I tried asking that "PIE" that supports 2channels about the case where someone cut a dark fiber cable under the Silicon Valley

in JapanCases where communication cables of mobile phone base stations are disconnected one after anotherAlthough NTT Docomo, au, SoftBank Mobile suffered damage, overseas as wellSomeone cut the dark fiber cable under the Silicon Valley, A telephone incident in the Silicon Valley area · Internet connection · mobile phone etc became unusable occurred on April 10th of local time (Pacific Standard Time).

In this regard, we provide optical fiber-connected Internet connection bandwidth and collocation service between North America and Asia, which is also famous for supporting that 2 channel and so on from behindPacific Internet ExchangeI was able to hear the story from the person.

Details on what kind of damage was caused, what kind of thing happened in what order, what kind of things did you ask?
First of all, what happened in chronological order?

02: 00
Someone opens the manholes and invades the underground passage. The weight of this manhole lid is about 180 pounds and weighs about 82 kilometers, and a silo mono that requires a special tool to open the lock. Someone who breaks in, cuts four dark fibers owned by AT & T and used by Verizon with sawtooth.

As a result, 52,200 households (San Jose, Santa Clara, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Santa Cruz area) are unavailable for calls. Furthermore, Verizon, Nextel Spring, AT & T, T - Mobile mobile phones are unusable in the following areas.


03: 30
Someone cut two fibers in San Carlos City

04: 00
Silicon Valley's ISP's Network Operation Center (NOC), including PIE.US, learns about fiber disconnection (communication from other companies, etc.).

At this point, confirm that Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Santa Cruz area 9-1-1 (police, fire and emergency) are stopped.

The connection between 200 Paul ← → PAIX was completely cut at the time when the second fiber burned out, affecting the routing. In 200 Paul, Tier 1 provider urgently contacts all ISPs and communication companies.

06: 00
Information that it identified the problem part. Also news of cable disconnection of this time will start flowing to the media.

09: 00
AT & T reports press release on Twitter etc.

12:00
Press release (?) That the recovery of fiber cut at 02: 00 will be 05: 00.

18:00
The mayor of San Jose fled the State of Emergency (response in the event of a disaster / emergency), reinforced the police in the area where the telephone is not connected, the fiber which was disconnected at 02: 00 is restored.

22: 00
All lines are restored

Somehow it was an eerie incident, but I asked PIE for further details.

Q1:There was a case that the underground dark fiber cable was disconnected, but was it such a place that anyone could invade and disconnect? Or was it happening despite some degree of security being secured?

A1:As a security, it is a manhole that requires a special tool to open, but that tool is owned by many companies such as electric company / telecommunications company (AT & amp; T).

Q2:There is "someone", have you already delivered to local police and fire department?

A2:AT & T delivered to police in San Jose city. Also,A prize of 100,000 dollars (about 10 million yen)It is put on.

Q3:If this case was intentionally disconnected, what is the purpose of the other party? Or was there a threat like a criminal statement about something this time or "pay money if you do not want to be disconnected in the future"?

A3:There is no doubt that it was intentionally disconnected. Information such as a criminal statement is not included, but since the news that the negotiation of the partnership with AT & T and T has temporarily broken on April 4 has flowed, it is said that it is partly a work of the partner I will. However, the union chief has issued a statement and officially announced that it is not a work of the union members and stakeholders.

Q4:How long did it take to restore this disconnection?

A4:It was around 2:00 pm on April 9 and the complete restoration was around 22:00.

Q5:Is there anything that happened in the past like cutting this time? Or is this your first time?

A5:I am awake in the past. Especially in Egypt etc., it is occurring frequently.

Q6:As for the data centers in Japan as well, there is a possibility that this case may happen, but what kind of method can be thought of as a way to prevent it?

A6:Although there is a possibility, since Fiber Ring of Japan was designed by NTT and invested huge amount of funds, Fail Over System (switched to another route when a problem arises) is steady. In addition, I also expressed my opinion that it is sufficient to keep the security secure in the United States, but most opinion is that it is difficult to fully secure the underground security. When pulling further fibers from the Bay Area (San Francisco to San Jose area), reports that at least 1 trillion yen of funds are required are required, and it is difficult to raise the cost of end users during the global depression It seems. In addition, due to the change of routing, we received a part of "heavy" on our management board, 2channel 's management board, and as a result of investigation, Ping Time was raised from 110ms to 150ms on average (now restored). This should be connected to the submarine cable of San Jose because of the routing change had reached our data center from Los Angeles. In addition, small and medium scale ISPs cooperated with each other, and provided free bandwidth for ISPs without BGP connection. We also provided bandwidth to 12 companies free of charge for 24 hours.

So it seems that AT & T and others are talking about security enhancement etc, but it is said that it will be next week that a wide variety of information will start to enter, starting from the panic mode and setting to quiet a day. Internet and mobile phones are becoming indispensable for daily life, but regarding security around here as well, various problems are likely to emerge in various places around the world.

2009/04/12 01:13 Addendum
Unused cables are referred to as "Dark fiber"Why do you call this" Pure Dark Fiber "even in this case, are currently inquiring.

2009/04/12 11: 42 Addendum
Together with the information received from readers, dark fiber is not a meaning of "unused lines", but it seems to describe a fiber that can occupy the entire optical fiber as "dark fiber". Although limited by the physical properties of the fiber, 100 M Ethernet is used on the fiber because it has no light (no termination at the line terminating equipment or no protocol) on the dark fiber It seems to be said that it is possible to pass through 40 Gbps by line multiplexing, freely. Fiber that can not be occupied by this "occupied" means a line operator, such as Metro Ether, attaching L1 and L2 multiplexers prepared by a line operator to (dark) fiber and providing some of them If. A certain band (100 Mbps, etc.) can be used for those who are receiving this service, but instead of occupying the fiber, you are using part of the bandwidth. Therefore, "Dark fibers were cut" in this case is not that the fibers which are not used are cut, but it seems that "fibers that are lent out as dark fibers have been cut" is. Regarding this area around Wikipedia abroad "Dark fiberIt is said that the meaning is different between old days and now. So, the expression in the article seems to be correct with "dark fiber".

Also, about the matter that Japan 's NTT network can be bypassed even if it breaks, it is not a line provided as a dark fiber but it is a line carrying some protocol. Because when you lend it as a dark fiber, since the user is occupying the fiber, it can not be determined even on the NTT network side whether a failure has occurred. Technically, there seems to be a method of indirectly detecting fiber cutoff rather than a direct method (for example, a monitoring fiber used by the NTT network side as a monitoring purpose among a bundle of fibers) and switching with an L1 switching machine However, if you do it, the cost of dark fiber offerings will increase.