by
dane » Sat Nov 19, 2022 6:51 pm
A reboot shouldn’t fix anything, so that’s not a good goal. If it does, there’s generally a real fix - new firmware or a hardware replacement for example.
Sonic is developing an SMS notification system that’ll let you know about outages, and allow you to engage with support if assistance is needed. And our plan will be to note area outages such as a cable cut or power failure and we’ll respond proactively and keep you informed through resolution.
Conceptual example:
“Sonic‘s automated outage monitoring system has observed that 263 customers in your area recently went offline, and indications are that the cause is a power outage. Check your power company’s website for outage status.”
Upon restoration of power, a follow-up message would be sent. If most customers were restored but a few remained offline, we’d offer each of them additional assistance.
We’d also alert if a single group of customers went offline and there was not an indication of power failure. We can see if there are commonalities such as on the same OLT port (likely optics failure), same card (potential card failure) or chassis (likely dual-uplink failure - very rare.) We can also deduce cable cuts or issues in the fiber plant too, and proactively inform and dispatch repair.
The goal is a “set and forget” approach to reliability, where we don’t wait to hear from customers before we engage. Instead you might get the following sequence of messages:
09:32 Sonic has detected that your fiber internet is affected by an area outage that includes 354 other customers. We are dispatching technicians to repair, and will provide updates as we learn more.
10:23 Sonic technicians have arrived at the site of the failure and determined that the cause is damage to a cable. Repair is underway now.
11:23 Repair of the Sonic fiber cable is continuing.
12:23 Repair of the Sonic fiber cable is continuing. We are sorry for the continued downtime.
12:49 Sonic has completed repair of the damaged cable and your connection has been tested and appears to be back online. We are sorry about the downtime. If you need further assistance, you can reply to this message to reach support.
…etc.