{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"substrate_lineage_risk_audit__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"substrate_lineage_risk_audit__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"substrate_lineage_risk_audit__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"substrate_lineage_risk_audit__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Physical Lineage and Signal-Margin Gate for Reused Network Cabling","problem":"A higher-speed computer network is installed over inherited copper cabling whose routes, terminations, patch-panel transitions, bend history, and prior operating conditions were not created or reviewed by the current network team. New switches can negotiate a link and pass short functional tests even when inherited impedance discontinuities, pair deformation, excessive untwist, damaged connectors, or bundle coupling leave little physical signal margin. Because review stops at switch configuration and endpoint behavior, latent cable-plant conditions remain outside the audit boundary and can later appear as intermittent link retraining, packet corruption, or outages.","actors":["Network hardware owner","Facilities cabling technician","Operators of the current computer network","Inherited horizontal cable runs, patch cords, connectors, and patch panels","Switch and endpoint physical-layer interfaces"],"observable_state":"A channel appears serviceable under link negotiation and brief traffic tests, while direct swept-signal and reflectometry measurements show excessive reflected energy, attenuation, inter-pair coupling, or a localized impedance discontinuity along the inherited physical route.","consequence":"A materially marginal cabling channel can be admitted into service, causing unstable physical-layer behavior that is difficult to distinguish from switch, driver, protocol, or application faults and that may be shared by several channels passing through the same inherited bundle or panel.","affected_objective":"Reliable and diagnosable physical connectivity for the upgraded computer network.","intervention":"Before an inherited channel is connected to production electronics, trace its complete physical path with a fixed tone source and near-end/far-end terminators, attach durable matching identifiers to each encountered cable and panel segment, and connect the isolated channel to a purpose-built analog test fixture. The fixture injects fixed calibrated pulses and a swept electrical waveform spanning the intended signaling band. Directional bridges, envelope detectors, and fixed analog comparators directly test reflected energy, delivered amplitude, and coupled energy against predeclared physical limits and against a clean reference channel. A comparator trip de-energizes a normally open relay and mechanically blocks that channel's production patch position pending physical repair or replacement. Channels sharing a failed termination panel or bundle are tested individually rather than rejected by association.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Borrowed substrate","domain_realization":"Existing copper cable runs, patch cords, connectors, and patch panels reused by a new network."},{"archetype_element":"Substrate lineage map","domain_realization":"Tone tracing, continuity terminators, jacket markings, and paired durable tags establish which physical segments and transitions form each end-to-end channel."},{"archetype_element":"Origin condition profile","domain_realization":"Observable cable construction, component markings, prior termination style, routing, bends, repairs, and the signaling context for which the plant was previously used characterize its recoverable origin conditions; unknown conditions remain explicitly unknown."},{"archetype_element":"Inheritance channel","domain_realization":"Conductor geometry, dielectric condition, connector geometry, pair twist, route topology, and electromagnetic coupling physically carry prior installation and damage conditions into the upgraded network."},{"archetype_element":"Local audit blind spot","domain_realization":"Configuration review, link negotiation, and brief packet tests treat everything beyond the switch port as trusted background."},{"archetype_element":"Audit boundary extension","domain_realization":"The physical review follows each channel through patch cords, panels, transitions, and the permanent run instead of ending at the active network device."},{"archetype_element":"Latent condition register","domain_realization":"Durable tags on isolated channels identify the measured failure mode and location without requiring a database or dashboard."},{"archetype_element":"Context-shift probe","domain_realization":"Calibrated excitation over the intended signaling band tests the inherited channel under the electrical frequency demands of the new use rather than its former use."},{"archetype_element":"Risk concentration map","domain_realization":"Physical tracing reveals channels co-located in the same bundle, pathway, or termination panel, which are then tested separately for shared material or installation conditions."},{"archetype_element":"Containment or remediation","domain_realization":"A normally open relay and mechanical patch-position blocker keep a failed channel disconnected until the affected connector, patch segment, or permanent run is physically repaired or replaced."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"physical_tone_lineage_trace","role":"Establishes the actual end-to-end ancestry and shared physical transitions of the inherited cable channel.","counterfactual_removal":"Without the trace, measurement could identify a bad end-to-end channel but could not extend the audit boundary to its constituent inherited segments or locate shared substrate concentration."},{"mechanism_slug":"swept_signal_and_reflectometry_probe","role":"Converts hidden impedance, attenuation, and coupling conditions into directly measurable electrical responses over the new use band.","counterfactual_removal":"Without physical excitation and measurement, the intervention collapses to labels and procedural review and cannot expose latent signal-margin conditions."},{"mechanism_slug":"clean_physical_reference_comparison","role":"Checks the same fixture against a known-new channel of comparable length and construction, exposing fixture drift or an inappropriate threshold envelope.","counterfactual_removal":"The fixture still measures inherited channels, but confidence that a trip arises from the channel rather than the fixture or setup is reduced."},{"mechanism_slug":"fixed_analog_limit_comparator","role":"Produces a pass or trip from measured electrical energy without software, statistical inference, or human interpretation of a report.","counterfactual_removal":"Raw waveforms would require downstream analytics or judgment, violating the intended software-independent gate."},{"mechanism_slug":"normally_open_relay_and_mechanical_port_blocker","role":"Physically contains a tripped channel so its inherited condition cannot reach production transceivers.","counterfactual_removal":"The fixture would reveal the condition, but containment would depend on reporting and procedural compliance."}],"causal_chain":["Prior routing, termination, handling, or repair leaves persistent physical geometry or material conditions in the inherited cable plant.","The new network reuses that plant while local review concentrates on new switches, software, and endpoint configuration.","Those inherited conditions alter impedance, attenuation, reflections, or inter-pair coupling across the signaling band.","Brief link and packet tests can leave marginal physical conditions unexposed.","Tone tracing redraws the audit boundary around the complete inherited physical channel and identifies shared panels and pathways.","Calibrated electrical excitation makes the latent conditions observable as direct analog responses.","Fixed comparators trip when those responses cross declared physical limits.","The relay opens and the mechanical blocker prevents the suspect channel from carrying production signals.","Repair or replacement removes the implicated physical segment; retesting determines whether the channel can be physically reconnected."],"baseline":"Review switch and endpoint configuration, accept channels that negotiate a link and pass a short connectivity or packet test, inspect visible connectors when faults occur, and replace cabling reactively after repeated incidents.","nearest_rivals":["Wholesale replacement with new certified cabling removes inherited cable conditions more completely but requires replacing channels that may be serviceable and does not localize which inherited segment was defective.","Ordinary link negotiation, ping tests, and switch error counters test functional behavior through active electronics but provide weak localization and can leave physical margin unexamined.","A conventional cable certification test without route tracing can measure an end-to-end channel but does not establish which inherited segments, panels, or shared pathways carried the condition across the local audit boundary.","Forward-error correction, retransmission, or more tolerant transceivers can mask some errors but retain the inherited marginal substrate and may reduce observability rather than establish physical margin.","Visual inspection can find accessible damage or poor terminations but cannot directly test hidden in-wall discontinuities, distributed attenuation, or electromagnetic coupling."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"The defensible contrast is limited to mechanism: this candidate combines physical route lineage, direct band-relevant electrical excitation, a fixed analog verdict, and software-independent physical isolation. It should be preferred over functional link testing only if those measurements reproducibly expose inherited physical conditions that the functional baseline misses; no novelty or superiority over all cable-certification systems is claimed.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The network hardware owner and facilities cabling owner jointly authorize the bounded non-production test and any physical disconnection; the fixture itself has no authority to alter live production topology.","authorized_first_step":"Test one isolated, non-production patch panel containing a bounded set of inherited channels and clean reference channels. Verify de-energization, trace both endpoints, run the fixture under a predeclared excitation envelope, and exercise the relay and blocker only on temporary bench patch positions.","excluded_actions":["Inject test signals into energized or production-connected cabling.","Disconnect or mechanically block a production channel without the named owners' approval.","Infer that every channel in a bundle fails from a single channel's result.","Alter switch configuration, firmware, access controls, or application traffic.","Capture, inspect, or retain network payloads.","Apply voltages, currents, or frequencies beyond the fixture's declared cable-safe envelope.","Open walls, cut permanent cabling, or perform destructive material examination during the first step."],"halt_rollback":"Stop immediately on unexpected voltage, heating, arcing, endpoint connectivity, unstable reference readings, or disagreement between physical labels and tone tracing. De-energize the fixture, remove temporary terminators, return bench patching to its documented initial arrangement, and leave all production connections unchanged."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"Inherited and clean reference channels show stable, indistinguishable physical margins under repeated measurements, while observed network instability follows particular transceivers, power conditions, or software states across multiple cable paths.","problem_falsifier":"Direct physical measurements remain within the declared limits on affected channels and moving the same endpoints to different cable paths does not move the fault, indicating that inherited cabling is not the operative substrate risk.","intervention_falsifier":"Comparator results are not repeatable after connector reseating and fixture reversal, fail to agree with independent hardware bit-error testing under the intended band and environmental range, or reject and accept channels without relation to localized physical defects.","risks":["False rejection of serviceable inherited channels due to fixture drift, connector contamination, or poorly selected limits.","False acceptance when the bounded excitation does not reproduce field temperature, bundle loading, or mechanical strain.","Damage to connected electronics if isolation is incomplete before excitation.","Service disruption if a relay or blocker is applied to the wrong physical channel.","Incorrect lineage caused by stale labels, concealed splices, or tone coupling into adjacent conductors.","Overgeneralization from one failed channel to a shared bundle or panel.","A repaired termination may conceal a separate distributed defect elsewhere in the same channel.","The physical gate can become a substitute for investigating endpoint, power, or software causes when cable measurements are normal."]},"next_evidence_step":"On one non-production panel, blind the operator to channel history and repeatedly test a bounded sample of inherited channels plus known-new reference channels in both fixture orientations. Predeclare analog limits before revealing labels. Then compare pass/trip results and fault locations with an independent, hardware-generated bit-error test under controlled temperature and cable-bundle loading. Proceed beyond the panel only if reference readings remain stable, results repeat after reconnection, and tripped locations correspond to independently observed physical-layer degradation.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Other proposals were not inspected under runtime isolation. Within the supplied record, this candidate is a physical network-substrate instantiation rather than a software inventory, vulnerability scanner, provenance database, dashboard, release workflow, or policy audit.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Construct one causally complete candidate under the binding substrate constraint.","Preserve borrowed-substrate, origin-condition, inheritance-channel, audit-boundary, context-shift, concentration, and containment structure.","Make detection and containment independent of software, reporting, incentives, authorization logic, and procedural enforcement.","Bound the initial evidence step and state explicit falsifiers and hazards."],"conceptual_changes":["Initial version; no parent proposal.","Realized inherited substrate as the physical copper cable plant underlying a computer network.","Made accumulated geometry and material condition, rather than information provenance, the operative inheritance channel."],"operational_changes":["Specified fixed electrical excitation, analog comparators, a normally open relay, and a mechanical patch blocker.","Limited first use to an isolated non-production panel with clean physical references."],"evidence_changes":["Prior art remains unsearched.","Defined repeatability, fixture reversal, clean-reference stability, and independent hardware bit-error comparison as the first evidence checks."],"claim_changes":["No novelty, prevalence, demand, or effect-size claim is made.","The contrastive claim is restricted to exposing and containing inherited physical cable conditions missed by functional link testing."]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"MEASUREMENT_INSTRUMENTATION","counterfactual_independence":"Removing software, algorithmic inference, databases, dashboards, reports, incentives, authorization logic, and procedural enforcement leaves the essential causal chain intact: calibrated electrical energy is injected into the isolated cable; physical discontinuities and coupling alter the returned and transferred energy; analog detectors and fixed comparators trip; and a normally open relay plus mechanical blocker keeps the channel disconnected. Human authorization limits where the fixture may be applied but does not create its detection or containment effect.","forbidden_channel_audit":"The proposal does not use an algorithm, learned model, software control loop, dependency database, dashboard, recommender, packet analytics, or reported sensor value as the operative intervention. Durable identifiers and owner approval are support wrappers only. The verdict comes from fixed analog thresholds applied directly to physical measurements, and containment is electrical and mechanical. If the fixture required software interpretation or a person to honor a warning before isolation occurred, the candidate would not satisfy the substrate constraint."}}}