From ghunt at nrao.edu Tue Feb 20 13:49:29 2001 From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt) Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 13:49:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: [comm] Communications e-mail & meetings Message-ID: <200102201849.NAA20706@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Guys, E-mail: Based on James' advice, I have selected "comm at nrao.edu" rather than "it at nrao.edu" for this group. There is potential for some extraneous mail to this address, since there is already a "comm5 at nrao.edu" for IAU Commission 5 - a list maintained by Don Wells. However, if I see mail that should have been directed to the other list, I will forward it. Meetings: As agreed at the last meeting, we will meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 EST (8:30 MST) and 10:30 EDT (8:30 MDT, 7:30 MST) when summer time kicks in. Meetings will be held as needed. I will circulate an agenda as necessary. Group: I would like to keep this as a communication coordination group - small and focussed, so, for the moment, I'd like to keep it to the original membership. If there are issues that require additional input, we can either invite others to attend or spin off a separate meeting. Cheers, Gareth. From rmilner at aoc.nrao.edu Mon Feb 26 13:08:58 2001 From: rmilner at aoc.nrao.edu (Ruth Milner) Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 11:08:58 -0700 (MST) Subject: [comm] long-distance circuits Message-ID: <200102261808.LAA14423@schooner.aoc.nrao.edu> Excerpted from the InformationWeek online daily digest. Ruth. ---------- ** Sending Signals Record Distances Without Regenerators The dream of infinite, high-speed bandwidth took a step closer to reality when a telco recently sent a 10-Gbps optical signal 6,400 kilometers without using optical-to-electrical regenerators, setting a new record. The carrier, Williams Communications Group Inc., used Corvis Corp.'s CorWave system, which eliminates the need to convert optical signals to electrical signals and back again in signal regenerators. The development should make it cheaper to shoot large amounts of data coast to coast. Having to regenerate signals makes long-distance circuits prohibitively expensive and restricts the number of optical channels, says Chris Nicoll, VP of Current Analysis Inc. Nationwide virtual-private-optical networks, content-distribution, wavelength-on-demand, and rich-media services could all benefit from this development. - John Rendleman From ghunt at nrao.edu Mon Feb 26 18:08:41 2001 From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt) Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 18:08:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: [comm] Communications Meeting Message-ID: <200102262308.SAA24166@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Guys, Reminder: We will meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 EST (8:30 MST) via video. Meetings will be held as needed. I'd like to bring you all up to date on the status of the intranet contract, and to solicit comments and suggestions how to proceed. Cheers, Gareth. =============================================================================== FTS2000EE (FTS2000 2nd extension, our present intranet contract) is available only through the end of 2001. It seems that AT&T has come down somewhat in their bid to continue the intranet service, but not nearly as much as we had hoped. The Monthly Recurring Costs (MRC) are as follows: Service Old MRC New MRC Increase Access/Port 7,737.75 12,763.31 64.95% PVC 2,045.75 1,117.67 -45.37% ========= ========= ======= Total 9,783.50 13,880.98 41.88% (These are comparing base charges, and do not include taxes and management fees). In total, the cost would be $50k more per year instead of $100k if we stayed with FTS2000EE, so I suppose this is progress. Regretfully, however, it seems as if this is not nearly enough of an improvement to warrant staying with AT&T over the long haul. Note that the total Access/Port cost includes $2,448.- for the DTS circuit between Florida and St. Croix. Presently we pay $882.- for that hop. The quoted costs do drop over a five-year period. In the fifth year, the proposed costs would only be ~$25k (22%) above last year's prices. The Service Installation Charges (SIC) are waived provided that the services "are maintained for at least a twelve- (12) month period. SICs will apply to all new services." I assume that this means that we can initiate the contract for 12 months with no termination fees at the end. There are a couple of oddities with the bid, including the fact that Port and PVC charges quotes use "AT&T best Government rates," whereas Access charges are based upon "AT&T Commercial price points." We have come up with a couple of questions for GRCI (the AT&T division bidding on this): 1. Why are Access charges not based on Government rates? Can this be improved upon? 2. Will we receive credit from FTS2000EE billing if we accept billing? 3. Are there any alternatives to the DTS with the associated high cost for the St. Croix link? Our default position is that we should convert to this service immediately, but then begin the process of re-bidding the entire network to all vendors. (Btw, Gene received an initial quote of ~$8k MRC for this link from Sprint, so it's not obvious, until we get formal competitive quotes, that changing to MCI or Sprint under FTS2001 will gain us anything.) From echilder at gb.nrao.edu Tue Feb 27 12:19:16 2001 From: echilder at gb.nrao.edu (Ed Childers) Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 12:19:16 -0500 Subject: [comm] Apology Message-ID: <3A9BE194.788FA65C@nrao.edu> Sorry I missed the meeting. I was detained in the receiver room of the 100 meter. Ed