1、ATIS-0100065 Network Reliability Steering Committee 2015-2016 Operational Report February 2018 ii DATE: February 2018 TO: Stakeholders of the Nations Public Communications Networks Service disruptions, although infrequent, remind us how dependent we are on the communications networks. During these e
2、vents, communication providers demonstrated how seriously they take their responsibility to provide reliable services for consumers and businesses, expending significant efforts to mitigate outages and quickly restore service. Once service is restored, equal efforts are expended to analyze the disru
3、ption, identify areas for improvement, and implement those improvements. The owners and operators of these networks, along with the equipment vendors they partner with, are firmly committed to building and maintaining reliable and resilient networks. This commitment has been demonstrated again and a
4、gain on a day-to-day basis, and in the face of natural and manmade disasters. The Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) remains committed to this effort by analyzing outage and reliability trends and recommending actions that can help prevent outages or reduce their impact. Its members work
5、together to ensure that communication systems continue to remain secure and reliable. These efforts ultimately benefit consumers, business, the industry, and the nation as a whole. This report provides a snapshot of the issues addressed by the NRSC over the last two years. As you will see, the effor
6、ts of the NRSC, guided by input from member company subject matter experts as well as the FCC, are primarily directed toward ensuring that meaningful data is being collected and analyzed to better understand the cause and mitigation of outages. Ultimately, the NRSC utilizes this information to devel
7、op industry guidance that directly impacts and improves the nations networks. These efforts build upon previous NRSC work, and form a strong foundation for ensuring that communication networks continue to be reliable and resilient. This foundation is especially useful in light of ongoing momentous c
8、hanges to the communications network, including the significant growth of wireless networks and the evolution to an All-IP network. The nation depends on these networks to provide emergency communications, enable commerce, and support individual communications. As these changes to the network occur,
9、 the NRSC remains committed to, and will continue working toward, maintaining network reliability and resiliency. ANDY GORMLEY T-Mobile NRSC CO-CHAIR ANDIS KALNINS Verizon NRSC CO-CHAIR iii Table of Contents Executive Summary iv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 History of the NRSC 1 1.2 Factors Affecting Networ
10、k Reliability . 2 2 Health of the Nations Public Networks . 2 2.1 Introduction to Special Studies/Task Forces . 2 2.1.1 Non-Affiliated Task Force (Mary Boyd and Kim Scovill) 3 2.1.2 Cause Code Consistency Task Force (Gail Linnell and Deborah Diamond) 4 2.1.3 Ongoing Studies 4 2.2 Subcommittees 5 2.2
11、.1 Best Practices Subcommittee (Andy Gormley and Christopher Desmond) 5 2.2.2 IP Reliability Subcommittee (Mark Peay and Christopher Oberg). 5 2.2.3 Regulatory Subcommittee (Andis Kalnins and Nathan Subramaniam) . 7 2.2.4 Outage Reporting Advisory Subcommittee (ORAS) (Rick Canaday and Christopher De
12、smond) . 8 3 Conclusion . 9 4 Participation . 10 iv Executive Summary About the NRSC The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) NRSC addresses network reliability improvement opportunities of service providers and vendors, in a noncompetitive environment, and allows participants t
13、o develop standards, technical requirements, technical reports, Bulletins, Best Practices, and reports on the health of the nations communications networks. The NRSC also coordinates industry improvements in network reliability through outage analysis. The mission statement of the NRSC is: The NRSC
14、strives to improve network reliability by providing timely consensus-based technical and operational expert guidance to all segments of the public communications industry.1The NRSC is deeply committed to intra-industry collaboration, which is essential in ensuring that the industrys expertise is ava
15、ilable to monitor and address critical trends in the reliability of our nations public communications networks. The NRSC addresses these critical trends by: Identifying potential network reliability issues through an opportunity evaluation process; Establishing teams to work specific reliability iss
16、ues; Conducting special studies to develop industry recommendations and/or Best Practices; Providing industry feedback to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) on network reliability and on the FCCs Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and D
17、isaster Information Reporting System (DIRS); and Serving as a public educational resource on network outage trends and the industrys ongoing efforts to resolve network reliability concerns. This Operational Report covers the period of 2015 through 2016. A brief history of the NRSC is provided in the
18、 Introduction of this report (page 6). 1NRSCs Mission Statement is available on the ATIS NRSC site . v Changing Regulatory Environment have reliable network monitoring systems; conduct periodic audits of 911 circuits; and notify 911 call centers of problems. The Report and Order requires operators t
19、o report on these areas, certifying either implementation of specific Best Practices or implementation of alternative measures. Cybersecurity With the transition to an all-IP network, cybersecurity has taken on added significance and the FCC has increased its attention to this topic. During the FCCs
20、 Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC-IV) and its Technological Advisory Council (TAC), the FCC chartered a CSRIC Working Group (WG-4) to determine how best to ensure implementation of cybersecurity measures. That Working Group delivered a 300+ page Final Report,
21、 and the FCC immediately issued a Public Notice about this report, seeking comments on how well the Final Report met the goal and what other measures could be taken to ensure cybersecurity. While the industry and the underlying network technologies may be evolving, the role of the NRSC remains const
22、ant. The NRSC provides expert industry guidance regarding communications reliability issues to ensure that US communications networks remain highly reliable and robust, even during their constant evolution. 2The FCC adopted the Amendments to Part 4 of the Commissions Rules Concerning Disruptions to
23、Communications NPRM, (DA No. 15-710) (Dkt No 15-80), on March 30, 2015. vi Highlights During the 2015 to 2016 timeframe, the NRSC convened four Task Forces and reviewed and provided comments for high profile regulatory filings. Along with its Task Forces, the NRSC also had four standing Subcommittee
24、s. The covered topics included: Special Studies/Task Forces Non-Affiliated Entity Task Force NORS Cause Code Consistency Task Force NRSC DS3 Non-Simplex Task Force Silent Failures Task Force Subcommittees Best Practices Subcommittee IP Reliability Subcommittee Outage Reporting Advisory Subcommittee
25、Regulatory Subcommittee NRSC Initiatives, Studies, and Filings Completed and Ongoing Initiatives: o Best Practices Tutorial and Guidance for CSRIC V o Best Practices Website Review and Updates o Launch of IP Reliability Task Force to Address VoIP Outage Reporting o Reopening of Outage Reporting Advi
26、sory Subcommittee to Address Updates to NORS 3.0 User Manual and Other Documentation Related to NORS and DIRS o Launch of Hurricane Checklist Task Force (Later renamed to Emergency Preparedness and Response Checklist Task Force) Filings o Improving 911 Reliability Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, PS D
27、ocket No. 13-75 (Comments March 2015; Reply Comments April 2015) o New Part 4 of the Commissions Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, ET Docket No. 04-35 (Comments July 2015) o Ex Parte Providing Additional Input on Major Transport Facility Outages, PS Docket No. 15-80, ET Docket No. 04-3
28、5 (August 2015) o The Proposed Extension of Part 4 of the Commissions Rules Regarding Outage Reporting to Interconnected Voice Over Internet Protocol Service Providers and Broadband Internet Service Providers, PS Docket No. 11-82 (Comments August 2016; Reply Comments September 2016) Publications NRS
29、C Bulletins: o ATIS-0100062, NRSC Bulletin No., 2016-001: Fiber Cut Related Outage Data Analysis (b) new reporting thresholds, timeframes, and concepts; and (c) limited access to the outage data due to confidential protection under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Regarding the reporting expan
30、sion, in addition to wireline providers, the new requirements included wireless, satellite, paging, and cable telephony service providers. Changes in the thresholds and concepts include events that affect 900,000 user-minutes and events impacting DS3 facilities. Because of these 3Daugherty, H.T., Kl
31、ein, W. J., “U.S. Network Reliability Issues and Major Outage Performance,” Proceedings: IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications, 1995, June 27-29, 1995, pp.114, 119. 4FCC Report and Order, CC Docket No. 91-273, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., adopted February 13, 1992, r
32、eleased February 27, 1992. 5FCC Second Report and Order, CC Docket No. 91-273, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., adopted July 14, 1994, released August 1, 1994. 6Since the subsequent re-charters under the name “Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC)”, this first C
33、ouncil is sometimes referred to as “NRC-1”. 7Network Reliability: A Report to the Nation, Network Reliability Council, June 1993. Section I, p. 6. 8Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, ET Docket No. 04-35, adopted August 4, 2004, released August 19, 2004; Errata, ET Docket No.
34、 0435, released September 3, 2004. 2 criteria, the overall number of reportable events substantially increased. In 2012, the FCC expanded the outage reporting criteria and thresholds to include VoIP services. In July of 2016, the FCC published a Report and Order9 updating several of the Part 4, Disr
35、uption to Communications, rules with some significant changes. The changes: better defined required reporting at airports; shortened the threshold for reporting Simplex conditions from 120 hours to 96 hours; increased the minimal reportable transport outage from DS-3 to OC-3; defined the methodology
36、 for determining Wireless Potential Users; implemented required reporting for Partial PSAP Outage Reporting; and applied Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) as the way of defining Special Offices and Facilities. 1.2 Factors Affecting Network Reliability The NRSC has historically recognized tha
37、t identifying and understanding the underlying causes of outage trends are important parts of learning from past experiences and preparing for future challenges as networks evolve. When evaluating negative or positive trends that affect network reliability, having standard analytical methodologies a
38、nd trending schemas has proven to be a solid link to the past, while providing a bridge into the future. The NRSC works to identify the direct and root cause(s) associated with particular trends, evaluates these against existing Best Practices, and develops new Best Practices or recommends modificat
39、ions to existing Best Practices when appropriate. Additionally, the NRSC will recommend the development of new (or modification of existing) cause code categories, review other completed studies, review internal company outage data, determine contributing factors, and review associated federal and s
40、tate regulations. 2 Health of the Nations Public Networks The members of the NRSC have a historic and unique perspective on network reliability. Nowhere else in the world have subject matter experts from competing companies gathered regularly for the purpose of analyzing network outage data, develop
41、ing consensus determinations about the data analyzed, and offering expert guidance on actionable countermeasures to improve network reliability. Through this collaboration, high reliability for the nations public networks is promoted, expert guidance is offered, and an ongoing accurate view of the h
42、ealth of networks is provided at a national level. The NRSC continues to believe that the reliability of the nations public network is the best in the world. 2.1 Introduction to Special Studies/Task Forces The NRSC had or established five special study teams, or Task Forces, during 2015 and 2016. Th
43、e purpose of these special studies was to bring industry experts attention to network reliability issues or concerns, to determine the underlying cause/s behind national trends, to determine the most effective Best Practices or other means for preventing and ameliorating the impact of such events, a
44、nd to provide industry level guidance regarding the issue or concern. The keys to the success of these teams are open dialogue, meaningful information sharing, and collaboration among the industry participants on potentially sensitive issues. To protect the interests of participating companies and t
45、heir sensitive and critical infrastructure data, a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) between the NRSC member companies is in place. These studies represent the thousands of hours that NRSC members have contributed to the painstaking scrutiny, documenting, and publishing of publicly available findings a
46、nd results. These efforts are instrumental in providing expert industry guidance and ensuring high network reliability in the United States. 9FCC 16-63, Amendments to Part 4 of the Commissions Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket No. 15-80, ET Docket No. 04-35, PS Docket No. 11-
47、82, Report and Order, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Order on Reconsideration, available at https:/apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/. 3 2.1.1 Non-Affiliated Task Force (Mary Boyd and Kim Scovill) Background In 2015 the FCC outage reporting rules10imposed outage reporting obligations upon wirele
48、ss service providers (WSPs) when defined reporting thresholds have been met, similar rules are also imposed upon “affiliated and non-affiliated entities that maintain or provide communications networks or services used by the provider in offering such communications”11. It was industrys perception t
49、hat non-affiliated entities providing traffic aggregation and delivery of wireless 911 voice calls and/or involved in the delivery of wireless caller location information to a PSAP meets the definition of a communications provider12. Accordingly, communication providers providing such services to WSPs are obligated to report outages when FCC reporting thresholds have been met. West Corporation (formerly Intrado Inc.), Comtech Communications formerly Telecommunication Systems, Inc.(TCS), and INdigital Telecom serve as exam
