How many times have you heard someone joke that the job of routing and installing cabling is "not rocket science"? Well, recently it was part of rocket science when a NASA commander routed and installed several new cables aboard the International Space Station.
In two recent updates of NASA's involvement in the ISS mission, the agency reported on the cabling-installation work that Commander Dan Burbank is carrying out aboard the mission.
On March 16, NASA reported that Commander Burbank "had most of his workday (~7 hours) dedicated to one part of major ISS outfitting: upgrading the ISS Ku-band system by routing and installing cabling for the HRCS (High Rate Communication System)." NASA further said the day's work "focused on the routing of four cables in the U.S. Lab Forward Endcone ... Four cables had to be installed today: one Ethernet cable from the Ku-CU (Ku-band Command Unit) to the JSL [Joint Station LAN], one AV-3 power jumper for the Ku-CU2, and two MDM (multiplexer/demultiplexer) 1553 data cable bundles ... Three more installation and cabling tasks will be scheduled at future dates."
On March 20, NASA's report stated, "After last week's routing and installing of cabling for the HRCS ... CDR Burbank had ~2 hours set aside to install a HRCAS AV-2 connector panel ... The panel carries 16 connector plugs, to which Dan mated 9 JSL Ethernet cables of the Ku-CU and 6 Payload Ethernet Hub Gateway 1/Automated Payload Switch data cables."
NASA explained the purpose for this cabling upgrade: "When fully installed and operational, HRCS will provide substantially faster uplink and downlink speeds, improved bandwidth, two extra space/ground voice loops, two extra video downlink channels, and contingency Ku Commanding capability. It will also allow additional data to be downlinked from the payload and command-and-control MDMs through Ku-band using the MDM Ethernet cables routed by the crew during the Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC) work completed earlier ..."
You can read the complete report from NASA on the ISS activities of March 16 here, and from March 20 here.
We are pursuing further information from NASA and hope to provide more detail on the cabling work being done on the International Space Station.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Kenya grapples with fiber cuts
The country of Kenya has been stung by the network architecture it has chosen for its national fiber-optic infrastructure.
Winfred Kagwe of news provider The Star has reported that the permanent secretary of Kenya's ministry of information and communications, Bitange Ndemo, is proposing changes to the way fiber-optic cabling systems are designed and administered in his country.
The catalyst for these proposed changes is a string of fiber cuts, the most recent of which "nearly [cut] off the entire country for two days," Kagwe reported. He further stated that Ndemo is proposing changes intended to reduce the incidence of outages when cuts happen.
The country has not implemented a ring architecture for its fiber-optic cabling system, leaving it prone to widespread outages like those it has experienced recently. Ndemo is quoted as saying, "Initially we thought everyone would behave, so we put all the cable in the one-line format; this is what is causing the outages."
Kagwe reports that experts are saying the financial loss suffered by the outages "runs into millions."
You can read Winfred Kagwe's full report here.
Winfred Kagwe of news provider The Star has reported that the permanent secretary of Kenya's ministry of information and communications, Bitange Ndemo, is proposing changes to the way fiber-optic cabling systems are designed and administered in his country.
The catalyst for these proposed changes is a string of fiber cuts, the most recent of which "nearly [cut] off the entire country for two days," Kagwe reported. He further stated that Ndemo is proposing changes intended to reduce the incidence of outages when cuts happen.
The country has not implemented a ring architecture for its fiber-optic cabling system, leaving it prone to widespread outages like those it has experienced recently. Ndemo is quoted as saying, "Initially we thought everyone would behave, so we put all the cable in the one-line format; this is what is causing the outages."
Kagwe reports that experts are saying the financial loss suffered by the outages "runs into millions."
You can read Winfred Kagwe's full report here.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
FOA open letter to President Obama encourages communications-systems investment
The Fiber Optic Association included as part of its February 2012 newsletter an open letter to President Barack Obama. The brief letter emphasizes the potential for job creation that can result from investment in communications infrastructure and Smart Grid technologies.
The letter reads, in part, "Your proposal to develop and deploy a nationwide wireless broadband public safety network could create an estimated 100,000 new jobs in ICT [information and communications technology] industries." Over time, the letter adds, such a network could produce a benefit of an estimated $4 billion to $8 billion per year. It adds that an investment of $3.4 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (frequently referred to as "The Stimulus Act") intended for Smart Grid deployments "could produce 30,000 new jobs" and furthermore, could ultimately lead to economic benefits that range from $48 billion to $76 billion annually.
You can see the letter to President Obama and the FOA's complete February newsletter here.
(Note: Why is the FOA concerning itself with broadband wireless networks and the Smart Grid? As our sister brand Lightwave has pointed out, there's plenty of fiber in wireless backhaul and in Smart Grid infrastructures.)
The letter reads, in part, "Your proposal to develop and deploy a nationwide wireless broadband public safety network could create an estimated 100,000 new jobs in ICT [information and communications technology] industries." Over time, the letter adds, such a network could produce a benefit of an estimated $4 billion to $8 billion per year. It adds that an investment of $3.4 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (frequently referred to as "The Stimulus Act") intended for Smart Grid deployments "could produce 30,000 new jobs" and furthermore, could ultimately lead to economic benefits that range from $48 billion to $76 billion annually.
You can see the letter to President Obama and the FOA's complete February newsletter here.
(Note: Why is the FOA concerning itself with broadband wireless networks and the Smart Grid? As our sister brand Lightwave has pointed out, there's plenty of fiber in wireless backhaul and in Smart Grid infrastructures.)
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