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Re: Jacking in from the "Riding A Straw Horse" Port: [from my testimony on this
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 06:33:16 -0400
Testimony before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Technology, Environment and Aviation U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Communications and Computer Surveillance, Privacy and Security May 3, 1994 David J. Farber The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems University of Pennsylvania ... As one who has in his time designed and built complex systems and who understands the structure of the current telecommunications structure my reactions are as follows. Rational estimates obtained from sources in the industry talk about numbers from $1.5 to $3 billion per year. I consider that low. The complexity of just the Plain Old Telephone System software is enormous. Re-designing large and often the most complex parts of it will not be easy nor inexpensive. One must potentially re-engineer the cellular system with its multiple manufacturers plus the local and toll and tandem switching centers. The fact that they are programmed devices makes it feasible but not cheap. The potential for decreased reliability of the national telephone grid caused by the large scale changes (presently undefined) to the software architecture could cause major dangers to the health and economy of the country. If you watch the bugs (errors) that are distributed in well tested and much similar systems (like DOS or MACOS) you can appreciate the opportunities for chaos -- and it must be done in three years. One should carefully note that the national communications system is marginally reliable at this time. A National Research Council report on it cautioned that it was poorly equipped to survive in the event of catastrophies. The recent set of fiber cuts and the resultant severe disruption of the nation's business is a portent for the future. To spend money that is in short supply satisfying a poorly articulated and poorly justified "problem" with wire tapping is to place the nation's economic health in danger, for communication is the veins that carry the nation's economic blood -- information.
From the standpoint of the future evolution of our NII, the Digital
Telephony proposal presents a major drag. Whenever a new feature is being considered for implementation and marketing, one very important issue will be how much it will cost to implement it in such a manner as to pass the hurdles of the proposal. That could price many good ideas that would improve the usefulness of our NII off the feasibility horizon. Not only would our citizens not have access to these new and useful services but they would not be implemented in US manufactured systems and thus could make our systems less sellable in competition with those of foreign manufacturers of communications equipment for off shore sales. Note that off shore sales in the developing parts of the globe represent major markets which we could lose.
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