[LINK] (Fwd) Telstra's plans for one small rural area.

[Chirgwin, Richard]

David - C-MUX is a generic: "Customer Multiplexer".

All customers are multiplexed - what performance we get depends on how we're
multiplexed.  

I suspect your contact at Telstra MAY have been talking about the Alcatel
C-Muxes which are due for installation anytime soon. They won't appear in
the current Telstra literature, because they haven't been rolled out yet,
and as a bespoke project, they're not on the Alcatel Website yet either.

Here's a reference from Whirlpool, with the disclaimer that "while much of
the information is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate..." this looks
kosher:
http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/976

It may, however, be the existing C-Mux in the CEPU paper; or there may be
another new customer Mux project going on...

Richard Chirgwin

Postscript: because of bad expectation management, everyone's saying "we
want DSL". Because of dishon^h^h^h^h^h^h optimistic advertising, everyone
thinks "20 times as fast as a modem!"

Well: DSL is muxed as well. And its parameters are far less visible to the
end user. 

Customers are concentrated at a DSLAM (DSL Access Mux). How much bandwidth
you get depends on:
a) twisted pair conditions; (let's say 1M bps for easy maths)
b) backbone connection to DSLAM; (say, 100M bps ATM for eg) and
c) number of active customers.
Some DSL providers "oversubscribe" by 50:1 or more, according to "industry
sources" which I trust but you don't have to! ... Let's take a more
reasonable 20:1 figure.

That means for every megabit of available customer bandwdidth, I serve 20
customers. 

Bluntly: it's quite feasible to pay for 1M bps and get 50k bps ... and while
users can observe slow performance, it's damn near impossible to diagnose
from the user end (and I guess some of the things you'd run as diagnosis
could look like hostile traffic to the carrier...).

RC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Boxall [mailto:david.boxall@hunterlink.net.au]
> Sent: Thursday, 7 November 2002 19:25
> To: Link
> Cc: Phil Lammert; Col Gillespie; Australian Consumers' Association;
> Consumers' Telecommunications Network; Joel Fitzgibbon; Kerry Hickey;
> CEPU
> Subject: RE: [LINK] (Fwd) Telstra's plans for one small rural area.
> 
> 
> Two weeks since Phil Lammert promised me information:
> <http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~dddab/audio/20021024.mp3>, a letter
> arrives.  Signed by Phil - looks promising: 
> "Did you know Telstra is working hard for you in your area to give 
> you an Internet service that suits your needs?
> 
> Telstra BigPond(TM) Home Dial-up Internet gives you dial-up access 
> from a fixed phone" ... - a sales speil.
> 
> There was also a CD-ROM.  Has Telstra taken over from AOL as suppiler 
> of shiny trinkets?
> 
> Looks like I'm not going to get any information out of Telstra, after 
> all.  That doesn't surprise me.  Getting information from Telstra has 
> always been like pulling teeth.  In Telstra's case, the teeth of a 
> living Allosaurus.
> 
> Last time, I was told that the information I requested wasn't 
> available.  The CEPU submission to the senate ecita inquiry confirms 
> that Telstra's records leave much to be desired, so I guess that's 
> believable.
> 
> As one of the owners of the network, I feel entitled to information 
> about it.  Shouldn't the information that is available be freely so, 
> preferably online?
> 
> I've been told that the most cost effective solution for my area 
> would be something called C-MUX.  The only reference I found (apart 
> from the CEPU submission) was a page from Korea that was far too 
> heavy for my bandwidth.  Comments/suggestions on the idea would be 
> most welcome.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Boxall [mailto:david.boxall@hunterlink.net.au]
> Sent: Sunday, 3 November 2002 18:12
> To: Boxall, David
> Cc: Phil Lammert; Col Gillespie; Australian Consumers' Association;
> Consumers' telecommunications Network; j.fitzgibbon.mp@aph.gov.au; 
> CEPU;
> kerry.hickey@parliament.nsw.gov.au.au
> Subject: RE: [LINK] (Fwd) Telstra's plans for one small rural area.
> 
> 
> Hi Linkers,
> 
> Still no response of any substance from Telstra.
> 
> On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> > (Ouch!!! $3k for a PC?
> Not as bad as it sounds.  The system in question included two 
> printers (laser & ink jet) and a scanner.
> 
> > if the fibre were interrupted to terminate (say) a DSLAM,
> > the users may still be out of reach. And (in this scenario)
> > the DSLAM would be more expensive than in suburbia: it
> > needs power (and power backup), and it needs to be outdoor
> > hardened, etc.
> If it makes any difference, there's already a RAM-8 in the line.  I 
> gather that needs a 300 volt power supply, so that much of the 
> infrastructure is already in place.
> 
> For background, see:
> <http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~dddab/Current.html>
> 
> ====================================================================
> David Boxall                     |  The more I learn
> david.boxall@hunterlink.net.au   |  The more I realise
>                                  |  How little I know
> 
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