TELECOM Digest Mon, 24 Jan 94 14:46:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 41 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Some Problems, and a New Computer (TELECOM Digest Editor) Broadcasters React to Los Angeles Earthquake (Darren Ingram) Book Review: "Compuserve CIM Running Start" by Campbell (Rob Slade) UC Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications (Harvey Stern) GMSK Modulation Method (Ramesh Sinha) IC's For DTMF Detection (Nicholas J. Cutaia) Talk Tickets - 25 cents/Minute (Will Martin) IS-54 Material (Roupen Nahabedian) Secure DISA With Centrex (Jerry Carlin) Telecom-Document Stores (Ake Knutsson) Calling Card Blocked to Mexico (Ken Weaverling) How Can I Get Around a Pair Shortage Problem? (Barry Lustig) C&P Call Forwarding (Steve Fram) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Administrivia: Some Problems and a New Computer Date: Sun, 23 Jan 1994 20:30:00 CST For a couple days this week I had some emergency things to deal with here which prevented me from working on the Digest and then when I sat down Saturday morning to try and catch up, I was reminded that the site where the Digest is produced (delta.eecs.nwu.edu) would be down all day while the old computer was taken out of service and the new one installed ... to be followed of course by the recompilation of all the executables and editing of all the scripts which made reference to certain file locations, etc. We got back on line late this evening, so here I am after a four day absence. Then, things still did not work right, and I had to wait for a conference with the sysadmin to get a couple things about sendmail straightened out. There is a huge backlog of messages in the queue, most of which simply will not be used in order to stay current on new topics coming in. May I respectfully suggest that existing threads be closed out at this time with no further replies to old topics from the past week or earlier. Thanks very much. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 94 22:03 GMT From: Darren Ingram Subject: Broadcasters React to Los Angeles Earthquake Reply-To: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk This following report is from today's Satnewswire. Permission is granted for the entire to be redistributed free of charge as long as there is no commercial use. We also released one for Telecomworldwire earlier today. SNW-18 January 1994-BROADCASTERS REACT TO LA EARTHQUAKE- GLOBAL REPORT SATNEWSWIRE--(C) 1994 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON, USA/LONDON, UK- At 1231GMT yesterday (17 January) Los Angeles was hit by a massive earthquake centred 20 miles northwest of downtown LA in the San Fernando Valley. While the earthquake has killed at least 28 people with its 6.6 Richter scale shakings most of the public remain calm, TWW and SNW correspondents report at 0100GMT Tuesday. Telecommunications services throughout the area were disrupted by the early morning quake although emergency service communications on the whole remained operable. The effects of the quake on America's second city were felt as far away as Las Vegas (275 miles east). Broadcast stations were understandably busy covering the event. Interest from international broadcast stations was also high Local television stations who were able to come to air did so and even in the San Francisco Bay Area, about 400 miles north of the earthquake area, virtually all local TV stations immediately began rebroadcasting satellite feeds from the disaster zone. ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC continued live coverage although some of the local independent stations reverted back to their usual programming schedule around teatime. CNN had two of its anchors in LA by chance when the quake struck and they filed reports by phone within minutes. The other networks flew their anchors in to present the evening news shows. CNN lost power to its LA bureau and for a while reports were sent from a Ku-band uplink truck. It took Bernard Shaw about 2 1/2 hours to get his first stand-up to camera interview on air. In the race to get to air CNN was first with a report by 4.38PST, followed by NBC at 4.42 and ABC/CBS at around 7.45. In the UK ITN reported at about 1255 (4.55PST) followed by the BBC about ten minutes later. Data for Sky News is not available. There has been a plethora of news feeds carried for all of the main major networks over North American satellites including: G4/8 -- Telemundo feeds in Spanish; G4/12 -- KABC, Los Angeles; G4/17,19 -- CBS raw feeds; G3/20 -- ABC feeds; G3/11,15 -- CNN feeds; T2/10 -- ABC feeds; T2/13 -- feeds; G2/6,7 -- ABC feeds and G2/18,20 -- CNN feeds. CNN Airport Channel on GSTAR2 stopped its usual programming menu and relayed CNN live and CNN International (Ku-band) dropped Leitch encryption and went in-the-clear so that rebroadcasts of its signals can take place. CNN drew heavily on its local affiliates KTLA and KTTV for coverage, often coordinating its reporters live while on air. NBC used KNBC, ABC used KABC and CBS used KCBS. In many of the airborne news reports, there has been frequent evidence of co-channel interference on the internal TV station microwave feeds. Obviously there are so many news agencies using the limited number of channels that the field feeds suffer visible video damage and sometimes total loss. In Europe Sky News was relaying live footage throughout the day and night from Fox. The Intelsat-K satellite was used to distribute the live broadcast. The European Broadcasting Union used Intelsat 601 to link its New York news bureau to the Eurovision distribution network. Eutelsat II-F1 acted as a rebroadcast feed for Reuters Television and WTN amongst many other broadcasters. GE reports that all is well at its South Mountain Earth Station, located approximately 45 miles north of the epicentre. Although commercial power was lost all four diesel backup generators provided TT&C and Communication control of F2R(72W), C1(137W), C3(131W), C4(135W), C5(139W), K1(85W), K2(81W) uplink and monitors. "After-shocks are occurring but except for a few fallen ceiling tiles and a slightly disturbed 21 meter autotracker, we are doing fine," said Grant Koehler, a spacecraft controller for GE at the site. It appears that not all Americans sympathised with the plight of their fellow countrymen. ABC Television said that they received hundreds of phone calls that continuous news coverage interrupted their soap opera viewing. CNN was also the victim of a phone hoaxer who posed as a LA fire department spokesman who gave out a toll-free number for information. The number turned out to be a recorded order- taking service for raunchy Howard Stern videos. Bernard Shaw aired the number and subsequently apologised to viewers before hitting out at the prankster for being "not funny and in fact very stupid." *Prodigy Services Co. in White Plains established a free bulletin board system which linked Prodigy's online community in the quake area with the rest of the United States. Nearly a thousand notes were posted within hours of creation. CompuServe set aside a special forum for on-line queries and information for anguished US citizens. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 14:53:12 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Compuserve CIM Running Start" by Campbell BKCSVCIM.RVW 931202 Sybex Computer Books 2021 Challenger Drive Alameda, CA 94501 USA 510-523-8233 800-227-2346 Fax: 510-523-2373 or Firefly Books 250 Sparks Avenue Willowdale, Ontario M2H 2S4 416-499-8412 Fax: 416-499-8313 "Compuserve CIM Running Start", Campbell, 1993, U$17.95/C$22.95 71650.2556@compuserve.com Let's review this on the basis of the cover blurbs. "Exclusive Two-Part Format, Designed to let You Get the Most Out of CompuServe." The two-part format is a tutorial and a reference section. Hmmm. Somehow that format sounds vaguely familiar. However, if you need this tutorial to get you started, I doubt that you are ever going to get the most out of CompuServe. Remember, this is a tutorial on how to use a graphical interface, which is, itself, an aid to a menu interface. "If you want to add an address to your address book, just press the Add button when you are in the Address Book Screen!" "Nine Simple, Step-by-Step Lessons to Help Make You a CompuServe Ace." Simple? Yes. Ace? See above. Let us suppose, though, that this book is aimed at the complete and utter computer neophyte. There is nothing here about the really hard part of communications: setting up the modem and making the first few calls. "Covers both WinCIM and DOS CIM." On the inside back cover is a sample screen from CIM for DOS. There are twelve references to differences between the two versions. Otherwise, this is about WinCIM. "Special Bonus Offer! FREE CompuServe Introductory Membership Plus a $15 Credit towards Your Usage." If there is anyone who has been involved in the computer world for a while and hasn't had dozens of such offers -- how did you avoid them? Now all of this may be amusing, but is it fair to the author? After all, it is the publisher who decides on such things as the cover, and often even the title. However, what is really at issue to the "consumer" is the book as a whole. Campbell has done a reasonably good job. The material is fairly clear, and the work is well written, as far as it goes. However, the concept of the book, as a whole, is one that boggles the mind. Do people really need documentation for this? Do they need a third party book? A while back a friend and I were delving into CompuServe via WinCIM. There were a number of "features" which we thought should probably be there, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work. This book was no help either in terms of finding those features, or in terms of confirming that they were or weren't available. Third party books on systems generally either help to mitigate the shortcomings of the existing documentation, or teach more advanced "tips and tricks". This book doesn't, and there seems to be little chance that such is possible with this topic. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKCSVCIM.RVW 931202 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 12:46:26 -0800 Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces Three Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (April 18-19, 1994) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. GIGABIT/SEC DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS: Internetworking, Signaling and Network Management (April 20-21, 1994) This short course aims to provide a general understanding of the key issues needed to design and implement gigabit local and wide area networks. The topics are designed to compliment those covered in the SONET/ATM-Based Broadband Networks course (above). Topics include: technology drivers, data protocols, signaling, network management, internetworking and applications. Specific issues addressed include TCP/IP on ATM networks, design of high performance network interfaces, internetworking ATM networks with other network types, and techniques for transporting video over gigabit networks. Lecturer: William E. Stephens, Ph.D., Director, High-Speed Switching and Storage Technology Group, Applied Research, Bellcore. Dr. Stephens has over 40 publications and one patent in the field of optical communications. He has served on several technical program committees, including IEEE GLOBECOM and the IEEE Electronic Components Technology Conference, and has served as Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. PERSONAL (WIRELESS) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: Cellular Systems, Wireless Data Networks, and Broadband Wireless Access (April 20-22, 1994) This comprehensive course focuses on principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, equipment, implementation, public policy, and evolving trends in wireless networks. Topics include: modulation, coding, and signal processing; first generation systems; second generation systems; broadband networks; third generation systems; and applications and technology trends. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) contact: Harvey Stern U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 email: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jan 94 00:05:09 GMT From: rsinha@iucaa.ernet.in (Sinha) Subject: GMSK Modulation Method I am trying to find recent references to GMSK(Gaussian Mean Shift Key) method of modulation in CDMA type spread spectrum application. Are there other modulation methods known which are still more efficient from the consideration of bandwidth utilization? Thanks for your help, Regards, Ramesh Sinha ------------------------------ From: cutaia@atlas.wustl.edu (Nicholas J. Cutaia) Subject: IC's For DTMF Detection Date: 22 Jan 1994 14:44:01 GMT Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO I am interested in finding the IC's that will filter and detect the DTMF frequencies. I have read in "Understanding Telephone Electronics" that semiconductor manufacturers produce integrated circuits to provide both the bandsplit filtering and detector functions. They mention the Mitel MT8865 and American Microsystems, Inc. AMI S3525 as candidates for the filtering operation, and the Mitel MT8860 for the decoding. I have two problems. First, the book was written in 1984 and there have undoubtedly been newer versions of these IC's and perhaps more manufacturers. Second, how do I go about getting information on specifications for these IC's. I would like to know if there are newer versions of these IC's out there, and if so, who are the manufacturers. Also, how do I go about getting these IC's and how much do they cost. Any help would be appreciated. Please send responses to my e-mail. Nick Cutaia cutaia@atlas.wustl.edu njc@agnc1.mdc.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 94 9:13:00 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Talk Tickets - 25 Cents/Min I just caught up with the back issues of TELECOM Digest from over the holidays, and noticed several referrences to various sources' telephone "talk tickets" at prices that varied from 33 to 50 cents/minute for domestic use. It seems unwise (at the very least!) to spend this much when there are some available that cost you only 25 cents/minute. And at that rate they are still giving some of that back to the organization that markets them, so these higher-cost ones appear to me to be vastly overpriced. Let me update my previous (December) posting on one source; these are now advertised as being available over the phone for credit-card orders. (I have no idea why these people didn't do that from the beginning ...) The populist newspaper, The Spotlight, is selling these type of prepaid telephone cards in $30, $50, and $100 denominations. The original ad said they're good in the US and Canada, but not Alaska, but the current (Jan 3) ad says "anywhere in the USA" -- I have no idea if that means things changed over the intervening month. Calls are charged against the card balance at 25 cents per minute at all times. The ad does not state the 800 number you call to use the card. They do imply you deal with a live operator that will tell you your outstanding balance, but I suppose that could also be an automated interface. They state the card can be "replenished" by calling and giving a credit-card number to restore or increase the credit balance against which calls are charged, but I don't know if that is done through the order number (below) or through the unstated connection number, or via yet a different number. To buy these, you can call with a Visa or MC, or write them and order cards with a check (payable to "The Spotlight"), or a Visa or MC number, with expiration date and signature. The address/phone is: The Spotlight 300 Independence Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 800-522-6292 Regards, Will ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 94 12:02:15 PST From: nahabed@ntmtv.com (Roupen Nahabedian) Subject: IS-54 Material Looking for references on IS-54 material (other than EIA recommendations) : publications, artciles, books, etc. Also, if you can recommend any training materials/sources, it would be appreciated. Please reply via email ... our newsfeeds is on the skids :( Thanks in advance, Roupen Nahabedian ------------------------------ From: jerry@tcs.com (Jerry Carlin) Subject: Secure DISA With Centrex Date: 22 Jan 1994 15:20:19 -0800 Organization: Teknekron Communication Systems, Inc. We are trying to use Security Dynamics SecurID to do secure DISA with Centrex and have a problem. Our Centrex will not allow transfer of dialtone. If A calls box B then box B must dial the entire number. IE, the only way to connect A to C is using three way calling. What some PBX's allow is box B (or a second person) to and give dialtone to user A. Does anyone know if any Centrex's allow dialtone transfer and if so, what is the magic jargon phrase I need to tell our telco rep? This is a DMS-100 switch, if that makes a difference. The other way the box works is by connecting a user to a modem. The second port on the box sends a ring-signal to a modem which then goes off hook. Is there a voice equivalent box (besides an answering machine, of course) to a modem that will pick up a line on ring signal and connect thru? I assume if such exists it is used for some other purpose but anything I can coerce into doing what we need would be very useful. Thanks in advance. Jerry M. Carlin (510) 649-3789 jerry@tcs.com ------------------------------ From: knut@tts.lth.se (Ake Knutsson) Subject: Telecom-Document Stores Date: 23 Jan 1994 00:00:45 GMT Organization: Communication Systems, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden ITU has an electronic document store with a sample of ITU-T (formerly CCITT) Recommendations. That store is accessible by Gopher, Telnet, and E-mail (addresses given below). Are there any other telecom-document stores connected to the Internet? How about organisations such as ATM Forum, IEEE, ANSI, TIA, ISO, ETSI, EURESCOM, ESPRIT, RACE,...? Anybody who knows? Gopher: Type=1 Name=ITU - International Telecommunication Union Path= Host=info.itu.ch Port=70 Telnet: info.itu.ch (login name 'gopher') E-mail: Send the line HELP in the message body to itudoc@itu.ch Ake Knutsson email: knut@tts.lth.se Dept. of Communication Systems ..!uunet!tts.lth.se!knut Lund Institute of Technology, SWEDEN fax: +46 46 145823 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 21:46:23 EST From: Ken Weaverling Subject: Calling Card Blocked to Mexico I am so angry I could spit ... I am at work. Tried to call Merida, (Yucatan) Mexico using my RBOC calling card ("the ONLY card you will need") from my work PBX ... AT&T: I keep getting a message in English spoken by a female with a Spanish voice. "This line is busy." Sprint: Called, punched in calling card, message says "Your organization has restricted this type of call. If you feel this is in error, call your customer service representative. 42 210" I called, she said she saw no reason why my account should be restricted and to call 800 877 8000 and ask them to put me through manually. I just got mad and said there were plenty of other companies I could patronize. Just to make sure, I went down the hall and used a pay phone. Same response. MCI: Called, immediate cut-in by MCI operator. I give her calling card. She tells me she can only accept MCI cards to call Mexico. But I don't want an MCI call. I don't want to punch in 40 digits to make a phone call ... So, I wondered if AT&T was also blocking, but taking a chicken way out. I tried again, and glory, it went through. My girl friend is in Mexico for several weeks. My call volume there will sky rocket. Guess what LD company will be getting my business ... Ken Weaverling weave@dtcc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 20:15:11 PST From: Barry Lustig Subject: How Can I Get Around a Pair Shortage Problem? A friend of mine lives in a coop apartment in New York City. He has a run of four wire non-twisted pair running from the demarc in the basement to his apartment. He would like to be able to run more than two phone circuits to his apartment (modem, fax, phone, etc), but the coop won't let him run any additional wire. Is there anyway to get more that two phone circuits running over the four wires? barry ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 14:35:02 -0800 From: Steve Fram Subject: C&P Call Forwarding Knowlegeable Net Folks -- I am working to setup some modem dialin capacity in the Washington DC metropolitan area. The modems themselves will be in the Berwyn exchange in Maryland -- area code 301. However, we want to have a 202 dialin number for DC users (mostly for marketing purposes; we realize that Berwyn is not a toll call from 202). We need to support a peak of 20 simultaneous dialins, and an average of 5. We asked C&P what this would cost, and got a bid that seems just too high: Monthly charges: o Switched Redirect Service 20 Type 2 service@6.25 ea 125.00 20 redirecting #'s @.40ea 4.00 20 flat usage type 2@18.00ea 360.00 ------ 489.00 or o Remote Call Forwarding 20 RCF @ 16.80 336.00 Plus 9.3cents/call forwarded. This seems like a lot of money for a relatively simple switching service, within a local (no-charge) calling area. Does anyone know if there are other services that can work in this case? Other vendors? Do we really need to buy 20 paths to support 20 simultaneous calls, or is this just marketing hype? Thanks, Steve Fram Technical Director, IGC steve@igc.apc.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #41 *****************************