32 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for November 17, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 231 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
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
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using any name or email address
included herein for any reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to that person, or email address
owner.
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without the explicit written consent of the owner of
that address. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk
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.
|
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:09:31 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Nexus 5 Review: Flagship hardware for half the price
Message-ID: <p0624083acea9386339ba@[10.0.1.6]>
Nexus 5 Review: Flagship hardware for half the price
$350 gets you a Snapdragon 800, 2GB of RAM, and a fast track to future updates.
by Ron Amadeo & Andrew Cunningham
Nov 7 2013
Ars Technica
The Nexus 5 has a tough spot in the market. Thanks to its spec sheet,
it will be compared to high-end phones from every other OEM. A
2.26Ghz Snapdragon 800 processor; 2GB of RAM; and a 5-inch, 1080p
screen is certainly worthy of any company's flagship.
...
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/nexus-5-review-flagship-hardware-for-half-the-price/
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:02:23 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: TiVo Roamio marries content recording and roaming, but cable keeps calling
Message-ID: <p06240836cea936bfd768@[10.0.1.6]>
TiVo Roamio marries content recording and roaming, but cable keeps calling
Review: 3 TB storage, 6 shows-at-once recording, monthly fees, and
support headaches.
by Nathan Mattise
Nov 12 2013
Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/tivo-roamio-marries-content-recording-and-roaming-but-cable-keeps-calling/
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 01:57:11 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: iPad Air review
Message-ID: <p06240834cea8d2ed71df@[10.0.1.6]>
iPad Air review
By Rene Ritchie
Tuesday, Nov 12, 2013
THE DEFINITIVE REVIEW OF APPLE'S LIGHTER, THINNER, FASTER, STEREO,
64-BIT IPAD AIR
The first iPad was advertised as magical and revolutionary, Apple's
most advanced technology at an unbelievable price. It lifted the
tablet from a decade of obscurity and made it not only a household
name, but a household product. The iPad 2, however, proffered that
technology alone was not enough. It was thinner, lighter, and faster,
but also more confident. It defined post-PC even as it made the
computer itself far more personal. The iPad 3 was new and
"resolutionary", but at the expense of thinness and lightness. The
iPad 4, twice as fast. Both brought specs to what Apple had
previously framed an experience fight, and the latter was
overshadowed almost entirely by the fresher, smaller iPad mini. When
it came to the full-sized iPad, it seemed Apple had hit a wall.
Enter the iPad Air. Where the limitations of 2012 dictated Apple had
to choose between Retina and lightness, the advances of 2013 mean
that Apple - that we - can now have both. But is it just more specs,
or is it once again getting technology out of our way? Is it simply
thinner, lighter, and faster, or has Apple recaptured the delight and
the magic? Is it merely a step forward, or is the iPad Air truly
another leap?
...
http://www.imore.com/ipad-air-review
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:06:47 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Hoping to avert "collision" with disaster, Microsoft retires SHA1
Message-ID: <p06240838cea937bc129a@[10.0.1.6]>
Hoping to avert "collision" with disaster, Microsoft retires SHA1
After 2016, Microsoft will stop accepting the collision-prone crypto algorithm.
by Dan Goodin
Nov 12 2013
Ars Technica
Microsoft is retiring two widely used cryptographic technologies that
are growing increasingly vulnerable to attacks that seemed unlikely
just a decade ago.
The company's software will stop recognizing the validity of digital
certificates that use the SHA1 cryptographic algorithm after 2016,
officials said on Tuesday. SHA1 is widely used to underpin secure
socket layer (SSL) and transport layer security (TLS) certificates
that authenticate websites and encrypt traffic passing between their
servers and end users. SHA1-based certificates are also used to
digitally verify that specific software applications are legitimate
and not imposter programs or programs that have been tampered with to
include hidden backdoors.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/hoping-to-avert-collision-with-disaster-microsoft-retires-sha1/
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:39:14 -0800 (PST)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: 75th anniversary of crossbar service
Message-ID: <e50cbd1d-fb4c-46e9-ba32-488ff0fb855e@googlegroups.com>
In 1938 the first crossbar switch (No. 1) was installed. Crossbar
advanced the concept of common control of the switch beyond what panel
switches had achieved.
Also in that era Bell Labs developed improvements in step-by-step
allowing for very small "community dial" offices (see below).
Lastly, in 1938 the model 300 'combined' telephone set was introduced,
along with the 1A key system.
Excerpts from the Bell Labs history:
The basic idea of a crossbar switch-to provide a matrix of n by m
sets of contacts with only n + m actuators to select one of the n x m
sets of contacts-was proposed early in the automation of switching.
In 1913 a patent application was filed by Western Electric for J. N.
Reynolds for a crossbar switch, and the basic patent was issued in May
1915. The device was based on contact elements multipled in one
direction, as in a panel bank.
Although the panel system had been providing excellent service and
meeting the needs of heavy traffic in large metropolitan offices, a
number of advantages that the marker-type crossbar system could
include were felt to be important to the future of providing service
economy and flexibility in large cities. (This was the start of the
services evolution made possible with common-control switching.) By
selecting trunks in the marker, it was not necessary to assign trunks
in fixed group patterns. They could be identified nonconsecutively and
spread over several switches or terminal groups. This feature was
particularly attractive for large trunk groups serving PBXs where
terminations not identified by directory numbers could be reached by
"jump hunting" to other terminal groups . It meant that traffic could
be distributed evenly over the switches. For the first time alternate
routing was possible.
The use of precious metal contacts would reduce or eliminate the
electrical noise in circuits caused by vibration created in the
contact brushes or wipers of panel and step-by-step selectors. By
using common control with crossbar switches in the network, one was no
longer tied to the characteristics of the switch in determining the
form of signaling to be employed; therefore, it was envisioned that
higher-speed signaling between new system offices and shorter call
completion times could be realized. An objective in designing the
network was to minimize the relay equipment required to be associated
with a call throughout its duration and preferably to concentrate
these relays in a so-called junctor relay circuit in a link or trunk
circuit. These capabilities were achieved from the very beginning in
the No. 1 crossbar system.
The first No. 1 crossbar office was placed in service in Troy
Avenue, Brooklyn in February 1938. It initially served 1400
telephones. Prior to the cutover, more than 350,000 test calls were
placed through the system starting in September 1937. This
installation was unique since it was the only No. 1 crossbar system to
be installed without a line choice connector between the terminating
markers and the line link switches.
The second No. 1 crossbar office, and the first large installation,
was placed in service in July 1938, serving 16,000 telephones from the
East 30th Street telephone building in New York City . Here for the
first time the elaborate PBX features were introduced into the system,
for example those that permitted jump hunting and busy testing of
nonconsecutively numbered PBX trunks as part of the same group. All of
these features, plus reduced maintenance costs together with the
advantages enumerated earlier, proved to be quite successful and
demonstrated not only the increased flexibility of crossbar switching
over the panel machine-switching system, but also its economic
viability for use in large metropolitan offices. Many features were
later added to the No. 1 crossbar system, including automatic message
accounting (AMA), automatic number identification (ANI), auxiliary
senders, and even a new wire spring version of the originating
senders.
At the peak in April 1970 of No. 1 crossbar service, there were 325
terminating entities serving 7.25 million lines. The last new
terminating marker group was installed in Philadelphia in 1969, and
the last originating marker group in Chicago in 1970.
Crossbar tandem:
With crossbar switching it was possible to provide a crossbar
switch link between the incoming trunks and senders (registers) so
that different senders could be selected from different groups,
depending upon the class of service of the incoming trunk. This meant
that the trunks could serve panel, crossbar, and step-by-step offices
each with their own type of pulsing (revertive, multifrequency, and
dial pulse). The remainder of the crossbar tandem system was almost a
copy of the originating switchtrain of the No. 1 crossbar system,
except that the incoming trunks took the place of the district
junctors, and of course there were no line link frames (see
Fig. 4-12). For this reason it was considered a part of the No. 1
crossbar development and not given a separate code identity. The first
crossbar tandem systems were placed in service in late 1941, in
Detroit, Manhattan, and San Francisco.
In some metropolitan areas, particularly New York City, individual
message registers per line were provided for charging purposes.
Generally the register was scored once for each call. As the dialing
distances increased, complex district selector and junctor circuits
were developed for the panel and No. 1 crossbar systems that permitted
the multiple scoring of registers on the answering of the call, as
well as additional scorings at the beginning of each overtime period.
[also known as message units, bulk billing or measured service].
Community dial offices (step by step):
In small offices, operator functions were located remote from the
switching office. The maintenance needs were so infrequent that
resident craftspeople were not necessary.
The success of and demand for small offices after the depression
stimulated a new equipment design with uniform-size frames and switch
types that were packaged for easy engineering and installation. This
system, developed by Bell Laboratories, was known as the "355A".
Among the features was a new combined line and cutoff relay as well as
a separate optional "line lockout" relay for use of lines with a high
incidence of line faults. The first installation was cut over in
Batavia, Ohio in 1939. A total of about 3500 offices serving about 4
million lines demonstrate the success of this development. There is
more of this code of switching system manufactured and placed in
service in the Bell System than any other code at any time.
Many individual innovations continued to be made in the stepby- step
system. For example, an arrangement was added to provide for early
detection and operator interception of permanent signals in 1963, and
also the timed disconnect of connectors when only the called party
goes on-hook so that he or she may originate a new call. Other
improvements to maintain the step-by-step system as a viable member of
the Bell System network are described elsewhere in this chapter. The
step-by-step system provided automatic service for more Bell System
lines than any other switching system when it reached its peak of
24,440,000 lines in 1973.
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:10:20 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: iOS 7 downloads consumed 20 percent of an ISP's traffic on release day
Message-ID: <p0624083bcea938b24c2d@[10.0.1.6]>
iOS 7 downloads consumed 20 percent of an ISP's traffic on release day
And P2P's share of all traffic is now less than 25% of what it was in 2008.
by Jon Brodkin
Nov 11 2013
Ars Technica
When Apple released iOS 7 to the world at 1pm ET on Sept. 18, legions
of iPhone and iPad owners immediately downloaded the new operating
system. That's no surprise, but statistics released today illustrate
just how much of an impact the mobile OS had on Internet traffic.
At one unnamed North American fixed Internet provider, "Apple Updates
immediately became almost 20 percent of total network traffic and
continued to stay above 15 percent of total traffic into the evening
peak hours," according to Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Report
for the second half of 2013. Sandvine makes equipment that helps
consumer broadband providers manage network congestion.
Over-the-air update sizes were 760MB for the iPhone 5, 900MB for the
iPad 2, and 729MB for the Apple TV, the report says. Updates
downloaded on desktops through iTunes were 1.2GB for the iPhone and
1.4GB for the iPad.
...
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/ios-7-downloads-consumed-20-percent-of-an-isps-traffic-on-release-day/
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.
TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.
The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then. Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!
URL information: http://telecom-digest.org
Copyright (C) 2013 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.
Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list.
All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom Digest (6 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues