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Impact of World Trade Center & Pentagon attacks on Internet performance
Les Cottrell.
Page created: September 11, 2001, last update September 18, 2001.
Central Computer Access | Computer Networking | Network Group | ICFA-NTF Monitoring |
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Les, it's sadly ironic that one of the people that made such robustness possible was Daniel Lewin of Akamai, a victim of this tragedy. MikeFor more on the impact of the WTC event on DANTE and European links, see: Special update on the transatlantic situation after Tuesday's events.
Email from Klaus Moeller
First, let me express our heartfelt sorrows for the victims and their
relatives of the attack on the WTC, the Pentagon and the crashed
planes.
Now to the reason of my posting. This might be of interest as an
example, how the terrorist attack may also harm internet operations.
In second, it may help to explain, why some connectivity to Europe and
Germany may be bad.
The DFN was connected via two 622 Mbit/s links to the US part of the
internet. These links (and a link from TEN-155, the european backbone)
terminate at a Building in downtown Manhatten (60 Hudson St.). (They
start in Hannover and Frankfurt.)
The DFN point-of-presence (i.e. the point where DFN interlinks with
the US providers) is at the Telehouse in downtown Manhattan. Telehouse
and 60 Hudson St. are connected with a 10 Gbit/s fiber optic ring.
One half of the ring ran below WTC tower 1, the other half below WTC
tower 2. The Telehouse also host the DANTE POP. DANTE operates the
trans-european NREN backbone.
When the WTC collapsed, the 10 GB ring was severed in two places,
instantly cutting connectivity 60 Hudson street to and from the
Telehouse. Furthermore, the power was cut from Telehouse. Two days
later, the cooling unit of the emergency power generators gave out.
The DFN has a third, experimental 622 Mbit, link to a commercial US
provider. This link terminates somewhere else. All connectivity from
the DFN to the US is (sine tuesday) via this link. However, for all
european networks that can use only the DANTE transatlantic link,
connectivity to the US internet is lost due to the Telehouse power
outage. This will most likely hit the smaller (or poorer) european
countries.
Currently, work is underway to restore connectivity back to 2 * 622
Mbit, although it will, for obvious reasons, not be by repair of the
fiber optic link. Work is also underway to restore power to
Telehouse. About the plans of DANTE, I have no knowledge.
Regards,
Klaus Moeller, DFN-CERT
Page owner: Les Cottrell