November 2008 Archives

One of the projects that we have been working on over the past 2 years is the migration of our myriad voice systems to a VOIP implementation.  As I have mentioned in a past post we have a very extensive city owned fiber network that of course we are using as a transport for our voice communications.  To date we have replaced over 70 of our 130 phone switches ( yes I know that we needed to go to a central system some time ago - just never the money or there were other more pressing priorities) and we have migrated some 3000 users to the VOIP system.  I have been amazed at how smooth this has gone to date and I am pleased with the cooperation and enthusiasm shown by our users.

As with every project there have been some issues that have been raised that we did not plan for.  We planned work arounds for the fact that some of our facilities do not have cat 5 cabling.  We planned for some facilities and locations that would have to remain on leased circuits because we do not have the ability to make connections any other way.  The thing that has really bitten us on this project are the upgrades that have been required to some of the communication rooms. 

The project has required the upgrade of core layer and distribution layer network equipment.  While this was planned for, it is also where our problems started.  IT is not responsible for the power, cooling, ups or generators that feed our communication rooms.  When we started to plan the deployment of equipment we were informed that a number of facilities would also require one or multiples of the following:  More electrical power, more cooling capacity, larger ups's or larger generators.  It was eye opening to me that we (as an organization) do not plan appropriatly for these rooms and that in some cases backup battery systems and generators were undersized to power the equipment that was already installed!

As a result we have learned a very valuable lesson and we are now working more closly with the people who are responsible for the care and feeding of rooms like this in all our facilities.  I am determined to ensure that this is not an issue in future projects, and that we, at a minimum, review the capacity and loading requirements for these rooms and that we budget appropriatly (either in our O & M budget or in future project budgets) so that we do not neglect this part of our infrastructure again.  

With only a few hours until Election Day, I was pondering what the impact would be of a McCain presidency or of an Obama presidency as it relates to technology issues. Yes, both have stated their positions on Net Neutrality, but beyond that what policies would be instituted that might address other technology issues.

On other technology issues neither has really offered anything substantive as best I can discern.  Both say that we need to have a National Broadband Policy in place that provides ubiquitous access, but while this certainly sounds good how will this look and how might it benefit each community?   Certainly every urban and rural locality has different challenges.  Some will require infrastructure development while some might require more competition for affordability etc.  We are seeing government control of ISPs such as in Australia where the Australian Communications and Media Authority has been testing and will be implementing mandatory network filtering.  Is this something that either candidate supports and at what level?  Where does each stand on the 700MHz spectrum auction and the availability of sufficient public safety and first responder bandwidth for interoperable communications?   

I am generally a very optimistic person, but I do not see with either candidate that there will be much change in these overarching policies.  I hope that I am wrong and that significant strides can be made, but with all of the other issues that the next president will need to address I once again see technology issues getting some lip service, but not much more.  

Photo by Chesi - Fotos CC. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic