Re: Jacking in from the "Riding A Straw Horse" Port: [from my testimony on this

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Testimony before the
Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Subcommittee on Technology, Environment and Aviation
U.S. House of Representatives


Hearing on
Communications and Computer Surveillance, Privacy and Security


May 3, 1994


David J. Farber
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania






...


As one who has in his time designed and built complex systems and who
understands the structure of the current telecommunications structure my
reactions are as follows.


Rational estimates obtained from sources in the industry talk about numbers
from $1.5 to $3 billion  per year. I consider that low. The complexity of
just the Plain Old Telephone System software is enormous. Re-designing
large and often the most complex parts of it will not be easy nor
inexpensive. One must potentially re-engineer the cellular system with its
multiple manufacturers plus the local and toll and tandem switching
centers. The fact that they are programmed devices makes it feasible but
not cheap.  The potential for decreased reliability of the national
telephone grid caused by the large scale changes (presently undefined)  to
the software architecture could cause major dangers to the health and
economy of the country. If you watch the bugs (errors) that are distributed
in well tested and much similar systems (like DOS or MACOS) you can
appreciate the opportunities for chaos -- and it must be done in three
years.


One should carefully note that the national communications system is
marginally reliable at this time. A National Research Council report on it
cautioned that it was poorly equipped to survive in the event of
catastrophies. The recent set of fiber cuts and the resultant severe
disruption of the nation's business is a portent for the future. To spend
money that is in short supply satisfying a poorly articulated and poorly
justified "problem" with wire tapping is to place the nation's economic
health in danger, for communication is the veins that carry the nation's
economic blood -- information.


> From the standpoint of the future evolution of our NII, the Digital
Telephony proposal presents a major drag. Whenever a new feature is being
considered for implementation and marketing, one very important issue will
be how much  it will cost to implement it in such a manner as to pass the
hurdles of the proposal. That could price many good ideas that would
improve the usefulness of our NII off the feasibility horizon. Not only
would our citizens not have access to these new and useful services but
they would not be implemented in US manufactured systems and thus could
make our systems less sellable in competition with those of foreign
manufacturers of communications equipment for off shore sales. Note that
off shore sales in the developing parts of the globe represent major
markets which we could lose.