I've spent the last 17 years focused on Internet Protocol (IP) over various transport systems - wired (copper), wireless and optical. With the explosion of video, social media and other bandwidth hungry applications we've seen fiber moving closer and closer to the end user. Wireless is the perfect example with towers back-hauled into the network by fiber. It's really just the last mile/final connection that is typically not optical fiber based for most of us.
We're seeing IP/optical integration today really ramping with these things called software defined networks (SDNs). I wrote a post defining and describing SDN's last month titled SDN: When The Hardware Becomes A Little More Soft
With the move to all-IP, SDN and cloud services, many service providers are now integrating IP routing and transport. In this short 4 minute and 50 audio clip, Arnold Jansen discusses how IP/optical control integration can help operators simplify and streamline their operations and drive better cost synergies.
Smart, fast, efficient. Good stuff.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Closing the loop with IP/Optical Integration
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: communications, Education, Information, technician, Telecommunications
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Verizon Trimming Some Wireline Limbs
I've been teaching Verizon technicians in a program called NextStep since the mid 1990's. The Next Step Program allows contract qualified Verizon associates who are members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to earn an Associate in Applied Science degree in Telecommunications Technology from a participating college. It's been a great opportunity for everyone involved to keep up and learn as the industry has transitioned.
This morning I taught my first class of the fall semester and we had some interesting discussion on where copper based landline services like DSL are going. The other night on Jim Cramer's show, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam opened up a bit on the companies plans. Here's some back and forth from the show posted at Stop the Cap!:
Jm Cramer, CNBC: “[Under former Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon] took areas that really weren’t growth areas and sold them to Frontier and other players. Would you be able to get rid of some of your underperforming landline businesses to be able to increase [Verizon's] growth even further?”In New Jersey and New York, Verizon is moving on a wireless landline replacement called Voice Link. It's optional for some customers but many are thinking it will replace copper services in there is approval from the states regulators. Verizon is calling Voice Link an improvement for voice customers dealing with repeated service calls.
Lowell McAdam, Verizon: “That is a possibility. [...] If you talk about opportunities here, now that we have One Verizon, [...] we are going to trim some limbs around the tree here. Things that aren’t performing will not be a part of our portfolio so we can invest in things that will drive the kind of growth we are excited to be able to tap here.”
Bloomberg estimates the Verizon wireless net worth is around $289 billion while Verizon wireline (landlines, FiOS and business broadband) is worth just $24 billion. Looking at revenue, Bloomberg says Verizon wireline totaled $39.8 billion last year which is down from $50.3 billion in 2007. During the same period, Verizon wireless revenue was up 73% to $75.9 billion.
It's pretty clear where this is all going - at least when it comes to Verizon wireline.
You can read a transcript of the complete McAdam interview linked here.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: communications, Education, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Verizon, Wireless
Monday, December 3, 2012
Watching What You Do While You Watch TV
The image posted is also from the patent application and shows the detection zone.
- if detection facility 104 determines that a user is exercising (e.g., running on a treadmill, doing aerobics, lifting weights, etc.), advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with exercise in general, a specific exercise being performed by the user, and/or any other advertisement (e.g., an advertisement for health food) that may be intended for people who exercise.
- if detection facility 104 detects that a user is playing with a dog, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with dogs (e.g., a dog food commercial, a flea treatment commercial, etc.).
- if detection facility 104 detects one or more words spoken by a user (e.g., while talking to another user within the same room or on the telephone), advertising facility 106 may utilize the one or more words spoken by the user to search for and/or select an advertisement associated with the one or more words.
- if detection facility 104 detects that a couple is arguing/fighting with each other, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated marriage/relationship counseling.
- if detection facility 104 detects a particular object (e.g., a Budweiser can) within a user's surroundings, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with the detected object (e.g., a Budweiser commercial).
- if detection facility 104 detects a mood of a user (e.g., that the user is stressed), advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with the detected mood (e.g., a commercial for a stress-relief product such as aromatherapy candles, a vacation resort, etc.).
Pets, people, conversations, moods, beer cans?? I don't think this is something I'd want in my home.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: communications, Education, Engineering, Information, Marketing, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Television
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Data Transmission on T1 Carriers - Part 2
In Part 1of this topic I described how a T1 carrier is used to transmit data. Data transmission by nature is "bursty" meaning large amounts of information are typically transmitted and then followed by relatively quiet transmission periods. This can cause transmission problems for T-carrier systems since they rely on timing synchronization. Let's take a look how this potential problem is avoided.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, Data, Digital, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Monday, April 16, 2012
Data Transmission on T-1 Carriers Part 1
Back in December I wrote a post here titled T1 Lines - What They Are. In the post I discuss the Digital Signal (DS) Level System and how combining the equivalent of 24 DS-0 voice channels along with overhead consisting of timing and synchronization bits brings the DS-1 bit rate to 1.644 Mbps - that's a T1. In this post, let's have a look in more detail to get a better idea of how the entire system works.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, Data, Digital, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Is You Legal Right To A Landline Phone Going Away?
You may not realize it but you have a legal right to have landline phone service at almost any address in the United States. The Goals of Universal Service, as outlined in the FCC Telecommunications Act of 1996 are to:
- Promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable and affordable rates for all consumers
- Increase nationwide access to advanced telecommunications services
- Advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural, insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas
- Increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries and rural health care facilities
- Provide equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs
Both companies have proposed a new set of rules that would allow them to only service the customers they want to service. Some say (including David Cay Johnston in a recent piece at Reuters) this roughly translates to the higher population and wealthy areas where people can afford bundled voice, video and data packages.
State capitals are seeing intense lobbying to end universal service obligations but with little public awareness due to the dwindling ranks () of statehouse () reporters.
The Utility Rate Network, a consumer advocate group, identified 120 AT&T lobbyists in Sacramento, one per California lawmaker. Mary Pat Regan, president of AT&T Kentucky, told me she has 36 lobbyists in that state working on the company's bill to end universal landline service.Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin have all repealed Universal Service but there have not been any cutbacks.... yet.
Cell phones, cable and satellite are being proposed as options at least in the rural areas but there are limitations with each. Cell phones are expensive but there are packages for low income people starting at $2 per month. Internet calling is another option but expensive because it requires a broadband connection and a service. Satellite is another option but it's expensive and sometimes there are weather related connection issues.
Johnston finishes his Reuters piece saying:
We.... should not lose sight of the benefits of guaranteed access to affordable basic telephone service. The law should not force people to buy costly services they do not need.Nor should we forget that customers paid for the landline telephone system, including many billions of dollars in rate increases over the past two decades that helped AT&T and Verizon develop their cellular systems.
If we lose universal service, I doubt we will ever get it back. Let's get a balanced policy rather than quietly rewriting laws to benefit one industry.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: communications, Education, Legal, rights, technician, Technology, Telecommunications
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
SONET Packet-Oriented Data Framing
Timing is critical here (that's why it's called synchronous) for communications across the entire network.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: communications, Data, ebook, Education, Engineering, Ethernet, fiber, Information, optics, technician, Technology, Telecommunications
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Synchronous Optical Network - SONET
In the United States T-1 carriers have been replaced in many locations with Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) systems. Internationally, the SONET equivalent is called Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). Both SONET and SDH systems consist of rings of fiber capable of carrying very high bit rates over long distances. Copper has been replaced by fiber to inter-connect most Central Offices (CO’s) in the United States at bit rates ranging from the SONET base rate of 51.84 Mbps up to 39,813,120 Gbps.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
No T1 Lines in Europe - The E-Carrier Hierarchy
Today I'll continue with a post on what I've been calling the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). In my last legacy post we covered T-4 and T-5 lines, today let's take a look at the European or “E” carrier system.
The European or “E” digital transmission format is slightly different than the North American T-carrier system format. With the E-Carrier system we are still taking individual voice call analog signals and converting to a digital signal by sampling the analog signal 8000 times per second and, after matching the instantaneous voltage sample level to one of 256 discrete levels, generating an 8 bit code for each sample. We are still dealing with the fundamental DS-0 building block of 64Kbps of digital bandwidth per single analog voice channel we used for the T-Carrier system. The differences between E-Carrier and T-Carrier deals with the number of channels and how these channels are used. Let’s start by looking at a European E-1 system and how it compares to a North American T-1 system.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Monday, February 13, 2012
DS-4 and DS-5 Lines
It's been a while since I've posted on what I've been calling the Legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). My last related post was way back on December 15, 2011 titled What's a T3 Line? Today, Let's take a look at higher bit rate signals in the DS system.
DS-4 Signal
Back on December 15th, we said each DS-3 signal carries a bit rate of 44.736 Mbps. Six 44.736 Mbps digital DS-3 signals are multiplexed into one DS-4 signal. If we have six DS-3 signals per DS-4 signal and each DS-3 signal is 44.736 Mbps we can calculate:
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Thursday, December 15, 2011
What's a T3 Line?
In my last post I described what a T1, also called a DS-1, line was. Most of us have also heard the "T3 Line" term used. Let's take a look at what a T3 or DS-3 line is.
DS-2 Signal
Before we can describe a DS-3 line, let's first take a look at a DS-2. In that last post we figured out how each DS-1 signal (T1 line or circuit) carries a bit rate of 1.544 Mbps. Four 1.544 Mbps digital DS-1 signals are multiplexed into one DS-2 signal. If we have 4 DS-1 signals per DS-2 signal and each DS-1 signal is 1.544 Mbps we can calculate:
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
T1 Lines - What They Are
Most of us have heard about "T1" lines. We know they are some kind of (expensive) communications line you can get from one of the telephone companies. It turns out T1's are part of the Digital Signal (DS) Level System.
Remember each channel is sampled 8000 times per second so a single frame represents one eight-thousandth of 24 individual channels or telephone calls. We can also say that, in one second a DS-1 signal transmits 8000 193 bit frames. We can use these numbers to calculate the true DS-1 bit rate which includes both data and overhead (framing) bits:
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, Engineering, Information, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
In my last legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) post I covered Statistical Time Division Multiplexing (STDM). In this post let's take a look at Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM and DWDM) methods.
As bandwidth requirements continue to grow for both the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network and the emerged Internet/IP network most of the high bandwidth backbone transmission is being done with fiber optics and a method called Wavelength Division Multiplexing or WDM. WDM functions very similarly to Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). With FDM different frequencies represent different communications channels with transmission done on copper or microwaves. WDM uses wavelength instead of frequency to differentiate the different communications channels.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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Labels: Analog, communications, ebook, Education, fiber, legacy, light, optics, PSTN, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice, wavelength
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Digital Multiplexing - Statistical Time Division Multiplexing
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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10:10 AM
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Labels: Analog, communications, dialtone, ebook, Education, legacy, PSTN, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Friday, November 11, 2011
Digital Multiplexing - Time Division Multiplexing
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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7:01 PM
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Labels: Analog, communications, dialtone, ebook, Education, legacy, PSTN, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Analog or Frequency Multiplexing
In this post I continue discussing some of the different legacy technologies used by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Today let's take a dive into analog or frequency multiplexing.
This 240KHz is placed in the frequency range of 312 – 552 KHz.
This 2.40MHz is placed in the frequency range of 564 – 2.964 MHz.
This 14.4 MHz is placed in the frequency range of 3.084 – 17.484 MHz.
Frequency multiplexing is now considered obsolete technology on the telecommunications network. Analog signals are more sensitive to noise and other signals which can cause problems along the transmission path. Those long coaxial cables make pretty good antennas. They have been replaced with digital multiplexers. In my next legacy PSTN post I'll cover how digital multiplexing works.
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Gordon F Snyder Jr
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9:18 AM
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Labels: Analog, communications, dialtone, ebook, Education, legacy, PSTN, technician, Technology, Telecommunications, Voice