Fiber cut in SF area

Tue Apr 14 23:16:39 UTC 2009

Deepak Jain wrote:

> I don't mean to jump in here and state the obvious, but wireless links are
> not a panacea. At least a few folks have presented that fiber grooming has
> affected their *region*. It's not difficult to imagine that wherever the
> "head" link side (or agg point) of these regional wireless networks is...
> probably coincides with a fiber network or other telecom POP. You are just 
> moving where your last mile vulnerabilities are (slightly.. as you are 
> picking up multiple power vulnerabilities, Line of Sight, and other things 
> along the way). 

The federal stimulus earmarks $7 billion for broadband in underserved 
regions and another $11 billion for the "Smart Grid" (which needs 
network connectivity in order to be very Smart). It seems to me like 
broadband over powerlines (http://tinyurl.com/dyue7k ) is the obvious 
answer to getting the most out of that money.

While recent reports of intruders in the legacy grid scare the crap out 
of me WRT the Smart Grid future (and dumb grid present), in the long 
term I worry more about the next Carrington event 
(http://tinyurl.com/c3xphd ).

Building a new communication network for the Smart Grid seems like a 
step in the right direction toward being able power everything down in a 
real emergency. Your local power company probably wouldn't have to go 
far to get to a peering point either...

The long term vision for the smart grid has other potential gains for 
the health and availability of our networks. I know that we see daily 
damage from power sags and spikes (even when absorbed by UPS, those 
still have a real world cost associated with the truck rolls to replace 
failed batteries). Some of that goes away when the whole usage curve 
smooths out as a result of demand-based pricing models that will be 
built into the Smart Grid. Ultimately I hope it goes to the application 
model. A lot of periodic jobs that use significant system CPU resources 
can be scheduled to run when electricity is cheapest, perhaps in 
consideration with what else is going on locally.

Mike