and they lost connectivity. For 10+ hours.
Real redundancy costs real money.
I work in a professional Colo facility in Denver, and we are fully redundant in all systems. Once it leaves your box, there's two of everything. Dual power to the box, dual network connections (Backbone: Dual OC-12 lines from different providers, running to different boxes in the POP) Dual climate control systems, dual generator rooms with independent fire control systems...I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm on the graveyard shift, and things run so smoothly I get a lot of reading done. And with 150k square feet of building, a lot of walking as well.
It's not cheap. But if you really need redundancy, it's cheaper to rent space in professional facility than it is to try and be compliant without one.
Yes, you can do this - but it means providing your own DSLAM (The device in the CO that aggregates all the xDSL lines into frames on a fat pipe, as well as buying the pipe. Problem is, that's a LOT of money.
DSLAM's come in two varieties - Big and Expensive, and Small and Crappy. A good DSLAM is a high cost capitol goods item that takes up a lot of space in a CO (high monthly colo fees) requires a T1 management line for remote troubleshooting and alerts (no, you cannot use a dialup just to call you when it goes down) and has a limited lifespan (as new ones have superior range).
As for the questions about the size of the backbone pipe running off the DSLAM (for the users, not the management line) - it depends on the users. There are ISP's that target power users, provide static IP's, and need OC optical lines. Other ISP's target Mom and Dad, stress the always-on factor, and don't worry about bandwidth issues (and are suprised when someone calls in complaining about their download speeds.)
Two points: One, if the ILEC JUST arrived with DSL in the area, it's not likely that Covad has a presence here. Nationwide coverage does Not mean that they are in every CO out there - it's not commercially feasable. You can check with Covad and find out if they have a presence in your area.
Two, no, you don't have to set up a Redback server. You can have Covad provide that for you one one of their existing servers. Essentially, this means that Covad is providing Layer 3 in addition to Layer 2 for you. It's called DSL+IP.
It depends on your ILEC (Local phone company). Some of them will sell you a 'dry pair', IE access to a line without any services provided by the ILEC. Some of them will not. Ask - call the phone company and tell them you want to set up a business (Do NOT tell them you are thinking about dropping your POTS line).
I have done a little research on this...from what I can tell, it's in about the same place as heart bypass surgery was about 20-25 years ago--usually it helps, but when it doesent, um...oops? Personally I plan on waiting for the next gen systems, that will both 1) build a 3D image of the eyeball to ensure that the corrections are proper (current systems just assume the eye is perfectly spherical with distortion equal to the power of the problem) and 2) automatically correct for any eye movement while you are 'under the knife', so to speak. No word on the timeframe for acceptance of the next gen systems, but it's mainly a matter of adopting other technologies to the operating room.
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I'm in a NOC that is bandwidth sparse to some sites - a lot of satellite links (128-384k.)
We use Openview. We get at lot of false alarms for 'Node Down', when the alert should read 'bandwidth impaired'. The easily choked 128k link reaches capacity and dumps the low priority traffic. Naturally, the ICMP stuff like ping goes first.
The IBM equivilant to Openview is Tivoli Netview.
They didn't - the article says that AT&T set them up, not that they were running them. IE, ATT did the design work. They are probably running on one provider, though - it's a prestige thing. All of the rings at Salt Lake were Qwest's - built for the games.
The infoworld article was interesting, though. 56 venues! Geez - SLC didn't have over fifteen, and I think the actual total was thirteen. That's scary to think about. Only using two rings means they are big and complex to serve that many sites - not great. SLC had seven primary rings for the thirteen sites, with one BIG OC-192 backup for everything.
And if the NOC is still dark, with four weeks to go, then they are WAY behind and WAYYY screwed. The Salt Lake NOC was up and running two months before the games started. Please, no commentary about the games running on Windows NT - Anything over layer 2 (Transport) was someone else's problem, not ours.
Good luck to them - I'm afraid they are going to need it.
It's amazing what you miss with the way the networks cut the olympics, and what you can see if you are there, or have an uninterrupted feed.
/cut from commercial to ice /cut back to commercials
I worked in the NOC for the last winter games and we saw EVERYTHING - and got an appreciation for some events that on TV get totally shortchanged.
The winter event that turned out to be the most fascinating? Get this - Curling! Yeah, the one where older people throw big rocks across the ice, like winter shuffleboard. What you don't see is all the fascinating strategy that goes into each shot - the way the teams get together and spend five or ten minutes studing the angles and figuring out the best way to make each shot - while the other team watches and tries to figure out what they are thinking. It's like go, with dexterity and accuracy added into the mix.
Of course, on the network, what you see is:
Show person picking up rock and looking down the ice
Show shot
Replay last moments of shot in slow-mo
Commentators make wildly inaccurate observations (our favorite part, we all got a big laugh out of some of the truly stupid stuff they said)
Now, the foreign networks, they get the raw feed and can do what they want with it. At least, at the last winter games. So they CAN show the full event, uncut, if they want. Doing that, with scrolling ads at the bottom, could be a winner for NBC - IF they had the guts.
Well, I have a friend who is the network admin for her company and she experienced EXACTLY the same problem you did - "redundant" T1 lines running to the same CO; the gear in the CO went down (The ILEC steadfastly refuses to give details) and they lost connectivity. For 10+ hours.
Real redundancy costs real money.
I work in a professional Colo facility in Denver, and we are fully redundant in all systems. Once it leaves your box, there's two of everything. Dual power to the box, dual network connections (Backbone: Dual OC-12 lines from different providers, running to different boxes in the POP) Dual climate control systems, dual generator rooms with independent fire control systems...I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm on the graveyard shift, and things run so smoothly I get a lot of reading done. And with 150k square feet of building, a lot of walking as well.
It's not cheap. But if you really need redundancy, it's cheaper to rent space in professional facility than it is to try and be compliant without one.
Yes, you can do this - but it means providing your own DSLAM (The device in the CO that aggregates all the xDSL lines into frames on a fat pipe, as well as buying the pipe. Problem is, that's a LOT of money.
DSLAM's come in two varieties - Big and Expensive, and Small and Crappy. A good DSLAM is a high cost capitol goods item that takes up a lot of space in a CO (high monthly colo fees) requires a T1 management line for remote troubleshooting and alerts (no, you cannot use a dialup just to call you when it goes down) and has a limited lifespan (as new ones have superior range).
As for the questions about the size of the backbone pipe running off the DSLAM (for the users, not the management line) - it depends on the users. There are ISP's that target power users, provide static IP's, and need OC optical lines. Other ISP's target Mom and Dad, stress the always-on factor, and don't worry about bandwidth issues (and are suprised when someone calls in complaining about their download speeds.)
Two points: One, if the ILEC JUST arrived with DSL in the area, it's not likely that Covad has a presence here. Nationwide coverage does Not mean that they are in every CO out there - it's not commercially feasable. You can check with Covad and find out if they have a presence in your area.
Two, no, you don't have to set up a Redback server. You can have Covad provide that for you one one of their existing servers. Essentially, this means that Covad is providing Layer 3 in addition to Layer 2 for you. It's called DSL+IP.
It depends on your ILEC (Local phone company). Some of them will sell you a 'dry pair', IE access to a line without any services provided by the ILEC. Some of them will not. Ask - call the phone company and tell them you want to set up a business (Do NOT tell them you are thinking about dropping your POTS line).
I have done a little research on this...from what I can tell, it's in about the same place as heart bypass surgery was about 20-25 years ago--usually it helps, but when it doesent, um...oops? Personally I plan on waiting for the next gen systems, that will both 1) build a 3D image of the eyeball to ensure that the corrections are proper (current systems just assume the eye is perfectly spherical with distortion equal to the power of the problem) and 2) automatically correct for any eye movement while you are 'under the knife', so to speak. No word on the timeframe for acceptance of the next gen systems, but it's mainly a matter of adopting other technologies to the operating room.