Jon Elson writes:
There is no "exchange" anymore, in the way there used to be
these central offices with a #5 ESS or whatever.
False. You can look up your Central Office location several
places. First, DSL Reports has a "find your CO" function. And
http://localcallingguide.com does as well.
Your FIOS and DSL and POTS are fed from that building.
Take the case of 314-935, a WashU prefix, that's CLLI
STLSMO07DSA at 6214 Delmar http://goo.gl/maps/tgNWk
Note the logo at the doorway.
Now, if you have POTS it's likely fed from a switch there.
If you get FIOS, (which you can't in SBC-land) it's fed from
there but all the "dial tone" is from one central switch in the
area; in DC's case, Reston VA. (You still get a 314-935 type
number...)
It is all moving to ATM backbone, which is essentially an
internet backbone.
Sure there is ATM between CO's.
There are usually 3 boxes, the RT unit itself, a power entry
module with an electric meter on it, and a wire cabinet.
That's a DLC. If you have POTS, you might be fed from one. But
the glass from it runs to ... a CO building. The DLC's are
pretty stupid; they are just muxes. The next step up is a
5ESS Remote; fed by a 5E. But the Remotes I have seen are in
buildings, not pedestals.
And FIOS is fed from a CO; I have yet to see one fed from a DLC.
We have Charter cable here as the only alternative to DSL (which doesn't
work well in our region due to the crappy phone cables) and they have
somewhere around 8 hours of batteries in each box, which serves a couple
blocks. When they have an extended outage, you see them bring out a
little gas generator to each pole with the Charter Pipeline box. Must
be a big pain to set up all those generators.
The gotcha is they do not have enough generators to do every
HFC; and if they leave them, they often grow legs.....
I can't answer to FIOS, but I'm sure there have to be
neighborhood concentrators, as they can't possibly run miles of
fiber to EACH residence.
Yes, they have such in your neighborhood. They are in beige
boxes.
Fiber has insane capacity, so they can concentrate traffic for
hundreds of high-speed service customers onto one fiber. And,
I'm sure those concentrators only have so much backup battery
capacity.
They have zero battery backup, cuz there's nothing in a FIOS
splitter needing power. Each fiber to the CO splits out to feed
32 house fibers. The splitting is done with a prism; there is
nothing powered in the box.
FIOS needs power at the house, and the CO...and nowhere else.