[NCLUG] DSL Throttling or General Congestion?

[Michael Milligan]

Good information!  Fills in some gaps in my knowledge base...

Still doesn't get me the 10Mb/s up/down I want though, for $50/month.  ;-)

I worked on a peripheral project for a big telco in Japan... I was
flabbergasted to learn that they were deploying 100Mb/s (Ethernet) via
fiber to most households around Tokyo.  Something similar has happened
in Korea.  The whole U.S. is so stuck in the 90s on this front...

Regards,
Mike

Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> 
> Actually, the more likely scenario is that someone brings an OC-3 into
> their machine space, terminates it into their own mini-switch (a smaller
> version of what the telco has at their CO), then breaks that OC-3 down into
> a DS-3 with ATM which they hand off to a router via a dual coax connection,
> which then "converts" it into IP over Ethernet.
> 
> The reason I come up with this scenario is that it's much easier to get an
> OC-3 into your own building than it is to get your equipment into a Central
> Office (where they would be handing you a DS-3 or OC-3 anyway), and then
> also getting more equipment connected to some dark fiber that runs to your
> location.  I know several ISPs/colo facilities that do the previous
> paragraph, but only one that does the latter, and they're actually the
> ILEC...
> 
> Some ISPs locate equipment *CLOSE* to the telco CO, where various telcos
> can run "cheap" high-speed lines, where they then just basically connect it
> to their own networking infrastructure.  At least one ISP I know of is in
> the building next to the Denver Main telco switch, which is called the
> "carrier hotel", and gets probably an ATM for DSL as well as transit to the
> rest of their network, and also gets IP connectivity for Internet access,
> and that location basically just becomes another extension of their private
> network, with transit access to the Internet.
> 
> QWest does offer a 100mbps or gigabit Ethernet from location to location.
> This is commonly called a Metro Area Network, and we were looking at one
> this summer.  Basically, they would have just put routers with Ethernet on
> one end and OC-3 on the other side (or better, for gigabit), and run some
> level of transit on their network, possibly ATM.
> 
> Long-haul is almost always done by one of the phone network lines like an
> OC or DS.  An exception is Yipes, which in Fort Collins has a bunch of
> fiber running around that they basically run Ethernet on.  They terminate
> their fiber directly into a regular (though smart) switch, which has a few
> fiber ports and then regular copper ports which they provision using
> shaping for whatever speed service you purchase from them.
> 
> This goes back to their central location, where they have (last I heard) an
> OC-3 or two running to Denver, and (for a while) some connectivity
> going north to Cheyenne.  I haven't used Yipes in almost 2 years though,
> this may have changed.
> 
> Back to that one place where they're running Ethernet over their own dark
> fiber.  They're the ILEC in their location, and a client of ours.  At one
> point they asked us for help setting up backups to run between their
> buildings in two towns, about 50 miles apart.  I verified that they had
> plenty of bandwidth so they wouldn't be impacting other IP services: "You
> have a DS-3 between those locations?"  "No, we took a spare pair of fibers
> and put 100mbps Ethernet transcievers on each end, and a few repeaters in
> the middle, so it's 100mbps Ethernet dedicated."  They've since upgraded it
> to gigabit.  Must be rough.  :-)
> 
> 
>>location? They'd just be leasing the raw fiber from Qwest, or whoever,
>>for this, so Qwest wouldn't care about the protocol on the fiber.
> 
> 
> As far as I know, QWest doesn't do this.  Platte River Power Authority in
> Fort Collins has a ring that runs around town, which you can rent pairs on
> and splice into, for a fee.  I believe Yipes uses this as part of their
> transit.  I believe you have to commit to a 10 year deal, which works out
> pretty cheap per month, relatively, but is a big lump sum, and then you just
> have to use an approved person to do the splicing.
> 
> QWest will almost always provide you something that is a normal telco line.
> because that's what they're comfortable with.  The person you speak to
> about a 100mbps connection between buildings, has probably been
> provisioning that sort of line for 20 years.
> 
> Remember that Ethernet line I mentioned we asked QWest for a quote for
> above?  They then gave me pricing for bandwidth utilization of that line,
> going all the way up to DS-1 bandwidth!  Yep, 1.544mbps delivered via
> Ethernet at each end.  They are *SO* stuck in the '60s.
> 
> Sean

-- 
Michael Milligan                                   -> milli at acmeps.com
Acme Professional Services LLC                        970-581-9948