A couple days ago, I had the privilege of visiting Telstra’s “Global Operations Centre.”

For those not in Australia, Telstra is the largest telecommunications provider here. They own all of the fixed telephone network and have the biggest mobile phone network. They also run an ISP (BigPond), in addition to owning multiple entertainment services, news networks, and more. Telstra services over 8 million fixed-line phone services, and approximately 12 million mobile services in the country.

In other words, Telstra is pretty damn big!

Located in Clayton, Victoria, it’s a central point in which pretty much every aspect of the company can be controlled and managed. Interestingly, nothing is actually dependent upon the GOC – no network infrastructure runs through the centre, so in the event of an emergency, they can relocate to what I was told is a top-secret “duplicate” of the facility.

So what is the GOC? Well, in 1993, Telstra operated approximately 120 localised offices around Australia. Each area was monitored individually. This meant that in the event of an emergency such as a natural disaster, response times were in the days, and areas could be left without fixed or mobile phone access for weeks. The GOC aimed to eliminate these inefficient and unnecessary districts with one centralised location. This allows staff to watch every aspect and area of the network. If something goes down, they can put in patches or re-route data through alternate points within minutes.

In the event of a natural disaster such as the floods in Queensland and New South Wales at the moment, there have been a number of sites submerged in water, taking down critical infrastructure. Despite this, Telstra has been able to boost capacity in nearby, working areas to somewhat cope with the loss in the affected area. While a patch is never as good as a fix, it means people can remain in touch – and that’s the goal of the GOC. Once the flooding subsides and power is restored to the area, Telstra can go in and fix the issue and have the area back online as soon as possible.

Access is by appointment only, and is generally for groups – not for the average tourist to walk on in!
Even then, you don’t get to go into the main control room. Instead, you are taken into what appears to be a regular conference room on the first floor, where a pretty standard PowerPoint Presentation runs through some facts and figures about Telstra, along with an outdated promotional DVD that I estimate as being made in 2003 – the CRT monitors are a dead giveaway. It’s overdue for an update, especially as Telstra has been moving to a new corporate branding and identity over the past year and a half.

What I didn’t realise when I entered the conference room is that two of the walls were glass, but it’s not just regular glass. In fact, it’s some cool technology that at the touch of a button, circuitry within the panes turns them from frosted to clear, revealing the GOC floor.

It’s a pretty awesome sight, seeing approximately 350 LCDs in front of a 24 meter wide “network monitor” screen, with live feeds of Telstra’s Points Of Interconnect, data centres, mobile and fixed line services, national weather conditions, as well as a live Sky News feed. In addition, current events such as the floods can be monitored, and focus can be directed to the hardest hit sites.
Every one of the workstations was fitted with at least two monitors, with the majority of staff sitting in front of three or even monitors. A few people even had two computers driving six displays! Sadly, we were not permitted to take photos of this sight, but it truly is the epitome of incredible.

Of course, being the OCD nit-picker that I am, I couldn’t help but pick up on a few mistakes that the presenter (who shall remain nameless) made. There were two main things that irked me the most.

First, he kept saying “megabytes per second” as opposed to “megabits per second.” While the difference may be irrelevant to many, it was an IT Software Development class, and we’ve covered the whole megabit vs megabyte thing in class. While he had his numbers right, eg “Telstra operates a HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coax) network with speeds up to 100 megabytes per second,” he did have his bits and bytes wrong.
100 megabits per second is roughly 12.5 megabytes per second, but 100 megabytes per second is actually 800 megabits per second! If you can get me an Internet connection at 100 megabytes per second, I will be thoroughly impressed!!

Secondly, he also claimed – in his opinion – that the NBN (National Broadband Network, a government initiative to being our aging copper fixed network into the 21st century by upgrading to FTTP [Fibre To The Premises]) has already been superseded by their new LTE network.
I disagree. While LTE is a massive step up from 3G (or NextG as Telstra calls it), it’s still not comparable to any fixed line service available today. While the raw download speeds may be up to 45 megabits per second at the moment, and while to technology can be pushed to 100 megabits, he failed to take into account a couple of other factors, including;

1) LTE is a shared resource. Just like 3G and 2G before it, the more customers that subscribe to the network, the more congested it becomes. The bandwidth has to be allocated in smaller and smaller chunks as more users are added. This can be seen by the almost non-existent 3G data speeds in parts of the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs, where there simply is not enough bandwidth to go around for everyone. Being a fixed line service, the NBN allocates the entire chunk of bandwidth (eg 100 megabits per second) to you, and only you. Already, the NBN (and any fixed service) has a major edge over 3G or LTE.

2) Latency. This is the time it takes for your request to reach the server hit want, before anything begins downloading. On average, ping on 3G is 200ms, but it’s often higher. On LTE, it averages around 70ms. Significantly better, but when you compare the ping time of ADSL2+ (usually 20ms) and HFC Cable (about 7ms), LTE is still very high. Consider that online gaming needs a very low ping time to be playable and enjoyable, LTE still falls short.

Despite these few little niggles, the experience was fantastic and I’d like to thank Telstra for providing us with the chance to see a small part of how they work.

This article was originally written for InTechno and has been cross-posted.

I’ve wanted an iPad right from the day they were announced, back in 2010. Sadly, a lack of need in addition to a lack of funds has meant that I haven’t purchased one. Until now!

A couple days ago, Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook unveiled the third generation of the iPad, officially dubbed “the new iPad.” Key features include the Retina Display and a 5MP rear camera. Ever since seeing the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, I’ve been unable to “un-see” the glaring obvious low-pixel density screen on the iPad.

So, I am incredibly excited about the new iPad. So much so that I’ve saved up my money for a little while, and was able to pre-order a black 32GB iPad WiFi + 3G as well as a leather Smart Cover in navy blue. This week is going to be very long while I wait for it to arrive!

I plan to use it to replace the textbooks, pen & paper that I use on a day-to-day basis as much as possible. I’ll report back on my findings in a blog post soon…

In other news, I’m currently writing on a semi-regular basis for a new technology news blog called InTechno. I recommend you head on over and take a look. I’m also working on a couple new websites, and I’ll be able to reveal more very soon. Stay tuned to my blog for news!

So exams are coming up and my blog hasn’t been updated in a little while.

My English exam is on Friday this week, and the rest of my exams are next week. Can’t wait…
At least we have an activity day thing afterwards. I chose the photography option (none of the others appealed). I’ll be taking photos from my iPhone 4S, so I’ll see how they compare to everyone else’s DSLR shots…

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased an iPhone 4S with money from my job and my birthday. This continues my tradition of a new phone every year for my birthday since 2008; starting with a Sagem MY511x in 2008, a Nokia 3120c in 2009, a Nokia 6120c in 2010, and an iPhone 4S in 2011.
Best phone ever. I love it to death. That’s all I’ll say about it.

Work at McDonalds is pretty good, all things considered. I do love having money whenever I want it, wherever I want it. Don’t want to make a career out of it, but it’s a good start.

Anyways, this is just me procrastinating before exams, when I really really really should be revising. So I guess the next post will be some time closer to Christmas, maybe even with some of the better photos from the activity day. Special thanks to my 2 regular visitors for reading this! <3

Shaun_R

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been developing a brand new website for an Xbox 360 gamer clan based here in Australia called “RaRe.”
We were required to develop a website for a real client as part of an IT assignment at school, and my group (Converze, Kerwin and I) decided to make a site for RaRe.

After about 3 weeks in development, we’re finally finished, and we’re pretty proud of the results.

Check the site out!

Well, I am now officially employed! I can’t tell you how happy I am to say that…
I’ve been searching for and applying for so many jobs at every conceivable place for the past few months, and most of the time I either didn’t receive a response, or was declined.

However, I’m pleased to say that I saw an ad for a position at a new McDonalds store (not open yet), and to apply in-person at another local store. I got the callback the same day, and I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear those words “You’ve been accepted for the job”. That made my day!

Anyway, the store opens soon, and I’m looking forward to starting. A reliable income - sweet!
Currently saving for both a car (and all associated expenses), as well as an iPhone 5 when it’s released, hopefully in September or October, perhaps in time for my birthday. Can’t wait!