jeffmoss26
join:2002-07-22
Beachwood, OH
| reply to glutt
Re: What does a CO look like ?
I was in one in california a few years back. A couple floors of the place were completely empty because of the ESS switches, they were able to replace all the older gear with the 5E's and get a lot of free space. They had a floor devoted to colo cages which was pretty cool. Also of course the miles of copper, fiber, and blocks!
It was pretty cool.
Jeff |
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cow116
Cisco Kid
Premium
join:2003-03-10
Indianapolis, IN
clubs: 
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to glutt
back when i was in high school i lived in Peoria Illinois. I got to Job Shadow one of the networking guys fro Caterpillar INC. Their world HQ is in peoria. 4 floors of redudndant multi mode fiber going to each server,$20Million a month just for the internet line leases, 4 battery arrays PER floor, 3 huge diesel generators plus 2 Nat gas generators. it was nuts. |
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Nymostwanted
Who Cares?
Premium
join:2004-06-25
New York, NY | reply to glutt
»www.wap.org/journal/cotour/default.html |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
 ·T-Mobile US
1 edit | reply to justin
said by justin  :some of them are pretty ugly, from what I have heard. They are rarely as nice as even a moderately well designed computer room. Never been in a BellSouth office have you. Most are so clean one could eat off the floor. No dust no dirt with an A/c system that filters out even the smallest particles.
Noisy hardly at all.
Another thing few relaize is they are using the same layout standards. As such a CO tech could go to any ILEC CO and work using only the WORD document as a guide.
That cannot be said for a computer/data room.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| reply to glutt
said by glutt :
I guess what i am asking is... How big are these things? They vary. There are a few in major cities that are 20+ stories high there are others that are in 10 x 20 foot pre-fab concrete huts. Once and a while I work in a CO in Pompano that is under a highway if you didn't know what you where looking for you would never see the hatch to get down there.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| reply to mikebb278
said by mikebb278 :If I am not mistaken, that battery plant puts out +24vdc, that is a Lucent rectifier, and by the amount of cable (and lack of fiber) that this is a CO for a mainly residential area or a small town. I dont know about that the battery strings look wired for 48.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| reply to LazMan
said by LazMan :Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc. Laz If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS.
Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| reply to TomS_
said by TomS_ :Picture the isles in a supermarket Substitute the term lineup for isles and you are in a CO.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
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DSL Lab Rat
Runnin' On The Wheel
join:2001-04-18
Pelham, AL
clubs:
| reply to Splitpair
said by Splitpair :said by LazMan :Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc. Laz If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS. Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based. Wayne FWIW... There are more than a few 1AESS analog central offices still out there in both ILECS and CLECS. The 1AESS requires both -48v and +24 volt battery plants ....
--
Click here for my online photo gallery
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(Something I can agree on with a Democrat) |
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iLive4Apple
Hybrid power
Premium
join:2006-07-13
Helena, AL
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·Charter Pipeline
 ·AT&T Southeast
 ·ViaTalk
| said by DSL Lab Rat :said by Splitpair :said by LazMan :Typically +24vdc plants are for radio/cellular only. Most landline CO's are -48vdc. Laz If the office has a traditional switch it will be 48 volt based and I would guess that applies to 100% of ILEC offices under NEBS. Cell sites are a mixed bag many of the older sites are 48 volt based while the x gens seem to be all 24 volt based. Wayne FWIW... There are more than a few 1AESS analog central offices still out there in both ILECS and CLECS. The 1AESS requires both -48v and +24 volt battery plants .... I am in the Hoover/Helena Area and I am on a 205-426-xxxx line and we have a WECO #1AESS switch and you can hear alot of clicking during the call setup.. I am assuming that there is nothing digital about this switch? |
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DSL Lab Rat
Runnin' On The Wheel
join:2001-04-18
Pelham, AL
clubs:
| The 1AESS is a stored program controlled electro-mechanical switch. The talk path thru the 1AESS is all metallic. The talk path is set up using reminant reed switches and copper junctors, and you can indeed hear the clicks during call setup and especially during call waiting and three-way calling. The operation of all those metallic paths is under computer control ... probably an AT&T 3B2 processor retrofit.
As for voice quality, except for the transient noise, the analog ESS voice quality should be as good as or better than a modern digital switch. The best that a G711 digital connection can be is only almost as good as a *properly operating* analog circuit.
However, if you are served by digital subscriber carrier from the analog switch, that adds an extra analog-to-digital conversion that can degrade quality ... especially analog modem performance.
Cheers,
Dennis
--
Click here for my online photo gallery
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(Something I can agree on with a Democrat) |
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iLive4Apple
Hybrid power
Premium
join:2006-07-13
Helena, AL | I am getting DSL installed. But the Voice quality should still be good though correct? |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
·Comcast
| said by iLive4Apple :I am getting DSL installed. But the Voice quality should still be good though correct? Since DSL does not go through the switches, you may find that your voice may get better, or they could end up FUBAR'ng it up in the upgrade.
--
I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
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DSL Lab Rat
Runnin' On The Wheel
join:2001-04-18
Pelham, AL
clubs:
| reply to iLive4Apple
said by iLive4Apple :I am getting DSL installed. But the Voice quality should still be good though correct? Correct |
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DigitalXeron
There is a lack of sanity
join:2003-12-17
Hamilton, ON
1 edit | reply to glutt
COs are simply glorified Datacenters run by telcos =p |
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forefun
join:2004-04-21
Austin, TX
| reply to glutt
I worked for AT&T from 1996 to 1999 in KC in Sales. I attended a CO tour at their downtown office several times as well as a Disaster Recovery Seminar. This CO (14th & Oak in KC)contained the largest LD (4ESS) switch at the time. This was the most impressive CO I have ever seen. At one time, the 4ESS Switch took up 4 floors. The first time I toured this CO, it took up half of 1 floor. Quite impressive at the time. The other thing that impressed me about this CO was the Power. Two seperate power feeds with wet-cell batteries that would power the entire building for 8 hours and a deisel generator that would power the building indefinitely. The Network Disaster Recovery Exercise was Incredible in and of itself. Link: »www.corp.att.com/ndr/ |
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FixManTx
Premium
join:2005-02-06
Carrollton, TX
| reply to hafizullah
Here in Houston the CO's are concrete/brick buildings 2-3 stories tall, kinda plain looking with 2-3 dozen installer trucks/vans in a fenced-in lot, and the ILEC's logo on the building. Ours just changed from SBC to AT&T. I haven't noticed a CO out in the outlying towns but I'm sure they have the same kind of buildings with Verizon's logo. |
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spg
Grrrr
join:2001-10-31
NOT Texas!
| reply to glutt
Check out this one. I don't work this one anymore, thank goodness. It's called the Madison Complex and used to be the tallest building in LA. You could get lost in the first manhole out of this one!
»www.thecentraloffice.com/Calif/L···ison.htm |
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Dude111
An Awesome Dude
Premium
join:2003-08-04
USA | reply to glutt
Boy that CO looks HUGE  |
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weaseled386
join:2008-04-13
Port Orange, FL
·Verizon Wireless B..
·Bright House
| reply to glutt
If you're looking for a specific picture I could probably come up with something. 
I looked a an ADSL cross connect block in a previous post. Yes, that is what they look like in the CO's. On the left side of the block is POTS, and on the right ADSL. In the RT's this changes! A 50 pair T1 tie pair block is installed. On T1/R1 is POTS, and T2/R2 is ADSL. The protector coil is changed out with one that has two pair coming out the top of it. The blue pair is POTS and orange is ADSL. This creates the biggest mess you can possibly imagine!!! This does not hold true for the U-Verse DSLAM's. They are hard spliced directly to a cross box. |
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