Re: Qwest desires mesh to reduce unused standby capacity

[Adrian Chadd <adrian () creative net au>]

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008, Joe Abley wrote:
> On 28-Feb-2008, at 01:56, Paul Wall wrote:
>
> > UU/MFS tried running IP on the 'protect' path of their SONET rings  
> > 10 years ago. It didn't work then.
>
> Well, it works so long as whoever was trying to troubleshoot the  
> circuits at 3am on US Thanksgiving understands that having the system  
> "switch to protect" is quite bad, in the sense that it causes both  
> sides to go down at once (I seem to remember there was a protect paths  
> built for each side of the original ring using a loopback).
>
> Other than the unfamiliarity with the concept demonstrated by phone  
> companies, I didn't notice any great fundamental problem with the  
> idea. The extra 10G of capacity across the Atlantic was arguably more  
> useful in the grand scheme of things than the being able to recover  
> from a single-point failure at SONET speeds. It's probably fair to say  
> there's more real-time traffic on the network today than there was  
> then, however.

Then you probably haven't been on the ass end of a continental fibre link
drop. That actually mattered.




Adrian