Pictures of a major internet hub

From Wired Magazine:

A Lesson in Internet Anatomy: The World's Densest Meet-Me Room

LOS ANGELES -- In the bowels of the world's most densely populated Meet-Me room -- a room where over 260 ISPs connect their networks to each other -- a phalanx of cabling spills out of its containers and silently pumps the world's information to your computer screen. One tends to think of the internet as a redundant system of remote carriers peppered throughout the world, but in order for the net to function the carriers have to physically connect somewhere. For the Pacific Rim, the main connection point is the One Wilshire building in downtown Los Angeles.

If this facility went down, most of California and parts of the rest of the world would not be able to connect to the internet.

Here's the wiki entry on meet-me rooms.

I was thinking about how when the middle eastern undersea cables were snapped, people speculated on tapping into the network from there. I'm wondering if it would have been easier to tap these MMRs.

While it would be easy to tap into an MMR like this, you would first have to have access to it at the source to tap into it. The other way to tap into it would not involve cutting the underwater cables. All you would have to do is put what the U.S. Navy calls a 'pod' over the cable to do that. These 'pods' would have ways of recording the desired information. Then they would return after a specified period of time and get the first 'pod' and replace it with another one for continuous coverage. We did this for the longest time with the former USSR. And, I am sure, we are still doing it with other nations of 'interest.'

Originally posted by Wally Conley
While it would be easy to tap into an MMR like this, you would first have to have access to it at the source to tap into it.

Aye. That's true. But I doubt those three letter organizations who are the most likely to conduct the taps would have trouble gaining access, though.

I worked for a major manufacturer of routing systems and i've seen this stuff before, in cornwall in the UK where a lot of lines come ashore, it was a few years ago and i hope its better now, but it was a proper mess at the time with stuff just getting piled in to cope with the exponential expansion

Wow, whoever the manager of that room is should be fired. I used to be a low-voltage cable jockey and let me tell you, I don't care how "exponential" the expansion is, there's no excuse for something like that. Does the phrase measure twice, cut once mean anything?

I see that picture and I see two things: 1) laziness and 2) some HUGE problems in the future.

Oh my goodness...that looks just like behind my tv stand! You'd think it would be a bit...tidier and contained. I'd hate to be the one to have to try to fix one of those cables...

Michelle

Originally posted by surfinguru
Does the phrase measure twice, cut once mean anything?

Not to me. What does it mean?