Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 00:22:13 -0700
From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: All Circuits Are Busy Now ...
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 925, Message 3 of 9

John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>

> On Dec 25 at 18:24, TELECOM Moderator writes:

>> Statistics published by AT&T show in fact the opposite of what you
>> say: network traffic is very high on many 'family' holidays. Why has
>> AT&T spend many millions of dollars in upgrading their network if they
>> plan to shut it down on holidays?

> Then AT&T has a lot more work ahead of it. Just out of curiosity I
> made some test calls. Out of twenty-two attempted calls to Victorville
> from San Jose on AT&T, exactly one went through between 1 PM and 2 PM
> Christmas Day. Out of the same number of attempts on Sprint, all
> twenty-two went through without delay with exactly the same results
> were noted on MCI.

> How soon we forget. Hours after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, I
> tried at some length to get though to my home from southern
> California.  All circuits were busy. Then I tried Sprint. The call
> went right through. Discussions right here on the Digest pointed to
> the policy of AT&T of purposely restricting incoming access to a
> disaster area. I, for one, was very grateful for the fact that AT&T's
> policies are not always imitated by the competitors.
 
> [Moderator's Note: Do you think it could be the reason you got through
> on Sprint is because not that many people (relative to the facilities
> available) were using Sprint?  AT&T is still the national favorite by
> a wide margin. Could it be the facilities available to the one are
> disproportionate to the actual traffic requirements?  I still don't
> think they 'shut things down' ... an earthquake or other emergency is
> different than a family holiday.   PAT]

Personal observation has shown that network managers tend to act upon
a conservative approach to network loads, preferring to intentionally
restrict traffic, rather than risking an avalanche network failure.
After all, these guys (and gals), want to have a job tomorrow. :) :) :) 

Network managers will definitely restrict traffic during heavy holiday
periods, (Christmas, and Mothers Day).  The difference between a good
and poor network manager are immediately felt by the calling
subscribers, with All Circuits Busy treatments a norm from the poor
manager, and completed calls by the good manager.  A good manager
knows how to take calculated risks, ensuring that all available
trunking is satuarated with completable call traffic.  My advice, is
to recommend that a little patience pays off.  

Just as on the freeways, if one wishes to avoid ultra long
bumper-bumper car jams, avoid the periods that this event happens in.
Avoid the peak calling periods, and by that time, the numb-minded
network managers will have taken their controls off the network! :) :) :) 
Or, take a lesser used route (MCI or Sprint).  For the future, the
LD carriers are investigating newer, more hands off automatic network
traffic control systems.  However, the present generation of network
managers must either die off or adapt to trust these types of systems.
They still very devoutly believe that they must have semi-manual means
to bypass the automation, preferring to hobble the system and cause
the problems that John Hidgon always experiences with AT&T.  Perhaps
both Sprint and MCI have new-age network managers? :) :) :) :)


Richard Nash    Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8
UUCP:        rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca