[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #365: The IP Transition

[Editor]

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. 
<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/>
OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4cast #365: The IP Transition
December 18th, 2013

Ethernet cableOn November 4, Tom Wheeler was sworn in as the new Federal 
Communications Commission chairman and shortly thereafter signaled that 
he had a great interest in promoting the "IP Transition" in the United 
States. The FCC has been studying this transition for about a year now, 
looking at how to manage the switch from old copper-line telephone and 
data communications technology, such as the T1 lines familiar to many 
libraries, to newer "Ethernet" technology based on the Internet Protocol 
(IP). Large telecommunications companies would like to discontinue their 
support for the old technology because it is expensive for them to 
maintain two different technologies in their networks. But consumer 
advocates warn that any transition must not leave people in areas that 
have only copper infrastructure without necessary communications services.

  * The IP Transition: Starting now
    <http://www.fcc.gov/blog/ip-transition-starting-now> (Official FCC
    Blog/Tom Wheeler) "Fiber networks are expanding. Bonding technology
    is showing interesting possibilities with regard to the nation's
    traditional copper infrastructure. Communications protocols are
    moving from circuit-switched Time-division Multiplexing (or TDM) to
    IP. And wireless voice and data services are increasingly prevalent,
    empowering consumers to connect at the place and time of their
    choosing. This is what I have called the Fourth Network Revolution,
    and it is a good thing. History has shown that new networks catalyze
    innovation, investment, ideas, and ingenuity."
  * FCC chairman: US phone system needs Internet makeover
    <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57613089-94/fcc-chairman-us-phone-system-needs-internet-makeover/>
    (CNET/Steven Musil) "While many consumers already make phone calls
    on the Internet using voice over IP, which transmits large amounts
    of data in packet form, much of the nation's telephone
    infrastructure still employs less-efficient analog technology.
    Wheeler, who won Senate confirmation as the commission's chairman
    late last month, wrote in a blog post Tuesday that he expects the
    commission to vote in January on a package of recommendations to
    speed the initiation of experiments and analysis of their outcomes,
    as well as consider the associated legal, policy, and technical issues."
  * The IP Transition: What is it and what the debate is about
    <http://gigaom.com/2013/11/19/the-ip-transition-what-is-it-and-what-the-debate-is-about/>
    (GigaOM/Stacey Higginbotham) "Wheeler can call it the Fourth Network
    Revolution or whatever he wants. The transition is already
    happening, it's the FCC's job to figure out how to do this without
    causing a loss of access and problems for millions of Americans who
    still rely on the copper network. It also means we need to ensure
    that cellular and VoIP 9-1-1 actually gets help to people when they
    need it and that VoIP services are reliable in a crisis. It also
    means that customers have access to a voice network even if they are
    in rural America and that access shouldn't come with expensive
    strings attached."
  * Who will upgrade the telecom foundation of the Internet?
    <http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/12/who-will-upgrade-the-telecom-foundation-of-the-internet.html>
    (O'Reilly Radar/Andy Oram) "Everyone knows that Internet
    technologies, such as voice over IP, are less reliable than plain
    old telephone service, but few realize how soon reliability of any
    sort will be a thing of the past. When a telecom company signs you
    up for a fancy new fiber connection, you are no longer connected to
    a power source at the telephone company's central office. Instead,
    you get a battery that can last eight hours in case of a power
    failure. A local power failure may let you stay in contact with
    outsiders if the nearby mobile phone towers stay up, but a larger
    failure will take out everything."

*/T1 fact:/*

If all goes as planned, OPLIN will complete its own "IP Transition" 
sometime next summer, as we replace the last of our old T1/DS3 circuits 
with Ethernet connections.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The */OPLIN 4cast/* is a weekly compilation of recent headlines, topics, 
and trends that could impact public libraries. You can subscribe to it 
in a variety of ways, such as:

  * *RSS feed.* You can receive the OPLIN 4cast via RSS feed by
    subscribing to the following URL:
    http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2.
  * *Live Bookmark.* If you're using the Firefox web browser, you can go
    to the 4cast website (http://www.oplin.org/4cast/) and click on the
    orange "radio wave" icon on the right side of the address bar. In
    Internet Explorer 7, click on the same icon to view or subscribe to
    the 4cast RSS feed.
  * *E-mail.* You can have the OPLIN 4cast delivered via e-mail (a'la
    OPLINlist and OPLINtech) by subscribing to the 4cast mailing list at
    http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast.


OPLIN 4Cast
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20131218/0593677f/attachment-0003.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: kubrickheader.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 38379 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20131218/0593677f/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ethernet-cable.png
Type: image/png
Size: 25070 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20131218/0593677f/attachment-0003.png>