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A little more info on number 1: MSU Telecom Systems transports /some/ long-distance calls over the Merit connection (currently only for Avaya Campus PBX users). Our long-distance vendor (Qwest) has a peering arrangement with Merit networks, and has facilities located in the Merit POP in Chicago. We use SSL/TLS encryption for these calls for the media traffic (meaning that the actual voice conversation is fully encrypted while on this pipe). Once our equipment sees any degradation in service, it will automatically switch to other forms of connectivity (typically ISDN-PRI service). This morning, we noticed a configuration issue that caused the service not to automatically switch as it has done in the past. This has since been corrected. Once our department was made aware that some LD calls were not going through, we immediately took action and corrected our equipment. This is the first service issue we have had with this pipe, and we will continue to monitor it. We are coordinating with ACNS Network Operations and ACNS Network Security for the configuration of this service. -Nick Kwiatkowski MSU Telecom Systems -----Original Message----- From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Valenti Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:34 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Merit about yesterday's trouble A few other tidbits I picked up at the meeting: 1. MSU's long distance phone calls are routed over the Internet. The default path uses Merit, but it can be manually re-routed over an AT&T connection. (someone at Telecomm re-routed things after an hour of downtime this morning). 2. MSU is developing a remote hot site at Penn State. Currently in an early stage of development, so there isn't a redundant network path to it. Potentially the MSU web home page will be duplicated there (eventually), 3. Merit had to send techs from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo to reboot hardware this morning (they had a good reason for this). They will be installing remote power management hardware; also trying to get some local people signed up for access to those fiber rooms. -John On August 21, at 12:52 PM August 21, Doug Nelson wrote: > For those of you who didn't attend Merit's web conference, here's a > short update. Merit engineers traced the source of the Merit Network > problems to the failure of an optical amplifier within the MiLR > network, > following scheduled maintenance by the fiber carrier. This failure > created a marginal optical fiber path, and accounted for the network > difficulties seen in the original outages between Thursday and Sunday, > and again this morning, after a second scheduled fiber maintenance > window. The fiber path failure was compounded by a software failure > which repeatedly attempted to bypass the marginal link, and then > rapidly > restore the link to service. This process also caused the errant > switches to exhaust their memory due to a second software failure, > leading to additional packet switching and routing failures, cascading > throughout the Merit Network. > > Once the problematic link was disabled, service returned to a somewhat > stable state, but on limited bandwidth. > > As of 12:00 noon today, the Merit network appears to be operating > normally and at full capacity, but we are awaiting final word from > the Merit field and operations engineers on what was done and whether > service is fully restored. > > I will pass on additional details once Merit releases them. > > Doug