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Subject:Re: Department of redundancy department From:"Chris Christner" <cchris -at- toptechwriter -dot- us> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 13 May 2005 12:40:05 -0600
Hi Fred,
If your point is what the original writer intended, he should have
written "Each switch has modules that can be configured for failover
redundancy." Ideally the sentence would end with "in the following
combinations:" or some such verbiage specifying the circumstances when
redundancy would be active, or needed, or how it should be set up.
Instead, he structured his description in a form I've seen used many times
by writers who don't want to take the time to provide all the details:
"Each switch is populated with various modules. In some instances, these
modules are redundant and in other instances they are not redundant."...
In other words: "the device contains widgets that sometimes do x, and
sometimes don't do x". At first glance it appears to be helpful, but is
actually empty of meaning and sloppy.
--Chris
Fred said:
> There's a good chance you're misinterpreting, John. In the field of
> modular switches (whether you're talking about telco switches or
> computer network switches or electrical switches) redundancy is
> implemented on a module level as a means of achieving greater
> reliability. If the primary module fails for some reason, the switch
> is able to use the redundant secondary module to maintain normal
> function. In high-density telco switches, it's common to have
> redundancy all the way up to the single-board computer that controls
> the whole switch.
>
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