Telephone Power Dependency Do your phones work when the lights go out?

Telephone Power Dependency

Do your phones work when the lights go out?

WCDM - July 10, 2007 Ray J. Vaughan, MS 2

In the old days…

Your dial tone came from the Telephone company Central Office (CO).

The old telephone ran on voltage that came from huge batteries in the CO.

The batteries were kept charged by either the power company or huge generators with weeks of fuel.


Now

Today’s technology comes with a price… electricity.

Now we need to provide power to our phones, our phone systems

And to the equipment that makes fiber optic networks possible.


Low Tech Solution

First the easy solution to the big problemEducate the Public to get a simple or old

phone in the house.Does your phone have a display?

Answering machine? Cordless? It has a second cord that goes to an electrical outlet.

When the lights go out, these phones die.


Excuses

“I have a generator”Will you be able to call for help if it doesn’t

start?How will you call for the Fire Department if it

catches fire?How many days of fuel will you have

available?Will you run it 24/7?


Excuses

“I have a cell phone”How will you be charging it?Will the towers survive?


Message:

Have at least one simple phone in the house.

Add this to your agency’s home disaster inventory list.

( and take the analog TV OFF the list… HDTV and EM http://rayvaughan.com/HDTV&EM.htm )


Harder Problems to fix

The next problem doesn’t have such an easy fix.


See the Light

Fiber Optic technology allows for huge amounts of voice and data over many miles on a hair-thin piece of glass.

BUT, Glass conducts light, not power.Something has to convert the digital light

signals back into analog electrical signals.

This conversion requires sophisticated electronic equipment that needs power.


Remote Terminals

Covert Fiber Optic signals to regular phone lines

Powered by the local power utility4 to 8 hours of battery powerUsually no backup power source on siteSometimes called SLC, Subscriber Loop

Carrier


Is this really a problem?

If there is a long (>4 hours) power outage who will be effected?

Everyone. Calling 911 will be impossible.

You. Your Public Safety Facility may be out of service.

Cellular Sites are interconnected with circuits fed by the same RTs


Wilma


War Stories

Hurricane Wilma October 2005South FloridaWeak Category 2 hurricane

$20.6 Billion in damage36 deaths in Florida

Wide area but minimal floodingComplete power failure in South Florida

3,241,000 customers, 6,000,000 people without power

Weeks to restore power to many areas


How Bad was it?

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/wilma/30112791.jpg

Photos by NOAA


Communication Failure

As I had predicted, we had major communication failures.

The area effected by Wilma was so wide, resources available in the area were overwhelmed.


Fire Stations

Our generators came onVoIP phones, delivered by T1, ran until

the RT diedBackup Hotline/Fax Line also on RT

Last resort: UHF Public Safety Radio SystemConventional, Simplex availableNo common points of failure


K&B Radio Site

Hub site for South end of the CountyT1s to dispatch, other sites failed

Site in In-Cabinet Mode, 1 RX, 1 TXLong RT failurePortable generator set up

Fuel shortageMisconnection


Outage Time Line

EventPower outage4 hour countdown startsEnd of wind event, earthquakeBatteries start to dieNo communicationGenerators arriveFuel shortages


Katrina Facts

Estimates of the damage: Initially over 1.75 million people without

phone service 131 Central office effected and 19 of them

either destroyed or heavily damaged, serving a total of 187,000 lines.

Cost to restore/replace: $400-500 million Data and Photo Source: The Central Office


Verizon Central Office, WTC


Action Items

Establish a working relationship with your telco technical expert

Identify your critical locations Sorry, they’re not ALL critical

How will a Telcom outage effect your process? What’s convenient and what’s mandatory?

Define backup systems Public Safety Radio


Action Items 2

Start with your most critical. Ask:Where do these lines/circuits need power to

operate?Your end. You better trust your own powerThe CO. Batteries, large generators.

Your concern: the ‘everywhere else’ Is there an automatic generator at each?Home-Run to CO? Or in a loop?


Take a look

Learn what to look forIdentify the RTs in your areaLook for generatorsAsk questions

Your regular Telco Tech is a great resource for how things really are


Types of RTs

Above GroundUnderground

Flooding?In-BuildingIn someone else’s building

Worst case. You depend on their planning and survival.


Clues that it’s a RT

Power MeterHum or fan noiseThick cables radiating outFrequent Telco Trunks parkingAddress or RT ID stickers


On-Site RT

The best solution is to have your RT in your facility

You provide the primary powerYou provide the securityVerify fiber route

Route redundancyMake sure you trust everyone in your loop


Case Study

K&B Radio SiteNow has an on-site RTIndependent of area RTOn our generatorRedundant fiber routes to CO


Single Points of Failure

Better to have multiple:Remote TerminalsGeneratorsFibers and Fiber routesCopper circuits (if close enough to CO)Communication Companies


Generators

Subject to barometric pressure failure during storms

Over/Underspeed due to windWater in air intakeProjectile damageCheck the oil change frequency

Oil & Filters on siteDowntime for changes


Flooding

Many RTs and other Telecom facilities in Katrina were flooded. Fiber can be underwaterEquipment can’t be.

Identify any critical systems in your system that need to be moved higher

Even a CO can be at risk of flooding


Terrorist Targets?

RTs could be an easy target for anyone wanting to effect communication in an area.

Most are easy to spot when you know what you’re looking for.

Exposed fiber, cables, powerEven simple vandalism at an RT can put

you out of service.


Monitoring

Your Telco should monitor every RTInvestigate every alarm, even open

doorsRoll generator when AC power fails

Not when batteries fail


Regulators:

Require permanent, automatic generators for all new RTs

Encourage RT clusteringRequire response levels

Ratios of portable Generators to RTsPhase out RTs without automatic power

backupMandate in-building RTs for all Public

Safety buildings


More Information

My information site about Powering and Remote Terminals:

TelephoneFailure.com

Telephone Power Dependency Do your phones work when the lights go out?

Documents

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