Deepak Jain wrote:
I don't mean to jump in here and state the obvious, but wireless links are
not a panacea. At least a few folks have presented that fiber grooming has
affected their *region*. It's not difficult to imagine that wherever the
"head" link side (or agg point) of these regional wireless networks is...
probably coincides with a fiber network or other telecom POP. You are just
moving where your last mile vulnerabilities are (slightly.. as you are
picking up multiple power vulnerabilities, Line of Sight, and other things
along the way).
The federal stimulus earmarks $7 billion for broadband in underserved
regions and another $11 billion for the "Smart Grid" (which needs
network connectivity in order to be very Smart). It seems to me like
broadband over powerlines (http://tinyurl.com/dyue7k ) is the obvious
answer to getting the most out of that money.
While recent reports of intruders in the legacy grid scare the crap out
of me WRT the Smart Grid future (and dumb grid present), in the long
term I worry more about the next Carrington event
(http://tinyurl.com/c3xphd ).
Building a new communication network for the Smart Grid seems like a
step in the right direction toward being able power everything down in a
real emergency. Your local power company probably wouldn't have to go
far to get to a peering point either...
The long term vision for the smart grid has other potential gains for
the health and availability of our networks. I know that we see daily
damage from power sags and spikes (even when absorbed by UPS, those
still have a real world cost associated with the truck rolls to replace
failed batteries). Some of that goes away when the whole usage curve
smooths out as a result of demand-based pricing models that will be
built into the Smart Grid. Ultimately I hope it goes to the application
model. A lot of periodic jobs that use significant system CPU resources
can be scheduled to run when electricity is cheapest, perhaps in
consideration with what else is going on locally.
Mike
