30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for September 9, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 225 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
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are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 20:36:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: mattrix <mattrix3.remove-this@and-this-too.gmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: ANCIENT telephone transmission
Message-ID: <93b41a51-a0ba-4a7d-b255-37ff35ca9566@p37g2000prp.googlegroups.com>
Cast your mind back to the first decade of the last century, no
computers, no transistors, no valves.
I'm mainly interested in the situation in Australia, which may or may
not be the same as the US/UK.
The historians tell me that 600 mile lines were common, and that they
carried multiple conversations using Frequency Division Multiplexing.
Does someone want to have a go at explaining how this could work?
- Without the afore mentioned technology, how do you modulate and
combine the conversations?
- Without amplifiers, how do you handle attenuation?
- How do you separate the conversations? Surely banks of unbuffered
tuned circuits would interfere with each other.
- Presumably, unlike local loops, these long lines only carried AC so
how was call management/signalling achieved?
***** Moderator's Note *****
Vacuum tubes are called "Valves" in Australia.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 07:24:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: ANCIENT telephone transmission
Message-ID: <2553854c-22fe-408d-ae74-98ae08594fd1@h6g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>
On Sep 7, 11:36~pm, mattrix <mattrix3.remove-t...@and-this-
too.gmail.com> wrote:
> Does someone want to have a go at explaining how this could work?
The Bell Labs history*--"1875-1925" volume covers how the Bell System
transmission media evolved over time, including detailed discussions
about loading coils, repeaters, and carrier multiplexing. The
"Switching 1925-1975" volume continues the discussion and also covers
various long distance signalling techniques.
Long distance transmission was difficult until improved vacuum tubes
were developed, perfected, and deployed in the 1920s.
To help offset the high cost of long distance telephone lines, they
were also used to carry telegraph traffic. Arrangements had to be
made to keep the two bands separate, especially in relation to
repeaters and signalling.
* Specifically:
"A History of engineering and science in the Bell System / prepared by
members of the technical staff, Bell Telephone Laboratories"
Vol 1. The early years (1875-1925)
Vol 3. Switching technology (1925-1975).
I highly recommend both volumes as a resource for telephone history.
They should be available in large libraries.
In addition, the Bell Labs Technical Jounral, which is all available
on-line, provides technical background from 1922 onward.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/
[public replies, please]
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 23:23:15 -0400
From: "Greg Monti" <gmonti@mindspring.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does SMS messaging keep going when cellular voice is down?
Message-ID: <002b01cc6dd6$a59499b0$6801a8c0@M10023>
On Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:34:36 -0400, Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
wrote:
> Subject: Does SMS messaging keep going when cellular voice is down? =20
> I just read an email that claims cell phone text messaging (SMS) keeps
> going when cellular voice service is down. Please tell me if this is
> true or not.
It depends what the underlying failure mode is.
When all voice channels are busy (during a crisis) so that it appears
*to you* that the cellular voice network is "down," SMS messaging
continues to work because all users time-share tiny bursts of time on
a data channel. If the SMS channel is busy at the moment you press
Send, your phone places the message into a queue and sends it when the
data channel is not busy. This could be a fraction of a second later,
or ten seconds later, or a minute later. It does not matter to you
since your message did eventually get sent.
If the cell network itself is down, or if all cell towers within
reasonable receiving range of your handset are down simultaneously,
then neither voice nor SMS will work.
Greg Monti, New York, NY
gmonti@mindspring.com
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 11:20:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: "Next Bus" telephone information system
Message-ID: <5e0b8f8e-d642-4759-b738-0b6ce93ad622@q8g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>
The New York City Transit Authority has introduced a new telephone
"app" that tells riders waiting at a bus stop when the next bus will
come, using real time information. I'm impressed by it since it
requires only a regular Touch Tone telephone, not any kind of 'smart
phone', and that the information is in real time (where the buses are
actually physically located), as opposed to using merely the schedule,
as older applications used to do. Surface buses are subject to
traffic delays that disrupt schedules.
Passengers simply dial the number, then enter the specific bus stop
code (posted on the bus stop sign).
The system is being implemented on a Brooklyn bus route, to be
expanded city wide.
For the full press release describing this application (along with
other "apps"), please see:
http://www.mta.info/news/stories/?story=361
For more info about real time data collection via GPS on buses see:
http://www.mta.info/mta/news/releases/?en=110201-NYCT11
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:39:36 -0700
From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Do cellphones measure signal strength?
Message-ID: <siegman-48C84E.08393608092011@sciid-srv02.med.tufts.edu>
When I see 3 bars (out of 4) on my cellphone (not necessarily during a
call), does that mean:
1) The cellphone is measuring the strength of pings it occasionally
receives from the nearest tower, and displaying that in bars?
2) Or, the cellphone sends occasional pings to the tower; the tower
measures the strength of those; and the tower sends back an advisory
to the phone telling it how many bars to display?
3) Or, something other than either of those?
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:55:28 -0700
From: "Andrew K" <ak.remove-this@and-this-too.europa.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Circa 1976, Long Distance Network Mapping Project
Message-ID: <B694D56D93E8408EAA8E3C37A10277BF@AndrewPC>
I had the opportunity to do some university level work in the 1970s related
to the cost of operation and ROI feasibility for long-line costs over the
old Bell Operated Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The mid to late
1970s were for many the culmination of a golden age of the post-war
construction and refinement of a reasonably reliable network before a series
of big-bangs in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Bell System divesture,
implementation of fiber-optics transmission, rampant inflation, computer
technology and related improvements, among others) brought about a profound
change in the network.
I will be adding some files to the Telecom Digest archive. The files, which
will be in .pdf format, will reflect the nature of "default" routing (or
what we might call today the backbone) of long distance traffic in the PSTN
as it existed around 1976. My source documentation is the ATT Long Lines
Routing Guides that I had access to and kept copies of while I was doing my
university work. I rely on materials that were published in late 1975,
supplemented with other documents from 1976 and 1977. Much of the network
design characteristics and paradigms depicted here were abandoned in the
early 1980s when a more direct switching and call routing paradigm was
adopted, resulting in part from the big-bang items described above, which
gradually replaced the older, more limited copper & coaxial wire and
microwave-based networks at the time.
At the time (circa 1975), calls would default to a route based on what was
termed a "homing" priority. There were five levels of ranked switches, or a
hierarchy of switches based on where calls needed to go. These five levels,
or classes, were known as Regional, Sectional, Primary, Toll and End Office.
There were 10 Regional switches in the US, and 2 in Canada, with several
hundred sectional and primary switches. A call from an End Office would be
sent to the Toll Center, and if the destination number was not available and
outside the end offices served from the Toll Center, the call would be
routed to the next higher center, and switched from that point if feasible,
and if not, the call would then be sent so on to the higher ranked centers.
For example, under the strict homing hierarchy-topology, a call from Walla
Walla, Washington to Moscow, Idaho - a distance of less than 100 miles -
would route (absent any other options) from Walla Walla, to Yakima, to
Seattle, to Sacramento, to Denver, to Salt Lake, to Boise, to Coeur d'Alene
and finally to Moscow. This routing would be the last resort, absent local
instructions to route a call differently based on local resources. Likely
the call would have been routed from Walla Walla, to Yakima, to Spokane, to
Coeur d'Alene and then to Moscow - a much shorter distance and cheaper cost.
There were many, many of these local alternative routes based on local
requirements. In the event of an alternative network being unavailable, or
non-existent, a call would then be switched based on the default homing
route. The network was constantly being upgraded and developed to create
routes that would represent the cheapest and most expeditious route. Changes
occurred almost monthly.
The depictions herein, represents the "backbone" default homing priority for
traffic. In studying the layout of the network, it does give the reader some
perspective of the population distribution of the time, and planning based
on local factors and conditions. Some of the routing decisions do not
necessarily make sense in a modern perspective, as population patterns as
well as the supporting physical network have changed.
The 12 Regional centers are reflected by cities with a purple color code. I
did not color code the various levels as a call is routed based on the
terming convention discussed above. I developed this exhibit to allow the
reader the ability to perceive visually how calls would have been routed.
Thus, from each "purple" center, all lines are red and lead to "red"
centers, which might have been a sectional, primary or toll center. From a
"red" center, blue lines lead to the next down "blue" center, and then
yellow lines onward to a "yellow" center (if required).
Local "tributaries" (also known as offices, exchanges, and prefixes) would
represent the last link to the primary office that provides dial-tone to the
customer. Regardless of the level of the switching center, lines to
tributaries are always in green leading to the tributary. While most centers
have tributaries, some do not, e.g. Paso Robles, California.
The same color lines do not cross. A forking or 4-way breaking of a same
color line should be construed not as a junction or switch, but a joining of
traffic from a number of subordinate nearby locations to a higher ranked
switch. If for some reason the same color line does have to cross (and of
this writing there are few examples), before the intersection the solid line
becomes dotted as it crosses another line and then returns to a solid line.
The lines should also not be construed to represent the likely or actual
physical route of the actual transmission apparatus.
I work on this more as a hobby. I do not work in the telecommunications
industry, nor do I have any business interest therein. My work mainly has to
do with people and their disputes and trying to resolve their disputes. I
retreat into a quiet moment now and then and work on this project in
solitude and as a form of therapy. Additionally, this is a work in progress
and I will update it and make the updates available.
The Telecom Digest operates under publication rules that provide that all
materials in the archive can be accessed without the purchase of software.
I am completing my primary work using Excel and then transferring the work
into a .pdf format for the reader. Regretfully, as of this writing, the
transfer to .pdf enables some limited breakdown of the clarity of the data,
in particular lines moving in a northwest - southeast and southwest to
northeast direction.
To receive a more detailed appreciation, it is best to look at the work in
Excel. I would welcome users who would be interested in helping me through
comment and feedback. In particular, I would welcome engineers who "were
there" who might offer some insight to amplify this work. I would be happy
to send copies of the work directly to you off-line, for your comments.
The first pdf files are now available: please visit
http://telecom.csail.mit.edu/LD_Route_History/ to see them.
-Andrew
ak.remove-this@and-this-too.europa.com
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:33:00 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Please help to reconstruct the Telecom Digest Archives
Message-ID: <4E6988EC.8000305@horne.net>
Thanks for reading this: Robert Bonomi and I are working on updating the
Telecom Digest archives, and we need your help.
We're looking for original Usenet posts and Digest emails sent out
from July 15, 2007 to August 16, 2008.
If you have any of them, please write to me offline, and let me know
what is available.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Filter QRM for direct replies)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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