eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick) (01/23/91)
>Whitley, commander of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, told the media >Friday that the first air strike against Iraq was a 2,000-pound bomb >dropped squarely onto the "AT&T building" in downtown Baghdad. > Not so, says the telecommunications giant. "We don't even have a >building in Baghdad," spokesman James Van Orden said. {Dallas Times- >Herald}, D1, 1/20. I heard (on the CBC, I think) that it was a "PTT" building. I can't remember what the letters stood for, though. I also heard (thru the Northern Telecom grapevine) that one of the NT US switching divisions received an order from the US Military for a portable switch to fit into a transport trailer, ready to deliver by this Friday (Jan 25th). The switch should handle as many lines a possible. Plan is to ship it to middle east to "replace damaged telecom lines". Dunno if it is a DMS or SuperNode but my guess is it will be brown in color. [Moderator's Note: PTT frequently means "Post, Telephone, Telegraph" since in many countries the government agency which operates the post office also manages the telephone system. PAT]
barefoot@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Heath Roberts) (01/24/91)
In article <16336@accuvax.nwu.edu> eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick) writes: >I also heard (thru the Northern Telecom grapevine) that one of the NT >US switching divisions received an order from the US Military for a >portable switch to fit into a transport trailer, ready to deliver by >this Friday (Jan 25th). The switch should handle as many lines a >possible. Plan is to ship it to middle east to "replace damaged >telecom lines". >Dunno if it is a DMS or SuperNode but my guess is it will be brown in >color. Probably a containerized DMS-10, which is actually brown and green. NT keeps several at its RTP facility ready to ship in case of a service affecting emergency somewhere. One of these will handle about 10,000 lines in the standard package (not a full-sized trailer) which can be air-dropped. There is also a containerized version of the DMS-100, that is four full-size trailers, and can handle about 50,000 lines. This one's a little more expensive and not designed to be airlifted. But if we can ship an Abrams tank, why not? If your Supernode front end dies but peripherials are still OK, NT can ship you one in four man-portable boxes on any airline. They snap together and have fiber cables between the modules. The Supernode actually is a DMS-100, just with a different front end. The older version DMS-100 uses a proprietary processor called the NT-40, the Supernode uses either a Motorola 68020 (most common), a 68030 (in the field) or an 88000 (still in the works) as its main CPU. The peripherial modules are the same, and all the software runs on either verison. The Supernode can handle more messages per time than the NT-40, and the NT-40 is gradually being phased out. Within a year or two, new versions of software (called BCS for batch change supplement) won't run on the NT-40. Northern doesn't require you to buy new versions when they are released, so there will be some NT-40's around for quite a while -- Northern Telecom will provide pack repairs for twenty years from the date it's officially discontinued. There's a newer switch, the S/DMS-100, which is designed to have the horsepower for higher speed direct digital communications. Its market niche is for telcos that want to implement FiberWorld, which is a really cool concept in telecommunciations. NT has some marketing videos that are pretty interesting. I'll find out if they're available to the public and let everyone know ... I think you can borrow them for a couple of weeks without charge, but there is a deposit. Heath Roberts NCSU Computer and Technologies Theme Program barefoot@catt.ncsu.edu
steve@caticsuf.csufresno.edu (Steve Mitchell) (01/25/91)
eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick) wrote: >>Whitley, commander of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, told the media >>Friday that the first air strike against Iraq was a 2,000-pound bomb >>dropped squarely onto the "AT&T building" in downtown Baghdad. > I heard (on the CBC, I think) that it was a "PTT" building. I can't > remember what the letters stood for, though. According to a report on National Public Radio's morning news program "Morning Edition" (1/23), the building being shown bombed by a F-117A Stealth Fighter/Bomber was the Baghdad "Public Telephone & Telegraph" building. This building, according to telecom professionals in Saudi Arabia, should have been staffed by 10 to 20 civilian technicians and operators at the time of the attack (pre-dawn/early morning). Because of the F-117's stealth capabilities, it is not believed that the occupants of the building would have heard or seen any signs of warning until the 2,000 bound bomb struck the building. They did not mention whether military personnel would have been staffing the building in part. However, they did report that the Iraqi's most valuable lines of military communication and switching would have been located under the building and immune to the effects of the attack which, apparently, was meant to decapitate it's top two of twelve stories in order to render the microwave equipment on the roof useless. Professional Comment: Unquestionably, civilian telecom equipment can be a valuable military asset to any country. The fact that redundant military communications systems were, undoubtably, in place and are possibly still operational does not make civilian telecom facilities any less of a valuable channel of command and control to the enemy's military infrastructure. Personal Comment: I find it ironic that, in our humanitarian gesture towards the people of the Arabian Peninsula, the first casualties in the conflict may have been civilian professionals like you and I. The contradictions in the philosophies of modern warfare, in terms of their goals and their means, abound. Steve_Mitchell@csufresno.edu
judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com (Louis J. Judice 25-Jan-1991 1110) (01/26/91)
I don't think there's anything ironic about telecom professionals being blown up in our first attacks on Bagdad. Telecommunications, railroads, police and fire departments are all civilian staffed organizations that are an integral part of a country's infrastructure. This infrastructure is the first target of an attack. Rather than being ironic, I'd consider it to be almost a "compliment" to be part of a profession that is so important to a nation's security. People working in high profile locations are doubtlessly aware that they are at greater risk of attack than other locations. Believe me, living less than a mile from the AT&T network operations center, I know full well that there are several Soviet warheads aimed at me all the time! I don't really think this is an appropriate place to start or continue any kind of discussion of the MERITS of attacking any particular country, but I certainly accept the idea that if you're going to attack and win, you do things like target telephone switching centers and microwave towers. ljj
Ed_Greenberg@3mail.3com.com (01/26/91)
Steve Mitchell <steve@caticsuf.csufresno.edu> writes: > I find it ironic that, in our humanitarian gesture towards the > people of the Arabian Peninsula, the first casualties in the > conflict may have been civilian professionals like you and I. The > contradictions in the philosophies of modern warfare, in terms of > their goals and their means, abound. You know, there isn't much humanitarian about a war. It is sobering, however, to realize that the telephone operators are as much at risk as the soldiers. As a technical person, you may too live near "ground zero." I live and work within ten miles of Moffett Naval Air Station -- in the heard of Silicon Valley. I grew up going to school across the street from Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage, New York. If "the big one comes" and thank the deity that's less likely these days, I have no illusions about whether I live in a target area. On the other hand, if it is suggested that we not take out the telephone exchange because there are civilian technicians working there, then we have bowed to the Human Shield concept and our entire operation is now held hostage. [Moderator's Note: Telephone employees have been in the middle of these things before and simply tried to carry on the best they could. There have been local and national emergencies which greatly taxed the ability of telecom people to get the job done ... yet they stuck with it. Historical trivia: In the middle 1960's, protestors of the war in southeast Asia barricaded the Administration Building at the University of Chicago and forced the building to be closed for two days. The one exception was the telephone operators: they not only were permitted to enter and leave the building, but as a matter of their personal safety were escorted in and out by the protestors. PAT]