University Taps Sewers for Internet Access

Stony Stevenson writes "A web connection via the toilet bowl may sound like Google's most recent April Fool, but the University of Aberdeen plans to welcome students back with a high bandwidth internet network connected via the sewers. The university tapped H2O Networks to provide a high capacity link for the next 10 years, enabling students to access the internet from their halls of residence. H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre in the UK's waste water network to enable connectivity to those who have limited access. The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'."

At last!

[ExE122 (954104)]

Proof that the internet really is just a bunch of shit being pushed through series of tubes...



--
Captialism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called facism.

Re:At last!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Well, fiber does help get your shit through your tubes, so I think it's a great idea!

Anal Log Hole

[by Anonymous Coward]

But now how are they ever going to close the anal log hole?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I realize it looks a lot like Tubgirl

You mean the Loopback Inherface?

Re:At last!

[sniggly (216454)]

And it provides a new excuse to helpdesk employees 'Sir, your connection has been severed by alligators'

Re:At last!

[rmadmin (532701)]

Man, I thought my routes with AT&T were shitty.. guess it could be worse. :)

Re:

[Dystopian Rebel (714995)]

And guess what! In another startling innovation, the documentation really ~is~ bum-wipe.

Gives new meaning...

[oxidiser (1118877)]

to the term "shitty connection". **rimshot**

Re:Gives new meaning...

[CrazyBusError (530694)]

A rim-shot, of course, is an entirely different matter and significantly harder to clean up.

Re:Gives new meaning...

[MrNemesis (587188)]

Commodem?

Particularly if your router is going to have be installed next to the toilet...

Re:Gives new meaning...

[Doctor Memory (6336)]

FTTT — fiber to the toilet.

Re:Gives new meaning...

[Jim Hall (2985)]

to the term "shitty connection". **rimshot**

"My internet connection really stinks."

Thank you, I'm here all night. Try the fish.

PUTP

[by Anonymous Coward]

The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'."

How unimaginative. I propose the alternate "PUTP" (Pipe up the Pooper).

Oh, great

[jollyreaper (513215)]

Oh, great, my flatmate is in the bog flushing his DNS. Anyone got a match?

Dark Fiber?

[fataugie (89032)]

I'm pretty sure I deployed some "Dark Fiber" this morning when I got my coffee and cigarette.

Say hi to Mr. Hanky when you see him.

Re:Dark Fiber?

[j00r0m4nc3r (959816)]

If you have the diet of a prototypical Slashdotter there probably isn't much actual fiber in it.

Re:

[TeknoHog (164938)]

But only because you mean nutritional fiber, not optical.

I can't wait to see this

[WormholeFiend (674934)]

On Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs"...

Re:I can't wait to see this

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

On Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs"...

Kinda brings a whole new meaning to the name 'Mike Rowe Soft'!

(sorry, had to do it, couldn't be helped.)

They run fiber through a lot of weird places

[NickCatal (865805)]

Chicago has an underground network of freight tunnels (below the loop and even the subways) that have been turned basically into a bunch of paths for conduits... There are some pics of people going into the tunnels here [chucksphotospot.com] and you can see the conduits above them as they walk around.

Re:

[garcia (6573)]

They run fiber through a lot of weird places.

This isn't weird. This makes perfect sense. Why create new holes and new pathways when others already exist? Makes perfect financial sense to me.

I just wish that the fiber that's running next to my house (less than 100 feet away) would find its way to my doorstep. I'll happily handle it from there.

Re:

[Iphtashu Fitz (263795)]

Chicago has an underground network of freight tunnels

Aren't those the tunnels that got flooded a couple years ago when a construction crew working in a nearby channel accidentally drilled in the wrong place? IIRC, it basically shut down most of the downtown Chicago area for a week or so because the basements of virtually every building in the area got flooded out.

Re:

[theshowmecanuck (703852)]

According to this link [chipublib.org] found in the article from the grandparent's link about the freight tunnels, and to your Wikipedia link, the tunnels are actually one and the same.

Re:They run fiber through a lot of weird places

[elgatozorbas (783538)]

Indeed, this is nothing new. Special junction boxes [telecomosp.com] for installation in a sewer manhole have been around for years.

Re:They run fiber through a lot of weird places

[hirvonen (644314)]

Is it just me, or does that product name (FIST SCO2) sound, you know, a bit weird?

Alright!

[djasbestos (1035410)]

Now the ninja turtles can fight cybercrime from home!

I wonder...

[philmack (796529)]

With all that fiber, I wonder if they try to keep logs

Dark fibre ?

[Kohath (38547)]

You'd think they might deploy fiber-optic cables and actually use them instead of letting them remain dark. I hear you get better throughput and higher bandwidth that way.

Has to be said..

[Fr05t (69968)]

More like H2Ewwww!

Quit hogging the toilet!

[Ilan Volow (539597)]

I have to PPP.

Re:

[EnsilZah (575600)]

I prefer PPPTP (Point to Point Poop Tunneling Protocol) personally, as I prefer to keep my transactions private.

Somewhere Beavis is yelling...

[russlar (1122455)]

"I need internets for my bunghole!"

Re:Somewhere Beavis is yelling...

[GreatRedShark (880833)]

More like:
"I need TCP for my Bunghole!"

Lots of mistakes here

[postbigbang (761081)]

It's dark fiber until it's lit. Putting cables into pipes has been around for 20+ years. Williams did it in natural gas pipes (and farmers sued them when they repurposed their easements illegally).

What this is, is a magnet for silly replies. Welcome to Monday morning.

I give 5 to 1 odds

[BlackCobra43 (596714)]

That there won't be any meaningful conversation on this topic and its technological implications but rather page after page of really...shitty...puns.

Rate this -1 : Meta

Laugh if you will

[Billosaur (927319)]

The point is, sewer pipes are really big and they connect literally every building in any community where there is a city sewer system. If I'm going to run fiber and I don't want to spend a whole lot of time digging up the ground to bury lines and more importantly make them easily accessible for maintenance/upgrade, then the sewer (despite its obvious drawbacks) makes a pretty good place to put them. The problem I can see with this, that unless they plane to lock down all the sewer caps and manhole covers, it would be pretty easy to hack into the lines at some point; perhaps I'm mistaken.

Re:Laugh if you will

[grumling (94709)]

Many places already do weld the manhole covers down, to prevent theft and damage:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20070809/002-FRONT PAGE/708090875&LID=002 [telegram.com]

Interesting technology

[MobileTatsu-NJG (946591)]

I'm amazed that they sussed this out. I mean, everybody knows how to send the numbers 1 and 2 through the sewer pipes. But... how do you send a 0?!

private infrastructure

[grumling (94709)]

That's a nice, easy way to wire a campus wide network. The tech has been here for a while, the toughest part was designing a cleanout cover that wouldn't leak and allow for access without taking the network down to use it. They use industrial strength R/C cars to run pullstrings through the pipes.

However, the problem they can't solve is that in the US, the town water authority would be in direct competition with a private company, a big no-no. The existing players would raise hell if it were tried in a community on more than a point to point basis (and even that would get a lot of attention). I would imagine similar outrage in the UK. However, since it is a campus network they can basically do whatever they want.

University Tunnels

[tji (74570)]

I think this is fairly common in Universities that have a stand-alone campus (as opposed to one inter-mixed in a city environment).

My alma mater has an extensive system of steam tunnels(*) that run throughout the huge campus. These have been used for communications links for a long time. When I was there, we had an FDDI ring running to major buildings for a high speed backbone. I'm sure they've continued to upgrade the equipment on that fiber through the years. Having your own fiber offers a lot of interesting possibilities for great interconnect speed, and distributed services or data center decentralization.

(*) The MSU steam tunnels are the source of the Dungeons and Dragons tunnel games folklore, because of an incident with a disturbed child prodigy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_tunnel_incident [wikipedia.org]

This is great for security...

[msauve (701917)]

I mean, it removes a lot of the incentive to sniff the network, doesn't it?

IP Freely

[knodi (93913)]

I've heard of these guys, I think the product is being branded as "IP Freely"

Albuquerque

[jbeaupre (752124)]

It was done about 6 years ago in several cities, including Albuquerque. It was even shown on Discovery channel or something.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IGP/is_10_ 4/ai_80224599 [findarticles.com]

I'm going with FAIL...

[rAiNsT0rm (877553)]

OK, I'll admit I haven't researched this "technology" but I do run one of the top 50 largest university networks in the U.S. and I can see nothing but problems with this one. First, when they snake one of these pipes how do they expect not to destroy the fiber? How about pipe repairs? Your telling me your going to be able to repair/replace a pipe without cutting the fiber or the pipe? (and cutting the new pipe to install it wouldn't strike me as a great option) This is just plain stupid.

On my network we utilize the steam tunnels and access tunnels which house plumbing to run the fiber, but never *in* the pipes... that just doesn't make sense. Sounds like a shitty mess to me, best of luck with that one.

More shit...

[BUL2294 (1081735)]

Real crap, meet virtual crap...

That's not the real name

[Tired and Emotional (750842)]

The correct name for the system is "Sewer Hosted Internet Transport Layer". Otherwise known by its acronym, YK. (You Know)

A Sewer Utility Perspective

[AB3A (192265)]

As someone who works for a water and sewer utility, I have to say this isn't such a crazy idea. HOWEVER, they need to consider a very disgusting reality: Grease buildup. We routinely jet-rod the sewer pipes to scour out the grease buildups.

If we do not do this, we risk having a storm flow do it for us. The grease coagulates and can form a blockage in the sewer mains. I've been at a large wastewater pumping station during a storm and these grease balls trap sewage, causing sewage overflows, despite an otherwise properly running pumping station.

What does bearing does this have with a network cable through the sewers? Well, it better be VERY tough and resilient to grease buildup. The force of jet rodding the pipe could easily break the cable unless it's been designed for this sort of abuse.

Oh, and by the way, if you haven't already learned this, DO NOT POUR GREASE OR FAT DOWN THE DRAIN! The stuff I'm talking about is the irreducible, routine buildup. The less of it you send down the drain, the less likely it will be that you'll have a backup flood your basement with it.

Re:

[Eudial (590661)]

I smell a new episode of Dirty Jobs.

Poor you. That show has made me realize how happy I am that I don't have smellovision.

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Gives this shirt [thinkgeek.com] a whole new meaning.

Re:just like my crap DSL from Qwest

[AaxelB (1034884)]

can you trust a company that can't spell "quest?"

About as much as you can trust a company that can't spell "googol."