[LINK] Telecoms lessons learnt in the flood

Richard Chirgwin rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au
Fri Jan 21 11:51:07 AEDT 2011


On 21/01/11 10:53 AM, Rachel Polanskis wrote:
> On 21/01/2011, at 10:09 AM, "Michael Skeggs mike at bystander.net"<mskeggs at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> On 21 January 2011 09:31, Marghanita da Cruz<marghanita at ramin.com.au>wrote:
>>
>>>> Telecoms lessons learnt in the flood
>>>> By David Braue, ZDNet.com.au on January 18th, 2011 (2 days ago)
>>> ...
>>>> What do you think? Does the demonstrated importance of wireless
>>> strengthen the case for a wireless NBN? And will the flooding delay the NBN,
>>> or further justify it?
>>> <
>>> http://www.zdnet.com.au/telecoms-lessons-learnt-in-the-flood-339308645.htm
>> I think that was a pretty sorry excuse for journalism.
>> The article points out Voda was already experiencing capacity issues before
>> the flood, but suggests an NBN based on wireless would magically avoid
>> these.
>> The suggestion that a wireless base station on a barge in a river would be a
>> fix-all in a flood emergency is pretty amateur hour (what and how would the
>> barge connect to?)
>> And he raises the canard about NBN battery back-up, then suggests the
>> battery life on cordless phones would be an issue (cordless phone base
>> stations are mains, not battery, powered).
>> Sloppy work.
> Quigley was on ABC 702 this morning and made the point that copper cable is affected
> by water if it gets wet and fibre is not.  He said so long as the end points between the exchange
> and the premises were dry and supplied with power, data would continue to flow.
> He also said "it's glass, so it does not conduct electricity".   I am unclear how far these statements go, but I guess he is right.  I would be concerned that repeated inundation and drying cycles of the cable would cause the sheathing to eventually perish, crack and go mouldy,
> leading to eventual breakage of the cable.   But in the short term, I guess he is right!
Rachel,

And in the long term.

I'm short of time to dig up the original paper, but last year I 
investigated this, and found a study by some US engineers. They tested - 
down to the microscope level - a fibre removed from a network in Oregon. 
After ten years of annual snow, flooding, mudslides, and summers over 30 
degrees, they found the fibre's performance was indistinguishable from 
when it was new.

RC
>
> rachel
> --
> rachel polanskis
> <r.polanskis at uws.edu.au>
> <grove at zeta.org.au>
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