Fibre and Telecommunications Infrastructure

Ireland is not a knowledge economy . Our broadband infrastructure is crap by international standards and is getting crappier by the day .

Proper broadband like DSL ( where available) is being abandoned ( page 25) . In far too many cases those who abandon DSL are going to 3g mobile which is complete rubbish in peak periods , you will get dial up speeds if you are lucky . Broadband connection in Ireland by International comparison measure ( mobile is not considered broadband) is DROPPING right now . DSL and Fixed Wirlesss since early this year but were compensated by growth in Cable Broadband .

I described the '3 levels' of a full National Fibre network in the second post in this thread. On a national level we need to complete the first two levels before we address the complexities of the third level .

These 2 levels are Backbone and Aggregation . The final mile is called the Access Network .

The National backbone network should be Ethernet end to end. It should be made up of DWDM fibre . It should feed back to Dublin where our hosting facilities are ( giant sheds full of websites) and where various networks connect to each other in the INEX and where International Fibres make their landfalls.

The National objective MUST be to push this backbone to within 50km of each citizen by end 2011 and to within 30km by end 2012 . At this point we have a national backbone network that any communications company may use . The cost of using it should be flat rated as it is a national asset .

Much of this network exists or exists in the form of ducts at least , it is simply a matter of completing it instead of talking shyte as our politicians do .

At the endpoints a "Co-Lo" is required . This is a building with stable power and racks, that is all. A Co_Lo exists in Cork but in most cities it need only be a building the size of a corner shop and in more rural areas it would be the size of a portacabin, no more.

Once this fibre is completed along with the Co_Los we have a Backbone Network !!! Job Done.

Now to the Aggregation Network . This is largely complete with 5 exceptions and a qualification . In many rural areas there is no need for Aggregation , you basically drop from Backbone to Access in one go. For larger towns where there may be a more sophisticated demand for services you will need an Aggregation network which will also be DWDM . These aggregation networks are called MANs and already exist in most significant towns in Ireland.

The notable exceptions are :

1. Dublin
2. Castlebar
3. Ennis
4. Shannon
5. Tuam

In the case of Dublin there is an extensive fibre network supporting traffic lights and cameras. These can be upscaled very simply to provide aggregation with Street Cabinets like these eircom ones from Tyrone Fabrications .





The other 4 cases are the only 'Gateway' towns or cities with no MAN .

Castlebar was diddled rotten by Chorus in the early part of this decade and Ennis was given an Information Age scheme in the late 1990s which was turned off by eircom 6 years ago . They went from VDSL back to dialup overnight in some cases.

Tuam was given some ridiculous limited broadband over electricity trial . Shannon was plain ignored !

Put a MAN into all four of these towns .

Finally there is my qualification . Ensure that every large or 'gateway town' has a good Co-Lo ( not always BIG but good) and that 2 carriers are hooked into the Man through the Backbone at the Co Lo . Much of this is done already but not all Co-Los are state assets but private ones . A straightforward access protocol is needed at the very least .

There are smaller towns with Mans but frankly they should be downgraded to Access networks not Aggregation networks and co-los are not necessary in these cases because any co-lo needed can be done in a street cabinet .

That then completes the Backbone and Aggregation networks in Ireland . I estimate it can all be done by end 2011 without much ado or by end 2012 even with the stupid Greens in charge

Not doing this quickly will doom Ireland even more certainly than NAMA will because the 'knowledge economy' will move to where the bandwidth is . This is already happening in Ireland . In 2004 24% of IDA job announcements were in towns with a MAN and with Backbone Fibre connected and by 2007 that had increased to 89% of job announcements .

I shall address the Access Network anon . It will not necessarily be DWDM which may be flexibly used for a mixture of protocols and services but it will be PON instead .

Current telecommunications networks worldwide carry voice/fax and dialup and broadband over many different pipes within their networks. They wish to simplify these pipes.

BT have kindly shown how they intend to collapse all of these services onto one flat network .

Eircom started this process in 2006 / 2007 because they had to . See notes on Diagrams .

This is what telecoms networks looked like mid decade . PSTN is a bog standard phone line. BT have 5500 exchanges and we have 1200 .




This is what the new simplified Next Generation Network ( NGN or NGA ) that we keep hearing about looks like after the upgrade. Much simpler . Eircom have not done most of this , only the bit on the right .

They are about to ask the taxpayer for €2bn to do what BT are doing themselves in the UK with no subsidies . Like tomorrow

dubhthach wrote: »

Supposedly Aurora Telecom which is a division of Bord Gáis owns a fibre network in Dublin city centre.

It runs basically Ballycoolin>Citywest>Tallaght>Leeson St>IFSC>Ballyccoolin , (SW City to Centre and Back out)

Aurora/Bord Gáis have not troubled us with their website for 4 years now and it was complete crap before then .

Ideally if all the states owned ducting/fibre was put under the "One stop shop" this could be added to the traffic network fibre system.

That one stop approach will be vital in Dublin , read up on the Corpos traffic light /camera system as it serves 1000 locations around the city ...not all fibred I know.

A third significant state owned system in Dublin belongs to the RPA and runs along the Luas lines, see .

The last and most significant state owned fibre network in Dublin belongs to the ESB . I say most significant as the ESB are by far the easiest and most professional state owned outfit to deal with .

Correct .

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0828/1224253397550.html

The company plans to commission nine different networks each month. A process of due diligence is carried out on each network before E-net begins to offer services. Since last month, Mans in Tralee, Killarney, Castleisland, Listowel, Navan, Bundoran, Ballyshannon, Blarney and the combined Carrigaline/Ringaskiddy /Passage West network have been activated.

A Complete List of these Networks, most yet to be activated is here . Most have a map.

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Development/Metropolitan+Area+Networks/Phase+II+Towns.htm

Incidentally the phase 2 towns should all have a CO-LO. Next time I mosey through Ballinasloe I must try to find it ...behind Lidl I suspect .

dubhthach wrote: »

SpongeBob I assume that Cliftden is going to have rely on radio for backhaul correct? It'll probably end up like the Gaoth Dobhair MAN with no customers on it.

I take it you appreciate the utter futility of installing fibre and then relying on a wireless link to backhaul it ???

Of the original MANs Gweedore / Kiltimagh / Carrickmacross / Monaghan / Kingscourt were all unlit 3-4 years after construction . (source p42)

dubhthach wrote: »

Ballinasloe:
Gort:

Gort of course could use the Ducting that's part of the N18/M18. It also helps that BT have fibre along the train track which should enable backhaul for Athenry and Ballinasloe.

Once they pump them out and jack the co los permanantly up on stilts of course

The Gort Co Lo is down near Finns Furniture in the lowest part of Gort , see here and the Ballinasloe co lo is only 50m from the river Suck .

Sponge Bob wrote: »

You will find ALL of these maps here . Gaining access to the ducts is a complete pain in the hole because the state does not have a One Stop Shop for access to all of these assets.

I addressed this on page one. The NRA is not what was promised, namely a ONE STOP shop state owned ducts.

The NRA is only a one stop shop for National roads/motorways (and possibly) for Regional Roads too). This is good because you get all the consents from one source and the NRA have lots of staff doing feck all now the roads design and build budget has largely disappeared.

HOWEVER it does not get anybody access to other state owned ducts and it leaves L Roads ( most of the network by far) with councils....possibly.

The other big problem is the lack of ducts near the Motorway network in Dublin and the Pale, this does nothing to address that either. See the map linked above.