Here we are on Thursday, the day after "Black Wednesday" for BlackBerry users around the world woke up to find that their BBM, Browsing, Email, and anything that required data ground to a halt. It was as if in the blink of an eye, we were thrust back to the 90's and left out for the wolves.
I figured this would be a good time to explain how the BlackBerry data systems work, how things come crashing down so quickly, and why it takes time for them to become operational.
Blackberry is known for its bulletproof encryption and security. The President of the United States uses one for gods sake. This level of security doesn't come from a $49.95 Norton program.... No no. It comes from massive RIM data centers placed strategically around the globe. These centers are the lifeblood of every single BlackBerry on the planet (at last check, around 70 million of them), and 99.99% of the time, they work flawlessly and you don't even know they exist.
Regular Smartphones like the iPhone and Androids connect to data directly through the Carriers networks. This allows for a -little- faster data connections, but in theory it also makes it vulnerable to interception, and therefore less secure. Blackberry devices access data in a different manner. When you type out a BBM or an Email, once you press send, a process starts that many are unaware of. I'll use a BBM message as an example:
PIN ABC123 types "Dude, where's my car?" to PIN DEF456 and presses send. The message is sent to the RIM server in his/her region, which then sends the message out to the receiving BlackBerry's PIN. While this process is happening, a check-mark displays on PIN ABC123's device. As soon as PIN DEF456's device receives the message, the familiar "D" is displayed on the senders device.
So what happened here? Isn't that just like an SMS message but with a fancy PIN? Not really. The key here is the PIN number. All BlackBerry's are assigned a PIN during manufacturing. It's not something that's issued and can be changed like a phone number, its coded into the device itself and can never be changed or stripped. This PIN allows encryption to take place as soon as any data whatsoever enters or leaves a device. Without it, you will have no access to the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) and as such no data on your device. The RIM servers use the PIN to identify a subscribed device and dish out data. To successfully send just a simple BBM, the server needs to identify your PIN, package the data, identify the receiving handsets PIN as a subscriber, and forward the message. Only the intended PIN will be able to unpack the data and display the message. Bear in mind this all happens in mere seconds, and really no one ever gives it any thought.
So a server goes down.. what happens?
Well to put it bluntly, all hell breaks loose. With the relaying server down and unable to forward any messages or data, you are left in limbo as you cannot access carrier data with a BlackBerry. Think of it this way; Many of you are reading this on a laptop using WIFI. Go shut off your router, but leave your modem on. What happens? Your computer no longer has access to the net even though there IS a working data source (your modem) just feet away. Think of the modem as the carrier network, and the router as a RIM server. Without one or the other, neither work properly.
Now go ahead and grab a 1TB wireless portable hard drive, and fill it to capacity using USB. Turn your WIFI back on and wirelessly dump its entire contents back on to your computer. Slow right? When RIM servers go down they store every single email and the majority of PIN/SMS messages to be sent once the service is restored. Its a massive amount of data given the amount of subscribers. They could just dump all the data and restore things rather quickly, but the email that has a $1 million dollar contract or the emails containing job offers etc. will all be lost... And you'd better believe someone would be pissed. It takes more time to bring things back to normal, but in the end, the result is much better than dumping the data and starting from scratch.
This is a REALLY simple explanation of the BlackBerry system, it's much more complex than what I described, but I don't want to get really long winded and technical. I hope this helps to let people better understand the methods behind the madness of the BlackBerry systems, and what happens during an outage.
..... one more thing....
Stop with the BBM forwards claiming to restore service or to prevent your contact list from being deleted. RIM doesn't know nor care about your contacts, nor does forwarding a BBM do anything more than clog up the system more. Stop it. People claiming it to "really work!!" need to be muzzled and their BlackBerry's taken away forever.
ASG
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