Rebuilding the New Orleans Region: Infrastructure Systems and Technology Innovation Forum

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Rebuilding the New Orleans RegionInfrastructure
Systems and Technology Innovation Forum

• Bernard L. Malone III
• Technical Manager Wireless Networks
• Contributor to The Presidents NSTAC ECITF Task
  Force
• Private Sector Advisor U.S. State Department
  Delegation OAS
• ANSI IEEE Panel Presenter
• Work of the Bell Labs Network Reliability
  Security Office

September 26, 2006
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Perspectives from Critical Industry-Government
Fora

• Wireless Emergency Response Team (WERT) - saving
  lives
• FCC Mandates for Outage Reporting - collaborative
  industry analysis
• FCC Network Reliability Interoperability
  Council (NRIC) - Best Practices
• IEEE Technical Committee on Communications
  Quality Reliability (CQR) - insights
• The Presidents National Security
  Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) -
  priorities

www.wert-help.org
www.atis.org
www.nric.org
C Q R
www.comsoc.org/cqr
www.ncs.gov
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Preface to A Fundamental Lesson of 9-11

• Terrorism depends on surprise.

Failure of imagination.
Do you want to be responsible for this??
Emphasis Added National Strategy for Homeland
Security, Office of Homeland Security, July 2002,
Executive Summary, pages viii. Emphasis Added
9/11 Commission Report. 2004. pages 336-339.
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Some Definitions
Vulnerability - A characteristic of any
aspect of the communications infrastructure that
renders it, or some portion of it, susceptible
to damage or compromise  
Threat - Anything with the potential to
damage or compromise the communications
infrastructure or some portion of it
FCC NRIC VI Homeland Security Physical Security
Final Report, December 2003.
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Some Characteristics of Ts and Vs

• Vulnerabilities (intrinsic)
• finite
• fixed and well known
• only way threats can impact
•  

• Threats
• infinite in number
• knowledge value is fleeting
• each has permutations

FCC NRIC VI Homeland Security Physical Security
Final Report, December 2003.
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A Fundamental Lesson of 9-11

• . . . is the need to identify and address
  vulnerabilities independent of threat knowledge

• Does NOT mean that you abandon threat and risk
  analysis
• It means you MUST supplement it, balance it,
  integrate

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. . . this means more science and engineering
competencies are needed

• 8 Ingredients of Communications Infrastructure

PUBLIC HEALTH
LAW ENFORCEMENT
FINANCIAL
COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE
ENERGY
TRANSPORTATION
Other Infrastructures
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. . . Example of Intrinsic Vulnerabilities

• Hardware

The Presidents National Security
Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC)
Next Generation Networks (NGN) Task Force Report,
March, 2006
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Integrated V-T-BP Framework

• Two approaches can be integrated

electromagnetic weapons thermal nuclear
war hijacking of a network

Threats

• Best Practices that
• address Vulnerabilities
• address Threats
• by preventing the exercise of vulnerabilities,
  and/or mitigating the impact should a
  vulnerability be exercised

Environment accessible identifiable physical
damage Hardware vibration / shock temperature
extremes electromagnetic radiation Policy foreign
national ownership
X-123
X-789
PREVENTION
Vulnerabilities
X-222
X-111
X-999
X-555
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Network Reliability Steering Committee Mission

• The Network Reliability Steering Committee's
  mission is to analyze the industry's major
  network outages in order to
• identify trends
• make recommendations aimed at improving network
  reliability
• make the results publicly available
• . . . in order to help ensure a continued high
  level of reliability of the nations public
  networks.

www.atis.org
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Network Reliability Steering CommitteeOutage
Deep Dive Analysis
www.atis.org
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NRIC History Focus
Homeland Security
Packet Switching
Interoperability (Telecom Act of 96)
Emergency Services
Y2K
Reliability
NRC I
NRC II
NRIC III
NRIC IV
NRIC V
NRIC VI
NRIC VII
1992
2005
Historic Analogy
Best Practice Development
Systematic Vulnerability Assessment
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NRIC Best Practices - Overview

• Most authoritative guidance in the world for
  communications industry network reliability,
  network security, physical security, disaster
  recovery
• Offer what no one companys SMEs can offer
• Intended to be implemented voluntarily
• NRIC VII includes a focus on reliability of
  Wireless Networks
• 800 Best Practices

Disaster Recovery
Public Safety
Network Reliability
Cyber Security
Physical Security
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Wide Applicability
User-Friendly Access with Keywords
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Best Practices, Standards or Regulations ?

• Regulations
• legal process technical expertise may be
  compromised
• speed S L O W t o a d j u
  s t
• posture mandated behavior
• Standards
• competitive process influence of strongest
  competitor wins
• speed M E D I U M t o a d j u s t
• posture ranges from voluntary to mandated
• Best Practices
• expert process expertise and experience are
  trump
• speed FAST to adjust
• posture implementation is voluntary

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Example of Proactive Posture in Addressing
Emergency Power Gap
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WERT Mission

• Lead advanced wireless expertise, technology and
  infrastructure support for Search Rescue
  operations in national crises
• Conduct focused research and report key learnings
  to industry, government and the public
• Provide emergency guidance for 911 centers, law
  enforcement, wireless service providers and
  family members
• From time to time, WERT may also use its unique
  wireless capabilities and expertise to address
  other critical needs of society.

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WERT Pictures form Ground Zero Search and Rescue
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Hurricane Katrina WERT Activation

• Bell Labs Personnel deployed to New Orleans with
  the BSR six days after Katrina
• BSR mounted on USCG Helicopter for SAR Operations
• Unique stand-alone network established over the
  city
• Over 50 GSM cell phones identified and contacted
• Coast Guard observers say BSR could be a
  critical tool in Search and Rescue

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9/11 WERT Participants include . . .
Metrocall Motorola NCS / NCC NRSC NRIC
Nextel NYPD NYC Mayors Office Nortel
Networks Pennsylvania State Police PCIA Qualcomm Q
west Wireless SkyTel
Spectrasite Communications Sprint PCS State of
NJ Telcordia Technologies T-Mobile Triton
PCS TruePosition Union Cellular U.S. Department
of Energy U.S. Marshals Service, ESU U.S. Secret
Service UTstarcom Verizon Verizon Wireless Wheat
International

• AG Communications Systems
• American Tower
• Arch Wireless
• Argonne National Laboratory
• ATT
• ATT Wireless
• BellSouth
• CTIA
• Cingular Wireless
• EDO Corporation
• Ericsson
• FBI
• FCC
• IEEE CQR
• Lucent Technologies Bell Labs

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Katrina/Rita WERT Participants include . . .
Louisiana Parish Govts. Louisiana State
Police Lucent Technologies MCI Motorola NCS/NCC NR
SC NRIC Nortel Networks Qualcomm Sprint/Nextel
T-Mobile Telcordia Technologies TruePosition Unive
rsity of Texas U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Department
of Energy U.S. Department of Justice U.S.
Marshals Service U.S. Northern Command Verizon Ver
izon Wireless

• Argonne National Labratory
• ATT
• BellSouth
• Cingular
• Congressman Ed Royce
• CTIA
• Dept Homeland Security
• Ericsson
• FCC
• FEMA
• Louisiana Public Svc. Comm.

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WERT Vision

• Connect the best minds and resources
• of the wireless industry
• to the most vital needs of its subscribers.

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Take Aways

• A Fundamental Lesson of 9-11 is the need to
  identify and address vulnerabilities
  independent of threat knowledge
• An optimum balance of core competencies
  requires more integration of the science and
  engineering disciplines into rebuilding planning,
  investments and policies
• The private sector is very motivated from
  business and/or human interest reasons
• Expertise
• Flexibility
• Speed
• Innovation