5 ms·

Building backbone network infrastructure

41 points by WalterSobchak 8y ago

chiph 8y ago
Is there a non-Facebook link?
- mgreenleaf 8y ago
  I believe this is a post by Facebook about Facebook engineering. I may be wrong, but I think that it is a facebook blog thing.
- Operyl 8y ago
  code.fb.com is their technology blog, so, no. This is the original (and non-facebook in a way) source.
myrandomcomment 8y ago
They said they are going to sell fiber to others. Here is the TOS <joke> Using our fiber is free, but you have to allow us to capture all the traffic. </joke>
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
h2odragon 8y ago
AT&T didn't think they could make money on the route? If we have monopoly telecoms shouldn't they be providing this as part of "universal service" etc, part of the reason they get to be the monopoly? ( I'm sure I remember reading some justifications about that in the long ago) Just how much money and how big a company do you have to be to undertake something like this? Since the railway right of ways got snapped up it seemed there'd be no possibility of real infrastructure until perhaps the government noticed the lack of it. Perhaps this shows that logjam is breaking.
- wmf 8y ago
  I'm not an expert in this area, but I imagine that AT&T will sell you connectivity over their existing backbone which isn't going to be as short as a direct route. Also, the amount of connectivity that Facebook wants might be so high that AT&T would have to run new fiber anyway so it's cheaper for Facebook to own the fiber and cut out the middleman.
- jdsully 8y ago
  The route only has this much traffic because Facebook has a data center nearby. Paying massive capex to support one customer puts you in a bad negotiating position.
- ralph84 8y ago
  AT&T doesn't have a monopoly on long-haul fiber. There are several providers FB could have purchased the capacity from. FB did a build vs. buy decision and build came out on top. How big do you have to be to construct your own long-haul fiber network if long-haul fiber isn't one of your core businesses? FB, Google, Amazon, Microsoft big.
anonymous5133 8y ago
Whoever made that promo video. Wow, great work there. Love the visualizations.

41 points by WalterSobchak 8y ago

chiph 8y ago

Is there a non-Facebook link?

mgreenleaf 8y ago
I believe this is a post by Facebook about Facebook engineering. I may be wrong, but I think that it is a facebook blog thing.
Operyl 8y ago
code.fb.com is their technology blog, so, no. This is the original (and non-facebook in a way) source.

myrandomcomment 8y ago

They said they are going to sell fiber to others. Here is the TOS <joke> Using our fiber is free, but you have to allow us to capture all the traffic. </joke>

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

h2odragon 8y ago

AT&T didn't think they could make money on the route? If we have monopoly telecoms shouldn't they be providing this as part of "universal service" etc, part of the reason they get to be the monopoly? ( I'm sure I remember reading some justifications about that in the long ago) Just how much money and how big a company do you have to be to undertake something like this? Since the railway right of ways got snapped up it seemed there'd be no possibility of real infrastructure until perhaps the government noticed the lack of it. Perhaps this shows that logjam is breaking.

wmf 8y ago
I'm not an expert in this area, but I imagine that AT&T will sell you connectivity over their existing backbone which isn't going to be as short as a direct route. Also, the amount of connectivity that Facebook wants might be so high that AT&T would have to run new fiber anyway so it's cheaper for Facebook to own the fiber and cut out the middleman.
jdsully 8y ago
The route only has this much traffic because Facebook has a data center nearby. Paying massive capex to support one customer puts you in a bad negotiating position.
ralph84 8y ago
AT&T doesn't have a monopoly on long-haul fiber. There are several providers FB could have purchased the capacity from. FB did a build vs. buy decision and build came out on top. How big do you have to be to construct your own long-haul fiber network if long-haul fiber isn't one of your core businesses? FB, Google, Amazon, Microsoft big.

anonymous5133 8y ago

Whoever made that promo video. Wow, great work there. Love the visualizations.