Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee NRSC

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Alliance for Telecommunications Industry
Solutions (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering
Committee (NRSC) Overview and Case Study
Stacy Hartman Qwest Robin Howard - Verizon
NRSC Co-Chairs
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About ATIS

• ATIS is the leading technical planning and
  standards development organization committed to
  the rapid development of global, market-driven
  standards for the Information Communication
  Technologies (ICT) industry.
• 650 industry professionals from approximately 250
  companies actively participate in ATIS 18
  Industry Committees and Forums, which develop and
  promote global technical and operational
  standards for communications using a pragmatic,
  flexible and open approach.
• Focused on delivering implementable and
  interoperable end-to-end solutions.

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Network Reliability Steering Committee

• The ATIS NRSC addresses network reliability
  improvement opportunities in an open,
  consensus-based environment and advises the
  communications industry through the development
  of standards, technical reports, bulletins, best
  practices, and annual reports.
• To accomplish its mission, the NRSC
• Identifies and analyzes potential network
  reliability issues
• Provides industry feedback to the FCC on network
  reliability and on the FCCs Network Outage
  Reporting System (NORS) and Disaster Information
  Reporting System (DIRS) and
• Serves as a public educational resource on
  network outage trends and the industrys ongoing
  efforts to resolve network reliability concerns.

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Network Reliability Steering Committee

• NRSC members include wireless, wireline and cable
  companies
• Alcatel-Lucent
• ATT
• Cox Communications
• CenturyLink
• MetroPCS
• National Communications System (NCS)

• Qwest
• Sprint
• Telcordia Technologies
• T-Mobile
• Verizon

• To facilitate discussions of sensitive outage
  data related issues, NRSC members have each
  signed a non-disclosure agreement.

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Network Reliability Steering Committee

• Over the last 24 months, the NRSC initiated
  several studies related to critical
  infrastructure reliability, including
• Business continuity planning (Hurricane and
  Pandemic)
• E911 public safety and outage and reliability
• Wireless, wireline, DS3, and digital
  cross-connect system outages
• DS3 Simplex Conditions
• American National Standard for outage
  classification
• Hardware sparing related to outage restoration
• NORS and DIRS evaluation for content,
  functionality, and usability
• Among these studies was a study initiated in
  response to FCC concerns regarding wireline
  outages
• A study team was created with participation by
  Alcatel-Lucent, ATT, CenturyLink, Qwest,
  Telcordia and Verizon.

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Issue

• The Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
  Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau
  (PSHSB) was concerned that the number of FCC
  Wireline outage reports being filed by the
  industry had increased at a statistically
  significant rate.

• Wireline Number of Events slide provided by
  FCC PSHSB during February 2008 NRSC Meeting

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Data Analysis

• Data Sources Investigated
• Final Network Outage Reporting System (NORS)
  reports, including detailed descriptions (January
  2007 December 2008)
• Providers internal non-FCC qualifying wireline
  outage data
• NRIC Best Practices
• Common Ground Alliance Best Practices
• State law
• Focus
• What was driving the increased number of Wireline
  outage reports
• Expand analysis beyond traditional FCC reported
  outages
• Determine whether company specific issue(s) had
  contributed to the increase
• Were there existing BPs available that could
  mitigate or prevent Wireline outages

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Data Analysis Results

• Results
• 87 Occurred outside
• Direct Cause - Top categories
• Cable Damage
• Hardware Failure
• Root Cause - Top categories
• Cable Damage
• External Environment
• Hardware Failure

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Direct Cause Groups
Cable Damage 1.5 Increase - Significant
2007- 2008
Hardware Failure 0.5 Increase Not Significant
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Root Cause
2007- 2008
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Study Results

• Primary direct cause of the increase in Wireline
  reports was cable damage
• Primary root cause of the increase in Wireline
  reports was environment external
• Of the causes examined, hardware failure was a
  small percentage of the total Wireline issue
• WIRELINE SUB-TEAM FINDINGS ALIGNED WITH NRSC DS3
  OUTAGE TEAM FINDINGS FOR CABLE DAMAGE,
  ENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL AND HARDWARE

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Industry Results

• Wireline Number of Events slide provided by
  FCC PSHSB during November 2009 NRSC Meeting

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Study Conclusion

• NRSC issued a bulletin that
• Emphasized the importance of adhering to the
  external cable damage NRIC and CGA Best
  Practices
• Highlighted and supported the NRSC DS3 Outage
  Team recommendations for Cable Damage,
  Environment External and Hardware
• Outlined existing one-call laws, noting that,
  where there are weak laws, companies may consider
  advocating for more regulation and
• Noted the importance of following Call Before
  You Dig processes.
• NRSC membership supports the Outage Reporting
  Advisory Subcommittee (ORAS) work on hardware
  failure cause code issues and the associated
  recommendations.
• The Bulletin can be found at http//www.atis.org/
  nrsc/Bulletins/NRSC_Wireline_Bulletin_2009-006.pdf

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Contact Information

• NRSC Co-Chairs
• Stacy Hartman
• Qwest Director Public Policy
• [phone]
• stacy.hartman_at_qwest.com
• Robin Howard
• Verizon Network Operations Manager
• [phone]
• robin.howard_at_verizon.com

• ATIS Contacts
• Tom Goode
• ATIS General Counsel
• [phone]
• tgoode_at_atis.org
• Maria Estefania
• ATIS VP of Standards Development
• [phone]
• mestefania_at_atis.org