Global phone systems act to avoid failures

Article Abstract:

Telephone companies meeting at TELECOM 1991 in Geneva, Switzerland, at the request of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), worry about the possibility of service disruptions spreading across the world as local networks become globally connected. The FCC requested the meeting at the industry trade show in the aftermath of the AT&T breakdown in Sep 1991, which disrupted long-distance telephone calls and air traffic in New York City. The phone companies agreed that when disruptions occur, they will alert other countries through the International Telecommunications Union of the United Nations, and a study group will analyze separate accidents to see whether they have significant underlying causes. Although different countries use different phone equipment and computer software, they are trying to standardize a network protocol called Signaling System 7, which can reroute calls around defective equipment or software.

Prepackaged software, Usage, Conferences, meetings and seminars, Trade shows, International communication, System failures (Engineering), Trade Show, Long-Distance Telephone Service, International Communications, Preventive Maintenance, Out-of-band signaling, Signaling System 7 (Computer network protocol), 1991 AD, TELECOM

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Superhuman failure: A.T.&T.'s trouble shows computers defy understanding even in collapse

Article Abstract:

The failure of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's long-distance switching system on Mon, Jan 15, 1990, is a warning of vulnerability in complex computer networks. Such networks - which control telephones, bank cash machines, electric power and other daily necessities - are becoming so complex that they defy understanding. Vulnerability of complex systems has national security implications because some experts hold that a space-based anti-missile system composed of thousands of independent components can act reliably. Vulnerability was highlighted in a different way in Nov 1988, when a graduate student disabled a nationwide computer network by introducing a rogue program into the system. In another example, computer experts at TRW Inc think they were confronted with 'chaos' - a mathematical concept that describes unpredictable phenomena - in a network's erratic behavior in 1987.

Analysis, Computer networks, Evaluation, Telecommunications systems, Telecommunications software, Chaos theory, Chaotic systems, Telecommunication systems, Communications software, Networks, Telecommunications, Data Communications Software

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