The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/a_m/lod5_12.txt

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The LOD Technical Journal: File #12 of 12

                   Network News & Notes
                   =------------------=


If some of this seems a little "old", do keep in mind that everything since
'90 has to be covered. As most of the other 'ZiNeZ are narrowly focused on
major publications and miss out on current events in the industry and a lot
of other interesting news.

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DCS Comes to Russia (Tellabs, April 1993)

A Tellabs TITAN 532E digital cross-connect system (DCS) and 452 series
transcoders have been installed by Moscow Cellular Company, a joint venture
that includes US West and Moscow public telephone network operators, to boost
capacity in its cellular transmission network.

The DCS, which is the first to be installed in Russia, increases the capacity
of the Moscow mobile switching centre (MSC) by "grooming and filling"
partially-filled 2 Mbit/s PCM links from radio base stations. The 452 60-
channel transcoders are used to double the capacity of 2 Mbit/s PCM
transmission links between base stations and the MSC.

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UK Renumbering (BT, April 1993)

A campaign to prepare its customers for changes to national and international
dialing codes was launched by British Telecom (BT) on 1 February 1993.

The changes announced last year by the Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL),
will take place on 16 April 1995, more than two years hence. BT is starting
its publicity campaign now, however, so that everyone will be ready.

The changes follow extensive and lengthy consultation by OFTEL with
representatives of telephone users, operators and equipment manufacturers.
The creation involves the additional codes and numbers needed to cater for
the growth of the telecom services well into the next century, provide
capacity for new operators entering the market.

Area dialing codes will have a "1" inserted after the initial "0". For
example Cardiff's 0222 becomes 01222 and Central London will change from 071
to 0171.

The international dialing code changes from 010 to 00. This is a European
Community requirement based on CCITT Recommendation E. 160.

Five cites will be given completely new codes and their existing six-digit
local number will be increased to seven digits.

Codes which do not denote a geographic area, for example Freefone 0800
numbers, mobile codes such as 0860 and 0850, and information and
entertainment services on a code such as 0891 will not change.

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BT checks into the Holiday Inn (BT, April 1993)

The Holiday Inn hotel chain with more than 1700 hotels in 54 countries, has
signed a 2-million pound sterling three-year contract for BT's global network
services. Under the contract, BT will provide Holiday Inn with a tailor-made
data network which will connect the company's hotels in the Asia-Pacific
region with its headquarters in the US.

One of the main applications of the network will be to run the chain's
Holidex hotel computer reservation system.

Initially, the service will be available in five countries - Hongkong,
Singapore, Japan, Australia and the US. Eventually, the network will be
extended to cover 99 sties in 27 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the
Middle East, Africa and the US.

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Trunk Protection for Telefonica (Telecommunications radioelectriques et
telephoniques (TRT), March, 1993)

Philips Telecommunications the Spanish subsidiary of Philips, has started to
deliver the DCN 212 1+1 switching protection systems to Telefonica. The
equipment will be integrated into the Ibermic network to improve 2-Mbit/s
trunk protection and quality in the national and international links.

The systems ordered by the Dedicated Networks Department will be implemented
in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Balearic and Canary Islands.

One DCN 212 system can permanently supervise 12 independent 2-Mbit/s links.
Its cyclic redundancy checking (CRC4) device enables it to perform an
automatic switch-over between the main and standby links. This not only
allows service to be maintained in the event of link failure but also
provides and improvement of the link performance. DCN 212 is manufactured in
France by TRT.

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Nokia DX200 system for Malaysia (Nokia, March 1993)

Nokia will delivers its DX200 digital switching system to Malaysia. A five-
year frame agreement signed with Jabatan Telekom Malaysia calls for the
installation of some 800,000 subscriber lines. The total value of the
project, which also includes installation, commissioning and training is
estimated at more than 700 million Finnish marks. The project will be
implemented by Sapura-Nokia Telecommunications.

Development of the telecom infrastructure has been designated as one of the
highest priorities in Malaysia. the goal is to provide, by the year 2000, for
universal access to the telecom services and to develop a Malaysian telecom
industrial base. The current agreement is part of a plan that calls for the
installation of some 4 million subscriber lines during the next five years.
As part of the switching project, Sapura is establishing the DX200 subscriber
line cards.

With the Telekom Malaysia order, Nokia's DX200 system is now installed or on
order in more than 20 countries.

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Polish Mobile Radio (Ericsson, March 1986)

Poland has signed a contract with Ericsson for the delivery and
implementation for a new mobile radio system. The order has, in its initial
phase, a value of 16.5 million US.

The system, known as EDACS, belongs to the new generation of digital trunked
radiocom systems. It will be shared by the Polish police and fire brigade
operating in the Warsaw police district, providing day-to-day instant
communication between individuals and work groups in the field. the system
includes more than 3000 handheld and mobile radios.

EDACS, which will be installed in Warsaw during the second half of 1993, has
digital encrypted voice, mobile data transmission capability, emergency call
facility, WAN and fault-tolerant design.

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BT's DMS SuperNode 300 (BT, March 1993)

NT has installed what is said to be the world's largest international gateway
in Madley for BT. The digital multiplex system (DMS) SuperNode 300 is the
first of BT's international gateways to have fully integrated ISDN
capability.

The DMS SuperNode 300 has capacity for 45,000 ports. The switch's capacity to
handle an extremely high volume of calls through its SuperNode central
processing complex is further enhanced by its "non-blocking" matrix network
architecture (ENET). This architecture guarantees each individual cell access
to an international route, thereby reducing the incidence of call failures
resulting from congestion in the exchange.

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Taiwan's Fortress Fones (Telecommunication Journal, March 1993)

Taiwan has ordered a further 5000 optical card payphones from Landis & Gyr
Communications, bringing the total to 27,500. Eight million optical coded
phonecards will also be delivered. Landis & Gyr's Communications Division has
now supplied more than 1 million payphones and 350 million phonecards to 65
countries.

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Swedish SDH (Telecommunication Journal, February 1993)

Swedish Telecom is building a complete transport network based on synchronous
digital hierarchy (SDH) and has signed an agreement with Marconi SpA and
Ericsson Telecom AB about the supply of equipment for the new network,
including transmission and cross-connect equipment based on SDH technology.
In addition, Ericsson will deliver a management system serving all equipment
in the network.

Among the first parts of the network to be equipped is the "triangle"
Stockholm-Goteborg-Malmo. The transmission equipment on these routes will
have a capacity of 30,000 simultaneous telephone calls; the transmission
capacity is 2.5 Gbit/s per fiber pair, which is the highest capacity
available on the market today.

Over the next few years, the deployment of SDH will mainly meet the needs
imposed by traffic growth. SDH will be introduced in the national long-
distance network, in the regional parts of the network and in the local
network, the ultimate goal being a country-wide SDH network.

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Italian GSM network (Ericsson, Feb. 1993)


Societa italiana per l'Esericzio delle Tleecomunicazioni pa (SIP), the
operator of the Italian mobile phone network, has inaugurated its new GSM
digital cellular network which is now on line in all of Italy's major cities.
It will subsequently be extended throughout the country.

Italy has grown faster in mobile telephony than any other country in Europe
since SIP launched its analog total access communication system (TACS) in
April 1990. SIP is now one of Europe's three largest telephone systems
operators, with more than 700,000 subscribers.

The Ericsson Fatme-Italtel consortium is the general supplier of both the
TACS network and all exchanges and base stations controllers in the Italian
GSM network. The consortium is also supplying 75% of the GSM radio base
stations.

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NT Introduces CT2 Fone (NT, Feb. 1993)

NT has introduced in Hongkong its Companion wireless communications system,
which uses the widely accepted CT2 common air interface (CT2 CAI) radio
standard.

This is the first phase of a worldwide introduction of the product which in
1993 will include other locations in the Pacific Rim, as well as the US,
Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Companion system, uses portable, personal telephones that fit into a
pocket or purse freeing people to move about as the work. It is available as
an enhancement to an existing business telephone system or as a stand-alone
system. More than 1 million US in orders for the product have been received
in the Hongkong area where the system operates in the 864-868 MHz frequency
range.

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Lossless 4 X 4 switch (Ericsson, Feb. 1993)

Ericsson recently developed what it claims to be the first "lossless"
monolithic optical 4 X 4 space switch, ie. a switch that does not attenuate
a switched signal, a major problem with previous monolithic optical switches.

Optical space switches of this type are key components in the future
broadband transport network. The experimental indium phosphide (InP) switch
chip comprises 24 integrated optical amplifiers and can be connected to four
input and four output optical single mode fibres.

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BT Launches SuperJANET (BT, Feb. 1993)

SuperJANET, a new high-speed fiber optic network to be provided by BT, will
link computer systems in universities and polytechnics in the UK.

BT has been awarded the contract for the network by the Information Systems
Committee (ISC) of the University Funding Council (UFC). Under the contract,
BT will collaborate with the Science and Engineering Research
Council/Universities Funding Council (SERC/UFC) Joint Network Team to design
and implement the new network, to be called SuperJANET (joint academic
network). It will augment the existing private JANET network created during
the early 80s.

SuperJANET will be able to transmit information up to 100,000 times faster
than the standard telephone network, with the initial phase of the project
linking sites as the Cambridge and Manchester universities, Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory, University College London, Imperial College London and
Edinburgh University.

The core network will use a mix of PDH and SDH high performance optical fibre
technologies and pilot phase will be established in March 1993.

The new network will cover a range of transmission speeds, initially from 34
through to 140 Mbit/s.

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Swiss ISDN (Telecommunication Journal, January 1993)

SwissNet 2, the second phase in Switzerland's ISDN, is now in service. It
offers narrow-band ISDN capable of transmitting at higher speeds and at
reduced tariffs data, images and conversations which until now had to be
routed over separate networks. Up to eight terminals, of which two can be
used simultaneously, can be connected to the basic ISDN line thus allowing
the transmission of images or data at the same time as a telephone
conversation is taking place. Another important advantage is the possibility
of using Group 5 telefax which has a transmission speed of up to ten times
that of Group 3.

In addition to the transmission service, various supplementary services such
as multiple subscriber number, calling-line identification, call waiting,
call forwarding, are available at no extra charge whilst other optional
services such as direct dialing-in, closed user groups and outgoing call
barring can be obtained against payment.

Monthly charges are 50 Swiss francs (CHF) for a basic connection of two B-
channels at 64 kbit/s and one D-channel at 16 kbit/s and 500 CHF for a
primary connection of 30 B-channels at 64 kbit/s and one D-channel at 64
kbit/s. Installation charges for the two types of connection are respectively
200 and 400 CHF. Communication charges will be made up of three elements
representing the costs of call set-up, call preparation and interruption, and
call duration.

SwissNet 2 conforms to the CCITT Blue Book Recommendations and can therefore
connect to other ISDNs conforming to international standards.

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NT's SDH in Russia (Telecommunication Journal, January 1993)

MACOMNET, a new company set up as a joint venture between the Andrew
Corporation and the Moscow Metro, has awarded a 840,000 US contract to NT for
synchronous digital hierarchy transmission equipment.

MACOMNET will use the metro infrastructure to permit the rapid establishment
of a fiber-optic network in key areas of Moscow. Operating as a "carrier's
carrier", it will provide a high-quality, highly reliable managed digital
transport service beginning in spring 1993. Initially it will provide E1 (2
Mbit/s) circuits to other operators and private customers in Moscow.

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Cantat-3 direct links to Eastern Europe (Telecommunication Journal, January
1993)


Teleglobe Canada Inc. has formed a consortium with 20 European and United
States carriers to lay a 385 million US high-capacity fibre-optic cable
linking North America with Western and Eastern Europe.

NT's STC Submarine Systems has been chosen as sole supplier of Cantat-3. When
completed in 1994, this first direct fibre-optic link between Canada and
Europe will provide multi-media communication services of greater speed and
capacity than ever before. The new cable will be the first of its kind to
operate to the new international SDH transmission standards and the first at
a transmission speed of 2.5 Gbit/s, offering an unprecedented 30,000 circuits
per fibre pair.

Cantat-3 will be the largest direct link from North America to Germany,
Scandinavia and the UK. It will link directly with the Denmark-Russia and
planned Denmark-Poland cables. An overland link though Germany will give
entrance to the heard of Eastern Europe.

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Fibre-optics Under the Pacific (MCI, January 1993)

MCI International, Inc., together with 46 international telecom carriers, has
announced the signing of a construction and maintenance agreement for TPC-5,
the first undersea fibre-optic network in the Pacific.

The 25,000 km fibre optic system interconnects the US mainland at Oregon and
California, extends out to Hawaii, Guam and Miyazaki and Ninomiya in Japan,
and then stretches back to the US to complete the loop.

The network segments between California, Hawaii, Guam, and Miyazaki will be
in service by late 1995. The entire TPC-5 network will be completed by late
1996.

The system can transmit up to 5 Gbit/s per fibre par which is equivalent to
60,480 simultaneous conversations. Once completed the 1.3 billion US network
will provide instantaneous restoration by shifting voice, data and video
signals to a spare fibre on the network. In the unlikely event that a break
occurs somewhere along the cable route, the network's loop configuration
ensures instant restoration by re-routing signals.

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NT Announces Contracts (Telecommunication Journal, January 1993)

NT has announced several contracts for its Meridian ISDN network.

The Greek national airline, Olympic Airways, has purchased a 6000 line
network that will provide specialized business communication services for
employees and customers at its major locations.

Kuwait Oil Company has ordered an 8000 line ISDN valued at over 3 million US
to restore, modernize and expand the company's private communications
network.

The five millionth line of Meridian digital centrex was shipped to the US
market to Centel's network in Florida.
NT will also be installing a country-wide network for the Security
Directorate of Jordan. The network of 78 Meridian SL-1 PBX systems is the
largest private network in Jordan and links most of the police centres,
providing voice and data communications across the country.

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Croatia Orders AXE (Telecommunication Journal, January 1993)

The Croatian Post and Telecommunication (HPT) has awarded Ericsson a contract
for the delivery of four international telephone exchanges for Croatia. The
AXE exchanges will be installed in the cities of Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and
Osijek. They will be delivered from Sweden and from Nikola Tesla in Zagreb.

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911 Enhanced (AT&T Technology, v.7 no.3)

AT&T Network Systems introduced software and equipment that will allow local
telephone companies and other network providers to furnish enhanced 911
emergency calling services to more people nationwide.

Seven new products range from enhancements to AT&T's 5ESS Switch to PC-Based
systems that can pinpoint the location of a person calling to report an
emergency.

The new software and equipment includes:

+ 5ESS Switch enhancements, allowing it to support standard E911 features
such as call routing, and to work with analog answering point equipment in
public and private networks, ISDN answering point equipment in private
networks.

+ Automatic Location Identification/Database Management System (ALI/DMS)
hardware and software. This matches callers' phone numbers with addresses and
provides this information to attendants as they answer calls.

+ The Alive Database System. This PC-base system provides detailed
descriptions of the 911 caller's location. Public Safety Answering Point
Equipment receives the incoming calling number and location information from
the local database and displays it to answering point attendants.

+ Intelligent Public Safety Answering Point Display shows the 911 caller's
number and location along with call-transfer information on a single computer
screen.

+ Computer-Aided Dispatch System helps make decisions on which police cars,
ambulances, or fire trucks to send to an emergency, to find where these
vehicles are located at the time of the call, and to determine the fastest
way to get them to the emergency site.

+ An ISDN Public Safety Answering Point System connects to the telephone
network over ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) channels. The system is
available now to private-network customers such as universities, military
bases, large businesses and airports, and will be available for communities
as ISDN becomes more widely deployed.
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First BNS-2000 Delivered (AT&T Technology v.7, no.3)

PacBell and GTE recently accepted delivery of AT&T Network System's first
BNS-2000 broadband networking switches and began installing them to
facilitate their Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS) offerings
scheduled to begin in September.

These are the first BNS-2000 switches to be installed in the PSTN. The BNS-
2000 Switch is fast-packet cell-relay system which uses ATM (asynchronous
transfer mode) cells designed for broadband ISDN applications.

PacBell will install a BNS-2000 Switch in its Los Angeles service area and is
scheduled to initiate SMDS in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Anaheim, and
Sacramento in September.

Similarly, GTE will install its BNS-2000 in Long Beach, California, and plans
to initially offer SMDS, which the company calls MegaConnect, in the Los
Angeles area, also in September.

Next year, GTE plans to extend MegaConnect to Seattle and Everett,
Washington; Beaverton and Portland, Oregon; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina;
Tampa, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Up to now, telephone companies had been using early models of the BNS-2000 to
test market SMDS. In one such test, PacBell and GTE interconnected Rockwell
International Corporation's LANs between its Canoga Park office (served by
PacBell) and its Seal Beach Facility (served by GTE).

The differentiator of the BNS-2000 remains its ability t let our customers,
like PacBell and GTE, start SMDS frame relay services now and evolve easily
to additional ATM-based BISDN services.

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Russia's Big Steel Buys AT&T PBX (AT&T Technology v.8 no.1)

One of the world's largest steel manufacturing facilities, Magnitogorsk
Metallurgical Works, has signed an agreement to purchase an AT&T DIFINITY
Communications System, replacing its 1930s-vintage telephone system.

The new PBX will provide advanced communications to the more than 60,000
employees in several buildings on the company's campus. The first phase of
the $5 million project-installation of a 4,000 line DEFINITY G3R will be
completed later this year.

AT&T made the sale with NPO Chermetavtomatika, the Russia-based distributor
for AT&T business communications systems. The company, located on the Ural
River, was built with American assistance and technology, and supplied much
of the armament and tanks used during World War II. Today, the multiple-
building campus includes a hospital and a farm, used to grow agricultural
products for the town's residents.

Magnitogorsk is a major exporter of steel products to companies around the
world. It had been using several key systems, as well as two large step-by-
step systems, similar to those in US telephone company COs during the 1930s.
Maintenance had become increasingly difficult, and it needed an advanced
communications system that would enable it to communicate efficiently
internally and with its customers.

According to AT&T, Magnitogorsk selected the DEFINITY system based on the
technology and its capacity to handle the huge company's communications
needs, coupled with the distributor's responsiveness and level of knowledge.

The DEFINITY system's distributed architecture makes it possible for a single
system to handle the communications needs of the entire complex. Campus
buildings will be connected via remote modules, and the cable linking the
modules will run through existing steam tunnels.

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Fast Switch for ATM Service (AT&T Technology v.8, no. 1)

Service providers can now offer their customers end-to-end Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM) Services using AT&T Network Systems new GCNS-2000 data-
networking switch. The GCNS-2000 switch will support 20 gigabits per second
of switching capacity, allowing the high-speed, sophisticated applications of
ATM to be brought to the PSTN.

The GCNS-2000 also will become the core switching vehicle for AT&T's
InterSpan ATM Services. Using an ATM network (Also called broadband), for
example executives could participate in a multilocation multimedia conference
call, while exchanging documents and images. Medical specialists in different
hospitals could concurrently review a patient's X-ray or CAT scan. And
customers everywhere could select a movie to watch at any time.

The new switch is part of Network Systems' data networking switching product
line, which includes the BNS-2000 fast-packet cell-relay system. This switch
is deployed by various phone companies in the US and other countries in
support of their frame-relay networks and switched multimegabit data service
offerings.

The GCNS-2000 uses a new core ATM technology, developed by AT&T Bell
Laboratories, a key feature of which is the "shared memory fabric". This
allows the equipment to accommodate simultaneously the distinct and different
natures of voice, data and video transmission, so that all types of signals
can be processed at once. The switch will be available on a limited basis at
the end of 1993, and generally available six months later.

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Wireless 5ESS Switch Gets New Capabilities (AT&T Technology v.8, no.1)

The 5ESS Switch for the AUTOPLEX System 1000 will now support AMPS standards
all over the world, and the Global System for Mobile Communications standard.

While the new switch will, at first, provide the same features and services
now available on the AUTOPLEX System 1000 Switch, it will eventually become
a platform for ISDN and advanced intelligent network applications.

The 5ESS Switch with wireless capability represents a new, cost-effective
growth option for AUTOPLEX System networks. Future versions of the switch for
the AUTOPLEX System will make it possible to have analog and digital AMPS, as
well as POTS on the same switch. Switch availability is scheduled for mid-
1994.
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800 Service Recognizes Speech (AT&T Technology v.8, no.1)

AT&T recently announced an innovative 800 Service feature that makes it
easier for all callers, including the 39% of US homes and businesses with
rotary and non-touch-tone telephone to obtain information from businesses by
simply speaking. Called AT&T 800 Speech Recognition, this new capability
enables callers to verbally respond to announcement that allow them to
automatically select the information or assistance they want.

AT&T is the first long-distance company to provide voice-activated call
routing in an 800 service network. Past technology only enabled callers using
touch-tone telephones to direct their calls after responding to menu prompts
with their keypads. Now, these callers can route their own calls quickly and
efficiently by simply speaking their choice. And for the first time, callers
with rotary telephones will be able to enjoy the same benefits as callers
with touchtone phones.

AT&T Speech Recognition is a network-based, advanced 800 Service innovation
that prompts callers to speak a number - from "one" to "nine" - corresponding
to a menu of options that identifies the department or location they wish to
reach within the company they're calling.

Supported by state-of-the-art technology from AT&T Bell Laboratories, AT&T
Speech Recognition is able to recognize the spoken number, process the
information, and route the call through the AT&T network to the appropriate
destination. During field tests, AT&T Speech Recognition correctly identified
the spoken number 97.8 percent of the time. this high completion rate was
achieved even taking into account the many dialects and accents that exist
across the US.

AT&T Speech Recognition represents the latest step in AT&T's drive to provide
its customers with complete automated transaction processing. Eventually, the
capability to recognize more advanced words and entire phrases will make it
possible for AT&T 800 Service customers to process orders, dispatch repair
crews, provide account information, or handle countless other functions in a
fully automated, cost-effective way, if they so desire.

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Amplifier, Vector Attenuator for Wireless Applications (AT&T Technology, v.8,
no.1)

AT&T Microelectronics recently expanded its wireless applications technology
with two high-performance, high reliability thin-film-on-ceramic devices for
cellular base stations.

The components are the GSM Low Noise Amplifier, an unconditionally stable
amplifier designed for Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular
base station receivers, and the 1098E Complex Vector Attenuator, a surface
mount device that enables designers to build sophisticated signal
cancellation systems into base station transmit amplifiers.

The GSM low-noise amplifier is a balanced amplifier design. It operates in
the 890- to 915- MHz frequency range and exhibits exceptionally low noise
(1.3 dB maximum) and high third order intercept (38 dBm) with a 32 dB small
signal gain, operating on a single 24 volt DC supply. While the device is
tailored for the GSM band, it provides similar performance in the 824- to
849-MHz AMPS band.

The key benefit to the designer is the device's unconditional stability, a
characteristic important to eliminating oscillation. Due to its thin-film-on-
ceramic implementation, the device also provides, for a given bias condition
lower junction temperatures and therefore longer life and increased system
reliability than a PWB realization.

The 1098E Complex Vector Attenuator is functionally equivalent to the
combination of an endless phase shifter and an attenuator. It is used to
control the phase and amplitude of a signal without introducing
intermodulation distortion, dispersion, or variation in group delay. In
addition, there's no limitation on phase change, which can increase or
decrease continuously without reaching an endpoint.

Production quantities of the GSM low-noise amplifier will be available this
fall, while the 1098E Complex Vector Attenuator is currently available in 124
PIN PQFP packaging. Pricing details and product literature are available from
the AT&T Microelectronics Customer Response Center, 1-800-372-2447 Ext. 869
(In Canada, 1-800-553-2448, Ext. 869); fax [phone] or by writing to AT&T
Microelectronics, Dept. AL500404200. 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, PA.
18103.

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Frame Relay Service (AT&T Technology, v.8, no.1)

AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service will now be offered to customers in Canada
(subject to CRTC approval) through Unitel Communications Inc., and in 9
additional European countries through AT&T ISTEL.

Beginning in July 1993, the service will be offered in controlled
introduction to customers in Canada, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland,
Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland and Norway, with general availability
later in the third quarter of 1993.

AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service will provide the same seamless global
interconnectivity and high reliability currently enjoyed by InterSpan Frame
Relay customers in the US, UK, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Germany and Sweden.

AT&T provides its InterSpan Frame Relay Service over a common worldwide
architecture that enables seamless global service with fast, reliable
connectivity. As a result of this standards-based architecture, InterSpan
Frame Relay Service provides a wise array of global features including
network management and enhanced permanent virtual circuits for extended
bursts.

InterSpan Frame Relay Service provides a number of value-added features that
are of critical importance to multi-national customers today. For example,
the service provides a single point of contact for installation and
maintenance of InterSpan Frame Relay Service, access and customer premises
routers. Billing for InterSpan Frame Relay Service and associated local
access is combined into a single bill. In one currency of the customer's
choice - US dollars, UK pounds or sterling or Canadian dollars - rendered in
the country of choice. In addition, protocol conversion embedded in the
network will provide interoperability between InterSpsan Frame Relay Service
and emerging InterSpan Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) services to allow
migration to ATM as the customers' business needs dictate. Dedicated
InterSpan Frame Relay Service Network Operations Centres in North American
and Europe monitor and manage the InterSpan Frame Relay Network around the
globe, around the clock.

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Modernization Milestone for Ukraine's Telecom (AT&T Technology, v.8, no. 1)

UTEL, Ukraine's telecommunications joint venture responsible for the
modernization of the long-distance telecommunications network, recently
inaugurated its first all-digital long distance telephone switch in L'viv.

The 5ESS Switch, supplied by AT&T Network Systems International, was
officially put into service with a ceremonial inaugural call between the
Minister of Communications of Ukraine, Oleh Prozhyvalsky, in L'viv and Victor
A. Pelson, AT&T Group Executive, Communications Services in NJ.

With the new 5ESS Switch, most citizens n L'viv can now make direct
international calls to many countries in the world. International connections
are completed via an earth station located in Zolochive, which in turn is
connected to an international switching center in Kiev, Ukraine. Just four
months ago, international calls from Ukraine were possible only via their
services of Moscow's telephone operators; on average, outgoing calls required
24 hour's advance notice.

The 5ESS Switch in L'viv includes 4,000 trunk lines and 1,000 subscriber
lines and is the latest generation of telecom equipment utilizing digital
technology to connect voice, data and image messages. UTEL recently signed an
agreement to purchase six additional 5ESS switching systems for Ukraine.
Final assembly of these switches will take place locally in Ukraine at the
Chernighiv Zavod Radioaparatur (Chezara) production plant in Chernigiv.
Following L'viv, the next switches are scheduled to be installed in
Chernivtsi, Uzhorod, Poltava, Luhansk and Kirovohrad, doubling today's
capacity.
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XUNET (AT&T Technology, v.8, no.1)

XUNET: Today's Experiments Define Tomorrow's Reality
The Experimental University Network - XUNET - will soon carry 622-Mb/s
traffic

A high-speed experimental network is giving researchers and graduate students
an opportunity to explore issues important to the future of data
communications. The Experimental University Network (XUNET) now consists of
experimental switches, based on the Asynchronos Transfer Mode (ATM) standard,
linked by 45 megabit-per-second (Mb/s) transmission lines.

Host computers on fiber-distributes data interface LANs communicate over
XUNET via routers between the LAN and the ATM backbone. In a few months,
AT&T, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign will begin to communicate over experimental links at 622
Mb/s.

With the higher-speed links and a higher-performance Peripheral Interface
LAN, a user in a remote location will be able to display the output of a
supercomputer simulation on his or here workstation in real time.

While the XUNET testbed is small, the research program seeks to understand
the problems of a large high-speed data networks. With existing wide-area
data networks, most users communicate at speeds of 1.5 Mb/s or less. Research
on XUNET anticipates that users will interface at speeds up to hundreds of
Mb/s. With higher speeds comes the potential for new applications such as
full-motion video, multimedia conferencing, and distributed computing all
over the public network. The XUNET testbed, which is supported by AT&T Data
Communications Services, is also the basis for BLANCA, one of five gigabit
testbed networks sponsored by the Corporation for National Research
Initiatives.

TESTBED EVOLUTION
The program began with XUNET I in 1986 as a collaboration among AT&T, the
University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois, and the
University of Wisconsin. The universities were linked with AT&T Bell
Laboratories using DATKIT VCS switches and transmission links used ACCUNET
T1.5 Services at 1.5 Mb/s.

Students at the universities have a change to try ideas out first hand by
using XUNET as a research tool in running controlled network experiments. For
example, students can remotely download different algorithms into the XUNET
switches to study the effect on a heavily loaded network.

XUNET II became operational in January 1992, offering a thirty-fold increase
in speed over XUNET I by using experimental ATM switches and transmission
lines operating at 45 Mb/s. In addition to AT&T and the universities Pacific
Bell and Bell Atlantic are involved in the XUNET II activity. In July 1992,
Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories were linked
into the XUNET testbed, and in February 1993 Rutgers University joined. In
addition, students from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia
University participate in the XUNET program, and students from the
universities have been invited to AT&T Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill to
work with researchers there.

XUNET III, the first portion of which is scheduled for operation this June,
will be more than an order of magnitude faster than XUNET III. A 622 Mb/s
link will connect XUNET switches at an AT&T Chicago CO, the University of
Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois.

RESEARCH RESULTS
The XUNET collaboration includes research in many of the key areas in wide-
area networking, including switch architectures, LAN interfaces, network
operations, managment tools and techniques, and network applications. One
focus of the program has been on congestion control to determine how the
network can meet the quality of service needs for different types of traffic
even in the presence of heavy load.

For example, voice, video and multimedia traffic may require controlled delay
and variation in delay, whereas file transfer traffic may not. Research into
protocols and the trunk service disciplines used in switching nodes have
identified effective ways of carrying many types of traffic in a network
while avoiding congestion and degradation of the quality of service.

XUNET has already provided valuable insight for AT&T's service realities. And
this will continue to be the case as AT&T moves towards its realization of
ATM services in 1994.

By A.G. Fraser, Erik K. Grimmelmann, Charles R. Kalmanek and Giopala S.
Subramanian

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DACS II Goes TEMPEST (AT&T Technology, v.7, no.4)

The National Security Agency (NSA) of the US Government has endorsed the
TEMPEST version of the AT&T Digital Access and Cross Connect System II (DACS
II). The TEMPEST is encased in a special cabinet which shields its electronic
output from eavesdropping or monitoring by unauthorized personnel.

The NSA endorsement means it will be included on the Endorsed TEMPEST
products list. Communications Systems Technology, Inc. (CSTI), based in
Columbia, MD, engineers the cabinet under an agreement with AT&T Network
Systems, then markets the TEMPEST as a CS-1544 switch.

The DACS II is a fast and reliable digital cross-connect system developed by
AT&T. Up to 160 standard 1.544 megabits-per-second DSI signals, each
consisting of 24 channels (DSOs) may be terminated on the CS-1544. Each of
the 24 DSOs comprising a DS1 signal may be cross connected to any other DS1.
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Swat teams on 24-hour call (IEEE Spectrum, August 1992)

"We all have wonderful war stories to tell about being roused from sleep,"
said Barbara Fraser, one of seven members of the Computer Emergency Response
Team (CERT). Most computer crackers, like common robbers, prefer to break in
during off-hours, she said, and international incidents add to the 24-hour
nature of the job. Mostly, however, CERT's business is conducted between
7:30a.m. and 6 p.m. Pittsburgh time.

CERT's domain is the Internet, a worldwide supranetwork with perhaps a
million host computers and five to eight million users. Roughly half are in
the US, and membership is expanding fast in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and
South America.

Each day, the CERT team responds to an average of 300 hotline calls and email
messages most in English. Last year, they averaged about one "incident" a
day. Now its up to three. (An incident is an actual of attempted intrusion.)
They have responded to serious attacks from Europe ("This is NOT A PRANK"),
put out a major US hackers alert that counselled "Caution (not panic) is
advisable," and warned against email trojan horses that catch passwords from
gullible users.

When a call or message comes, the CERT member on duty supplies technical
guidance to the site so that they can fix the problem and assess damage.
Unless otherwise agreed to, everything is confidential and may even be
anonymous. CERT members determine whether the host was networked, its level
of security, the system configuration, and whether the system's vulnerability
is familiar or new.

CERT director Ed DeHat stresses that any tip is welcome. Last year, for
instance, a person reported a failed attempt to seize his password file. CERT
went back to the originating site and found intruder(s) "were trying to break
into thousands of system." The originating site alerted managment, cut
connections to the outside temporarily and closed the "holes" in its security
system.

CERT does not investigate intrusions with an eye to criminal prosecution, but
it does recommend whom to contact for investigations by law enforcement
groups such as the local police, the FBI, or the SS.

Most of CERT's traffic consists of security chatter; experts call to share
information while others ask CERT advisories or request general advice. Less
often, CERT has to tip off organizations about likely penetrations. "Almost
always, an incident is not stand-alone," said Fraser. It may vary from 10
hosts at a single site to "tens of thousands of hosts over the world."

Many people do not wait for a problem by call CERT for a "sanity check" -
reassurance that their site and its systems are safe. Novices are not
discouraged. "We hold their hands," Fraser said. Help is free and is even
encouraged.

CERT was formed only weeks after the paralysing 1988 attack on Internet by
Robert Morris Jr., son of a computer security scientist. It is funded by the
Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the Software
Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

With its expertise in system vulnerabilities, CERT is expanding its efforts
in education and training as well as research and development for network
security. Already, it sends a security checklist to sites as needed and
advises cores of Unix software vendors of security flaws that need patching.
It also keeps a confidential mailing list of vendors regarding
vulnerabilities in their products. "This is not the textbook type of security
problem," DeHart said. "This is based on what people are doing."

Such companies as Sun Microsystems and NeXT, and more recently IBM, are
mentioned a lot in the CERT advisories, noting fixes to systems flaws. Rather
than being an embarrassment or indictment of their products, this shows that
these companies are committed to security, DeHart said.

CIAC (for Computer Incident Advisory Capability), a sister group of CERT with
responsibility for Department of Energy computers, is located at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA. Known for its software an
analytical capabilities, CIAC keeps 20-30 viruses in isolation "for
dissection and reverse engineering."

Steve Mich, CIAC project leader, said they average perhaps one or two
incidents a week, Like CERT, they always wait until a patch is found before
they announce the vulnerability. The flaw is described over email as vaguely
as possible to thwart would-be-crackers. But sometimes, he said, "it's like
trying to describe a hula hoop without moving your hand."

Other countries are responding too. In 1990 Germany's information security
agency created two national incident response teams: the Virus Test Center at
the University of Hamburg and the MicroBIT Virus Center at the University of
Karlsruhe.

The Hamburg center has five staffers and many students who analyze viruses
and monitor activities of the German hackers known as Chaos Computer Club.
The center receives 20-100 reports of virus cases each week from Germany and
Scandinavia., divided equally between government, industry and academia.
Email links aid coordination with other experts in Australia, Europe, Japan
and the US. A current European Community initiative would create serval more
CERT-like groups in diverse countries.

All told, the US Department of Justice reports there are more than a dozen
CERT teams. Not to be left out, its own FBI recently formed the Computer
Analysis and Response Team (CART), which will take its place beside other FBI
laboratories, like those for analysis of DNA, chemicals and poisons, and shoe
and tieprints.

Initial plans call for a staff of 12 agents. CART's main task will be the
forensic examination of computer evidence, according to manager Stephan
McFall. They must also guarantee (somehow) to the satisfaction of US courts
that magnetic data has not been altered or deleted since being confiscated.
McFall declined to give more details other than to say that research is being
done and that CART will also help train agents in the field.

There are so many CERT-like groups in government and industry today that in
1990 the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (First) was born. The
group meets regularly and organizes workshops on incident handling. Even
organizations without worm-busting squads can join if approved.

- J.A.A.

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Getting Tougher on Long-Distance-Service Thieves (AT&T Technology, v.7, no.4)

Theft of phone service is escalating. AT&T's NetPROTECT program helps
customers secure their communications systems against remote access,
preventing fraud.

Picture this. It's 2 a.m. on a soft spring night on Wall Street. The
buildings lining the canyons of lower Manhattan are dark and silent; even the
cleaning staffs have gone home for the weekend.

But inside the offices of Global Conglomerate, Inc. - GlocCon for short -
it's very, very busy. For several hours GlocCon's PBX has been pressed to
keep up with call-processing demand. Thousands of calls to dozens of domestic
and international locations have poured out of the company's offices since
just past normal closing time. The PBX is so active, in fact, that it offers
a constant busy signal to anyone trying to call in.

For a Saturday morning at 2 a.m., GloCon is doing a land office business. The
problem is that all that business is illegal. GlocCon is being hit by
"callsell" operators - big time. Over the weekend alone, the toll-fraud bill
is going to be substantial, perhaps even outstripping GloCon's normal monthly
phone bill. And, according to the tariffs governing AT&T's services, GlocCon
is responsible for picking up the tab.

Happily, for customers ant AT&T, such an experience may soon be history.
Since August 24, 1992, when tariffs became effective, AT&T has been offering
customers the NetPROTECT family of products and services, an integrated
offering of hardware and software that helps detect, prevent and correct
remote PBX toll fraud.


Such fraud is expensive. Estimates of the financial damage done by hackers
and long distance thieves range from less than $1 billion to over $4 billion
annually. From AT&T's perspective, the best estimate of industry toll fraud
is $1.2 billion annually, a figure issued by the Washington D.C. based
Communications Fraud Control Association.

But by any estimate, the fraud problem is large and growing. For several
years AT&T has offered security seminars aimed at alerting customers to toll
fraud, and has been telling them how they an protect themselves against it.
AT&T actively works with customers to make certain they understand and use
their business telephone system's security features.

AT&T also cooperates with law enforcement agencies and customers in resolving
ongoing investigations of fraud. And it recently has been the forefront of
developing legislation on the state and federal levels that would treat toll
fraud as the serious crime that it is. AT&T worked with the New York State
legislators to make the theft of long distance service a felony; the law
became effective Nov. 1, 1992.

The NetPROTECT Service offering includes fraud protection for customer
premises-based equipment as well as three levels of network protection. With
NetPROTECT Service active seven days a week, around the clock, AT&T's
NetPROTECT Service Security organization can look continuously at network
calling patterns, especially calls to a changing number of high-fraud
countries.

These countries usually are involved in drug trafficking and the "country-of-
the-month" changes frequently changes frequently. Fraudulent calls also are
made to countries from which there's large legal and illegal emigration to
the U.S. A toll switch in the U.S may suddenly start pumping out a large
number of one of these countries from a particular CO. If the calls are found
to originate from a business, AT& contacts the company, says fraud is
suspected, and works with an employee to stop the fraudulent calling from the
PBX.

NetPROTECT Service is made possible by the Toll Fraud Early Detection System
- TFEDS. (See sidebar, next paragraph) TFEDS, a pattern recognition network
monitoring tool, was developed by Business Customer Services - BCB (Business
Customer Billing) and the Network Services Division. TFEDS enables AT&T's
Corporate Security organization to quickly spot and monitor calling patterns
that indicate fraud - as it occurs. NetPROTECT Services offers different
levels of protection that are tailored to customer needs.
Toll Fraud Early Detection System
TFEDS provides AT&T's Corporate Security Group with timely and flexible
monitoring tools to detect and report remote-access PBX fraud. TFEDS also has
access to near-real-time billing data for identifying PBX fraud patterns.
In the past; that is, prior to NetPROTECT Service, the limited amount of call
monitoring that was done used data that was three days to two weeks old. Now,
monitoring reports are generated almost hourly, around the clock, every day.
TFEDS processes data for 800 and international services and, based on
predefined customized parameters, generates reports to later Corporate
Security that a customer's PBX is being hacked, or that there's abnormal
international calling from the PBX. Planned TFEDS enhancements include an
expert system to improve detection accuracy by allowing NetPROTECT Service
Security to maintain generic and customer-specific business rules applicable
to PBX fraud. It also will be possible to maintain customer-specific data for
long-term statistical analysis and trending, and there will be better tools
for fraud case management.

LEVELS OF PROTECTION
Basic Service, the first level of protection, is provided to all AT&T
businesses long distance customers at no charge. With this service, AT&T
monitors its domestic 800 service and international long-distance network
around the clock, seven days a week, in an attempt to spot suspicious
patterns of network usage indicating fraud. Because more than 90 percent of
toll fraud is international traffic to a certain number of high-fraud
countries. Basic Service can catch a significant amount of fraud while its's
in progress.

In early 1992 AT&T received FCC approval to deny hackers access to AT&T's
800-Service network. Using some of its basic monitoring tools, NetPROTECT
Security can monitor repeated 800 call attempts made from a particular phone
number.

In the fictional Wall Street example. high calling volume from GloCon's
headquarters to high-fraud countries after normal business hours would be
flagged as potential fraud. Under the Basic Service option, AT&T would call
a company representative to warn of suspicious traffic from its office, and
the person would shut down the PBX. If the representative can't be contacted
or takes no action, the customer would continue to bear all liability for
whatever fraud occurred.

Advanced Service offers a greater degree of protection, requiring AT&T to
implement several safeguards that include:

o preventing access to the PBX from remote-maintenance ports;
o installing security codes on the PBX so people who dial in, using remote
access and other advanced features of the PBX, must dial a multidigit
security code to dial out;
o safeguarding voice-mail systems so callers can't migrate from the system to
outgoing direct-dial trunks; and
o maintaining backup copies of PBX software so if the PBX is hacked, it can
be shut down and brought back up.

Customers must also provide a list of phone services and a list of phone
numbers they want AT&T to watch, and the names and numbers of three people in
the company who can be called anywhere, anytime if there's a problem. In
exchange the customer's liability is $25,000 per fraud incident, measured
from when the fraud starts until two hours after the customer is notified.
[Eds. The original said "after AT&T is notified" but this makes no sense as
the customer is the one that must shut off the PBX. And the next sentence
deals with AT&T being notified by the customer.] If the customer spots the
fraud first then notifies AT&T, the customer's liability is reduced by 50
percent, to a maximum of $12,500. Once fraud is identified, AT&T works with
the customer to find the source and shut it down. AT&T's liability, however,
stops two hours after the fraud is identified.

Premium Service offers still further protection, requiring customers to
follow more stringent security guidelines. In exchange, Premium Service
customers have no financial liability from the start of fraud to two hours
after notification. As with the Advanced Service option, AT&T will assume
liability for remote toll fraud for only two hours after the fraud is
identified. AT&T also will work with customers to identify and shut down the
sources of fraud.

NetPROTECT Service guarantees coverage of only remote toll fraud - fraud that
occurs when a customer's telecom system has been penetrated from the outside.
While our monitoring will catch fraud, customers are still responsible for
protecting themselves against unauthorized use of their long-distance service
by their own employees or other inside agents.

AT&T Global Business Communications Systems also offers the following
products and services, which help secure customer-premises equipment:

o AT&T Hacker Tracker - software that's used with AT&T's PBX Call Accounting
System for continuous monitoring of all incoming and outgoing calls. This
software causes the system to automatically alert security when it detects
abnormal activity such as a PBX getting high volumes of incoming 800-number
calls after hours, or calls to international destinations.

o Security Audit Service - a consulting service provided by security people
in AT&T's National Technical Service Center in Denver, and Corporate
Security. These people perform individual system audits and recommend
security measures.

o Fraud Intervention Service - provided by AT&T's National Technical Service
Centre. The service helps customers identify and stop fraud while its in
progress. It would give step-by-step guidance, for example on securing the
PBX and installing the back-up copy of the PBX's software. Also available are
several educational offerings and a security handbook.

ADDED SAFEGUARDS
Since NetPROTECT Service was announced, a number of insurance companies have
indicated interest in providing toll-fraud insurance. The Travellers
Companies actually have introduced toll-fraud insurance policies that cover
business customers, indemnifying them for a loss that has occurred. Further
measures also have been taken., Using some of the basic monitoring tools,
AT&T NetPROTECT Service security personnel now can monitor repeated 800 call
attempts made from a particular telephone number.

This is particularly useful because a favourite trick of hackers is to
randomly dial 800 numbers to reach a voice-processing system or other
automated attendant. If the owner of the 800 number hasn't properly secured
the system, a hacker can bypass it and make outgoing calls. Once they
penetrate a particular number, hackers often sell it or may post it on
electronic bulletin boards for other hackers to use. People who exceed a
certain threshold level (which changes hourly or daily) of 800-number
attempts in a predetermined time are locked out of AT&T's 800 network.

Toll fraud isn't committed just by hackers. It's a big and growing business,
often perpetrated by organized crime. Because toll-fraud has generally not
been a high priority for law enforcement officials, toll thieves
traditionally have not faced heavy penalties even if caught. With little risk
and high profits, it's no wonder the toll-fraud business is booming.

NetPROTECT Service is an aggressive program to fight back. Standing squarely
with its customers, AT&T believes it can put an end to the theft of long
distance service.

By James R. McFarland

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Coming Soon in Future LOD Technical Journals:
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

* An Introduction to starting and operating your own pirate radio station.

* An Update of The Mentor's famous Introduction to Hacking. With new
  defaults, new systems and tricks of the trade!

* Bit Stream on Carding Today

* And MUCH, MUCH more!

Remember, the more files submitted the quicker these journals can roll out.
If you'd like to offer anything to the LOD, contact us today.

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