Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/tc15_072.zip/TC15-072.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-12 | 30KB | 741 lines

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 2 Feb 95 16:45:00 CST    Volume 15 : Issue 72

Inside This Issue:                         Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: "Protect Your Privacy" by Stallings (Rob Slade)
    International Alliance Service Liability (David Ujimoto)
    CFP: 3rd International Workshop on Feature Interactions (Nancy
Griffeth)
    Canadian (Northern Tel) in India? (Rohit Sharma)
    Adoption of New Technologies (Seth Baum)
    NYNEX's Competition in the NY Metro LATA (Stan Schwartz)
    Atlanta Toll-Free Calling Zone Growing? (Paul Beker)
    Who Are the Telephone Pioneers of America? (Jonathan Prince)
    Cellphones on Your TV (Timothy D. Shoppa)
    Infrastructure for Internet Service Provider (Rustom Vachha)

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 1995 12:47:47 EST
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "Protect Your Privacy" by Stallings


[It didn't start out this way, but this seems to be the start of a
"mini" series of reviews on the topic of PGP.  Garfinkel's review is
due to be sent in another two weeks, Schneier's a week after that;
Peachpit has one due out in February while Zimmerman's own, I found
out yesterday, is due out in April. - rms]

BKPRTPRV.RVW   941214

"Protect Your Privacy", Stallings, 1995, 0-13-185596-4, U$19.95
%A   William Stallings [e-mail]
%C   113 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
%D   1995
%G   0-13-185596-4
%I   Prentice Hall PTR
%O   U$19.95 [phone] FAX [phone] [e-mail]
%P   302
%T   "Protect Your Privacy"

This is the first-released of at least three books on PGP (Pretty Good
Privacy), the encryption and authentication package by Phil Zimmerman.
It covers the concepts of encryption, public key encryption,
authentication and key management, as well as the installation and
operation of PGP on MS-DOS and Macintosh platforms.  There is also
some overview of front end shells for DOS and Windows, plus helpful
supplementary information on password/phrase choice key servers, and
where to get PGP.  (The promise of coverage for Windows, UNIX, OS/2
and Amiga in the promotional literature is overkill, but these
interfaces will be almost identical to those covered.)

Stallings' material is generally very clear and well written.  Many
times, however, concepts are introduced early in the book but not
explained until much later.  This is particularly true of key
management.  In most cases, I can assure the reader not to worry --
all will be made clear, eventually.  (In some few cases, the
explanation may remain confusing until you actually run the program.)

The book echoes the assertion by many that PGP has become the de facto
standard in Internet privacy and authentication.  Certainly no
commercial
product has anything like the same range of use.  Full acceptance of
PGP, though, has been hampered by the version incompatibilities and
the legal difficulties caused by the US weapons (!) expert control
laws.  Given the touchy nature of this subject, it is not terribly
surprising that both Stallings, and Michael Johnson in the access
document, comment only briefly on the subject.  These passages are
somewhat calming, but hardly calculated to inspire confidence.

Solid background on the technology, if sometimes disjointed.  Terse,
but serviceable documentation on the program.  Readable and
informative.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKPRTPRV.RVW   941214. Permission
granted
for distribution in TELECOM Digest and associated publications.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (David Ujimoto)
Subject: International Alliance Service Liability
Organization: Toronto FreeNet
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 20:25:53 GMT


I have a question regarding liability and international telephone
carrier alliances which hopefully someone can answer.

Given the development of international telecom alliances and their
provision of specialized services for business, I am wondering about
the extent to which telecom carriers would be liable for lost
messages,
contracts, product ideas and the like.

[I realize that in general, telecom companies are protected from such
liability and that international tariff agreements also protect
carriers.  But given the fact that the carriers know or ought to know
the importance of these networks to business, doesn't the carriers'
exposure to risk increase?]

Assuming that there is carrier liability for these problems, where
would such liability be prosecuted?  Would it be in the originating
country?  The terminating country?  Or where the breach occurred?  Or
is this question redundant because service providers expressly
contract out liability?

Any help that can be provided in this matter would be greatly
appreciated!

Thanks in advance!


David Ujimoto

[e-mail]   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A few years ago Illinois Bell had that
awful fire in Hinsdale, Illinois which knocked much of their network
off line for several days and some of it was off line for almost a
month. They claimed they had no liability to subscribers for lost
business as a result of the outage, and for the most part they were
backed up in this opinion by the court when various subscribers sued
them. I think telco's contract with you -- which is the tariff -- says
telco's liability is limited to the amount of money you paid for
service which they were unable to provide.    PAT]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Nancy Griffeth)
Subject: CFP: 3rd International Workshop on Feature Interactions
Organization: Morristown Research and Engineering
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 20:35:51 GMT


                      Call for Participation
      Third International Workshop on Feature Interactions
               in Telecommunications Software Systems
                           Kyoto, Japan
                       October 11-13, 1995


Description:

     This workshop is the third in a series, whose mission is to
encourage researchers from a variety of computer science specialties
(software engineering, enterprise modeling, protocol engineering,
distributed artificial intelligence, formal techniques, software
testing, and distributed systems, among others) to apply their
techniques to the feature interaction problem that arises in building
telecommunications software systems (see the back page for a
description of the problem).  We welcome papers on avoiding,
detecting, and/or resolving feature interactions using either
analytical or structural approaches.  Submissions are encouraged in
(but are not limited to) the following topic areas:

   -    Classification of feature interactions.

   -    Modeling,  reasoning,  and  testing  techniques  for
        detecting feature interactions.

   -    Software platforms and architecture designs  to  aid
        in   avoiding,   detecting,  and  resolving  feature
        interactions.

   -    Tools  and  methodologies  for  promoting   software
        compatibility and extensibility.

   -    Mechanisms   for   managing   feature   interactions
        throughout the service life-cyle.

   -    Management of feature interactions in PCS, ISDN, and
        Broadband services, as well as IN services.

   -    Management of feature interactions in various of the
        operations   support   functions   such  as  Service
        Negotiation,   Service   Management,   and   Service
        Assurance.

   -    Feature Interactions and their potential  impact  on
        system Security and Safety.

   -    Environments  and  automated   tools   for   related
        problems in other software systems.

   -    Management of Feature Interactions in various  other
        enterprises, such as banking, medicine, etc.


Format:

     We hope to promote a dialogue among researchers in various
related areas, as well as the designers and builders of telecommun-
ications software. To this end, the workshop will have sessions for
paper presentations, including relatively long discussion periods.
Panel discussions and tool demonstrations are also planned.  The first
day of the workshop, October 11, is devoted to tutorials and
discussions on areas related to feature interactions.


Attendance:

     Workshop attendance will be limited to 100 people.  Attendance
will be by invitation only. Prospective attendees are asked to submit
either a paper (maximum 5000 words) or a single page description of
their interests and how they relate to the workshop.  Proposals for
tutorials and discussions are also requested (maximum 3000 words).
About 16-20 of the attendees will be asked to present talks; a small
number of tutorials and/or discussions will also be selected.  We will
strive for an equal mix of theoretical results and practical
experiences. Papers will be published in a conference proceedings.


Submissions:

     Please send five copies of your full original paper or interest
description to:

     Kong Eng Cheng
     Department of Computer Science
     Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
     GPO Box 2476V
     Melbourne, Victoria
     AUSTRALIA 3001

     E-mail: [e-mail]
     Tel: [phone]
     FAX: [phone]


Important dates are:

     February 28, 1995: Submission of contributions.
     May 15, 1995: Notification of acceptance.
     June 26, 1995: Submission of camera-ready versions.


Workshop Co-chairpersons

     Tadashi Ohta (ATR, Japan)
     Nancy Griffeth (Bellcore, USA)

Program Committee

     Co-Chairpersons:
     Kong Eng Cheng  (Royal Melbourne Institute of
                      Technology, Australia)
     E. Jane Cameron (Bellcore, USA)

Jan Bergstra         (CWI and University of Amsterdam,
                      The Netherlands)
Ralph Blumenthal     (Bellcore, USA)
Rolv Braek           (SINTEF DELAB, Norway)
Bernie Cohen         (City University of London, UK)
Robert France        (Florida Atlantic University, USA)
Haruo Hasegawa       (OKI, Japan)
Dieter Hogrefe       (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Richard Kemmerer     (UCSB, USA)
Victor Lesser        (University of Massachusetts, USA)
Yow-Jian Lin         (Bellcore, USA)
Luigi Logrippo       (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Jan van der Meer     (Ericsson, The Netherlands)
Robert Milne         (BNR, UK)
Leo Motus            (Tallinn Technical University, Estonia)
Jacques Muller       (CNET, France)
Jan-Olof Nordenstam  (ELLEMTEL, Sweden)
Yoshihiro Niitsu     (NTT, Japan)
Ben Potter           (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
Henrikas Pranevicius (Kaunas University of Technology,
                      Lithuania)
Martin Sadler        (HP, UK)
Jean-Bernard Stefani (CNET, France)
Greg Utas            (BNR, USA)
Jyri Vain            (Institute of Cybernetics, Estonia)
Hugo Velthuijsen     (PTT Research, The Netherlands)
Yasushi Wakahara     (KDD R&D Laboratories, Japan)
Ron Wojcik           (BellSouth, USA)
Pamela Zave          (AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA)


Workshop Statement:

     The feature interaction problem is a major obstacle to the rapid
deployment of new telephone services. Some feature communications
system. Telecommunications software is huge, real-time, and
distributed; adding new features to a telecommunication system, like
adding new functionalities to any large software system, can be very
difficult.  Each new feature may interact with many existing features,
causing customer annoyance or total system breakdown.  Traditionally,
interactions were detected and resolved on a feature by feature basis
by experts who are knowledgeable on all existing features.  As the
number of features grows to satisfy diverse needs of customers,
managing feature interactions in a single administrative domain is
approaching incomprehensible complexity.  In a future marketplace
where features deployed in the network may be developed by different
operating companies and their associated vendors, the traditional
approach is no longer feasible.  How to detect, resolve, or even
prevent the occurrence of feature interactions in an open network is
now an important research issue.

The feature interaction problem is not unique to telecommunications
software; similar problems are encountered in any long-lived software
system that requires frequent changes and additions to its
functionality.
Techniques in many related areas appear to be applicable to the
management of feature interactions.  Software methodologies for
extensibility and compatibility, for example, could be useful for
providing a structured design that can prevent many feature
interactions from occurring.  Features are typically design to suit
the purposes of a user or business, hence Enterprise modeling will
play a role in the identification of certain classes of interaction,
in particular the solution of an interaction in one enterprise may not
be desired by another.  Formal specification, verification, and
testing techniques, being widely used in protocol engineering and
software engineering, contribute to the detection of interactions.
Several causes of the problem, such as aliasing, timing, and the
distribution of software components, are similar to issues in
distributed systems.  Cooperative problem solving, a promising
approach for resolving interactions at run time, resembles distributed
planning and resolution of conflicting subgoals among multiple agents
in the area of distributed artificial intelligence.  This workshop
aims to provide an opportunity for participants to share ideas and
experiences in their respective fields, and to apply their expertise
to the feature interaction problem.


Workshop Announcement:

     3nd International Workshop on Feature Interactions in
Telecommunications Software Systems, October 11-13, Kyoto, Japan,
Sponsors: IEEE Communications Society. In cooperation with ACM SIGCOMM
and ATR, Japan.

Contact Tadashi Ohta, ATR, 2-2, Hikari-dai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun,
Kyoto,
619-02, Japan, Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone],
e-mail: [e-mail].

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Rohit Sharma)
Subject: Canadian (Northern Tel) in India?
Date: 1 Feb 1995 20:32:32 GMT

·
Organization: University of Alberta Electrical Engineering Department


Why is it that there is virtually no Canadian telecom equipment
supplier
(e.g Northern Telecom) trying to market any products in India?
Northern's research arm BNR recently set up a joint software venture
with TCS (an Indian Software co.) to produce software for BNR's
cellular research, but there is no sign of N.T. making its presence
felt
along with the other telecom multinationals trying to get a piece of
the
rapidly expanding Indian telecom market? These multinationals include
Alcatel, Ericssons, Siemens, Fujitsu.


rohit    [e-mail]    or  [e-mail]
Photonics Division,   Telecom Research Labs  - Edmonton, Alberta.

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (sb)
Subject: Adoption of New Technologies
Date: 1 Feb 1995 21:23:48 GMT
Organization: PSI Public Usenet Link


I'm writing an article on how the average consumer will react to the
proliferation of possible technologies, services, and products which
he/she will be exposed to in the coming years as he attempts (or is
forced into entering) the onramp to the information superhighway.
What's gonna work: movies on demand?  Internet access?  HDTV?  Home
shopping?  Specifically, what are the demand drivers for new
technology products/services, and what combination of factors makes a
product/serivce suceed or fail?  Do any key drivers emerge as
especially important for technology products, versus say consumer
durables?

As background, I would appreciate mail responses to "[e-mail]"
which yield:

1)  Pointers to other articles/books that deal with this topic;
2)  Knowledge of any recent papers/study;
3)  Internet links that might be of use;
4)  Knowledge of any experiences that any users have had;
5)  Anything else that springs to your mind regarding this topic;


Thank you for your time.

Seth Baum    [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 1995 03:16:23 EST
From: Stan Schwartz <[e-mail]>
Subject: NYNEX's Competition in the NY Metro LATA


I received the new dial-in number for AOL's new AOLNet service today,
which is in the 516-393 exchange.  I did what I normally do when I
don't recognize an exchange, which is to dial NXX-9901.  In NYNEXland,
this will usually tell me the name of the C/O, and I can then judge if
it will REALLY be a local call.  To my surprise, here's what I heard
when I dialed 393-9901:

"Hello, You have reached the Cablevision Lightpath 5-E switch, serving
the 516-393, 439, and 465 Exchanges"

Cablevision, the local cable tv operator was written up in Long Island
Newsday last week as major local competition for NYNEX.  While they
said that Cablevision already had its own switch installed, I didn't
realize that the changes were already made!


Stan

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Paul Beker)
Subject: Atlanta Toll-Free Calling Zone Growing?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700
guest)
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 05:03:28 GMT


I heard a very brief report on one of the local radio stations that
Southern Bell was planning to increase the size of the "local Atlanta
calling zone by 50%" by "adding 34 new exchanges" to it ...

Of course, no further details were given, such as: will Southern Bell
raise rates for everyone in Atlanta? (probably) ... where are these 34
exchanges (any 706 exchanges)? ... etc.

I have a feeling that this is an effort to bring all of 404 into a
single, toll-free calling zone, which it virtually is already ...
there were several exchanges that were originally slated for 706 at
the time of the 404 split, but were eventually brought back into 404
by public uproar.  Perhaps this where the "34" figure comes from,
although I didn't think there were so many.

Anyone have more details?  Thanks!


Paul Beker - Atlanta, GA    [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: Jonathan Prince <[e-mail]>
Subject: Who Are the Telephone Pioneers of America?
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 02:16:08 EST


 I was at a meeting at the Ameritech HQ in Ohio the other day
and I left the meeting for the rest room, and noticed that near the
lobby/cafeteria there was a display of various Ameritech novelty
items (T-Shirts, mugs etc and other corporate propaganda) and also in
the case were a couple stickers for sale.  All of these items were
'for sale' but no one around to buy from, so hence my question.

 I noticed a couple decals for sale that were in the shape of a
triangle, wider than tall, blue with white lettering, seeming to
commemorate (judging from the old style of graphics on the decal) some
organization called the 'Telephone Pioneers of America' (I think
that's
what it was called).  What is this organization, or was it, as the
case might be?  A boy/girl scouts for the telephone company?! Of what?

 As someone who has been getting a lot of hands on experience
in the problems of rural internet connectivity these days (in SE Ohio
for the South East Ohio Regional Free-Net) I have become fascinated
with the history of the telcos, the history of the acceptance in our
lives of a machine that we talk to (which in my opinion is almost as
absurd as a machine that we watch for at least six hours a day!).
Anyway, this looks to be an interesting bit of tele-trivia, if anyone
has the answer.

 I didn't get the chance to ask Ameritech, I'll try to find out
at the next meeting.


Thanks,

Jonathan Prince   Rural Action - VISTA
for the South East Ohio Regional Free-Net
[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will give you the answer, and it is
not
'trivia' in any sense of the word. And please don't stand up at the
next
meeting to ask who are the TPA, because chances are everyone in the
room
would be embarrassed for you.  I know I would be. For your
information,
the Telephone Pioneers of America is an outstanding organization with
chapters at telcos all over the USA in the Bell Operating Companies
and
at AT&T. At the non-Bell telcos, the same organization exists known as
the Independent Pioneers.

TPA has been around for close to a century now. In the very early
days,
meaning the period up to about 1930, the TPA was composed of people
who
had been employed by (what was then) the Bell System since its
beginning.
They were, in effect, the 'charter employees' of the company, or
'pioneers'
in telecommunications. They were the people who started what you take
for
granted today. As time went on into the 1920-30's, most of those old
pioneers were either dead, retired or on the verge of retiring from
Bell
after forty plus years of employment with AT&T.  The organization then
amended its charter to allow membership by any employee of AT&T or (as
they were called) a subsidiary company who had been employed by Bell
(or an
independent) for at least twenty years. I believe that rule still is
in
effect, although many chapters of TPA have associate membership
programs
for employees with less time on the job.

What do they do?  What is their purpose? They are very involved
citizens
in their communities. In their spare time they devise solutions to the
problems encountered by differently-abled (I used to say 'handicapped'
but
this is now a politcally correct Digest, since I want to have it
distributed
on several major campuses) persons. They have developed methods by
which
someone who was completely paralyzed could 'talk' on the phone using a
pencil they held in their teeth. They have developed all sorts of
gimmicks
and gadgets for very limited use applications by people who for
whatever
reason could not otherwise use the phone. Aside from their marvelous
work
in specialized telecommunications applications for handicapped people,
they
are good citizens in their community. They assist with voter
registration.
They work with people who have AIDS. They take food to old people who
can't
get out of their houses. They record books and newspapers on tape for
people
who are visually handicapped. They are helping to restore telecom
links in
Kobe. To be honest with you, I don't know what some chapter of TPA
*doesn't
do*.

Most of their expenses come out of their own pockets. The telcos make
corp-
orate contributions, and they raise money through the sale of
'corporate
propoganda' such as coffee mugs an T-shirts with their employer's logo
on
them. There are, you see, some people around who are proud to be
employed
by telco and who like having artifacts of that sort in their home,
etc.

And that's the Telephone Pioneers of America: a splendid bunch of
people
with a long and positive role as leaders in telecom.    PAT]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Timothy D. Shoppa)
Subject: Cellphones on Your TV
Date: 1 Feb 1995 22:41:00 PST
Organization: California Institute of Technology


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Channel 1 was gone from television
sets by
> around 1949-50 I guess. There is a national organization which
provides
> educational (but some say infomercial) television to school students
on
> closed circuit called 'Channel One'; you may have heard of them.  I
have
> a General Electric portable color television which still goes up all
the
> way to Channel 83; so you can guess how old it is. Most folks are
unaware
         ^^^^^^^^^^
> there is a HUGE gap in the frequency spectrum for television between
> Channels 6 and 7. Where Channel 6 ends at about 88 megs, Channel 7
does
> not start until about 175 megs, way up in VHF. About thirty years
ago
> when FM radios were still sort of new (they had been around for
twenty
> years, but not for over fifty years like now) a religious station
called
> WYCA went on the air in Hammond, Indiana, around 88-90 megs
someplace.
> We have discussed *them* here in the past, a few years ago when
thier
> station was the cause of many complaints to the FCC. In those days,
around
> 1962-63 they had the nerve to tell people, 'if you do not have an FM
> receiver, you can still listen to the Word of God daily on this
station
> by putting your television set on Channel 6 then moving the fine
tuning
> dial until you hear our signal.'

It is still the case that you can pick up the 88-90 MHz FM broadcasts
on a TV with a good 'ol analog tuner.

Similarly, you may be able to tune in many pager services and
cellphone con-
versations (or often, more precisely, their IF images) on the upper
reaches of your old UHF TV.  Here in LA the wide bandwidth of a TV
tuner is a disadvantage when doing this, as many cellphone frequencies
conversations fall in the bandpass at any given time.  In more rural
areas, this is not nearly as big of a problem.

I'm waiting for the FCC/phone cops to discover this and ban the sale
of older TV's at yard sales.  I don't think they are currently banned,
as they are not exactly "scanning receivers" -- or has the law been
broadened recently?


Tim Shoppa ([e-mail])


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, well you can't really get cell
phones
on your television (in the upper UHF channels now abolished) very
well.
The innards of the television are different as you point out. You can
set
the dial up there on channel 81-83 for example and twiddle the fine
tuner
all you want. You just get bizzarre bits and pieces of things, not
even as
much as you get on a scanner. I realize you were to some extent joking
but I'd not get too concerned.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Rustom Vachha)
Subject: Infrastructure for Internet Service Provider
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 01:08:15 MST
Organization: Primenet


Hi everyone!

 I am currently exploring the possibility of providing internet
services in the Indian subcontinent, in the near future. What sort of
infrastructure is required? I presume a high speed dedicated telephone
line is a requirement.  Are there different types of high speed lines?
And more importantly, how can I get them from the telephone company
(local/long distance)?


Thanks in advance,

Rustom    [e-mail]

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #72
*****************************