OOB core router connectivity wish list

Fri Jan 11 23:50:38 UTC 2013

I work for a rural Telecom in northwest US. 

Typically when I hear statements like that, it's that the tech built (strung aerially, trenched through ground, or through buried conduit) from a pedestal or other copper splice point to the customer premise. 

I would only expect this to go to the nearest remote terminal, or central office if there is no remote terminal. In a lot of (rural) cases, there is no direct copper between most houses and the central office, instead they have to (in most cases, depending on what copper cabling is available you are only able to reach one remote) cable you to the closest remote that has equipment, where you are aggregated and back-hauled (typically via fiber, but sometimes by T1) to the central office. 

If someone wanted completely physical diversity, up to the point of the CO, you would have to ask (likely a few times, and possibly being escalated to an engineering department of sorts) if your new POTS line can be homed to a different remote, or directly to the CO, ideally on a different physical cable route, assuming your goal is backhoe diversity. 

For a business line, they may be willing to work with you on diversity requirements. 

About the only way to guess if you're connected to a RSU or directly to the CO, you would have to know where the CO is, guess the approximate copper distance to it (which may involve guessing the approximate path the cable goes) and then hook up some equipment to your POTS line that measures and estimates the distance of that copper pair. Then you can guess where you might be connected to. 

----- Original Message -----

From: "William Herrin" <bill at herrin.us> 
To: "Jay Ashworth" <jra at baylink.com> 
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog at nanog.org> 
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 2:30:48 PM 
Subject: Re: OOB core router connectivity wish list 

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 4:43 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote: 
> You are suggesting that it is *at all* difficult for a technically competent 
> end-user to determine whether a given new POTS line will go to a CO or to an RSU? 

Well, let me treat this as an opportunity to learn. How does one 
arrange for a POTS line ordered from the telco to travel its own 
dedicated copper pair all the way back to the central office building 
if the the tech tells you he only built it from one of the local holes 
in the ground? 

Regards, 
Bill Herrin 

-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com bill at herrin.us 
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> 
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004 