SUPERCOMM 2003 June 2, 2003

NRIC VIFocus Group 2 – Network Reliability

Co-Chairs:PJ Aduskevicz, AT&T

Ross Callon, Juniper NetworksWayne Hall, Comcast Cable Communications

Focus Group Mission Statement Define reliability measurements (units) for commercial communications

networks (i.e., wireline and wireless transport networks, including satellite and cable) and for the Internet by March 22, 2003.

Define reasonable, measurable customer-affecting outage reporting thresholds for commercial communications networks (i.e., wireline and wireless transport networks, including satellite and cable) and for the Internet by March 22, 2003.

Conduct voluntary outage reporting trial, collect data, analyze results, and report on the validity, usefulness, and timeliness of the process and information obtained, and make recommendations for improvement.

Based on trial results (including information on services affected by an outage), evaluate and report on the reliability of public communications network services in the United States.

Should the Commission initiate an inquiry or rulemaking with respect to any of the above-mentioned issues, the Focus Group will provide input to the NRIC, which may make formal recommendations as a part of such proceeding(s).

Evaluate, and report on, the reliability of public telecommunications network services in the United States.

Focus Group MembershipPJ Aduskevicz, AT&TBonnie Amann, SprintKen Buckley, Federal Reserve BoardRobert Burkhardt, NextelRoss Callon, JuniperRick Canaday, AT&TKevin Cavanagh, AT&T WirelessWayne Chiles, VerizonJohn Clarke, NCS/NCCJoe Craig, QwestBernie Farrell, NCSDavid Fears, Cox CommunicationsLee Fitzsimmons, NextelBrian Goemmer, Western WirelessJeff Goldthorp, FCCWayne Hall, ComcastBruce Harrod, C&WJohn Healy, FCCDean Henderson, Nortel NetworksBob Holley, CiscoRobin Howard, VerizonBruce Johnson, VerisignRick Kemper, CTIABill Klein, ATISBernie Ku, WorldComJim Lankford, SBCGreg Larson, Exodus/CWUSAMike Lecocke, SBCBill lewis, EarthLink

Chris Liljenstolpe, CWChris MacFarland, AllegianceSpilios Makris, TelcordiaArchie McCain, BellSouthDave McDysan, WorldComBrian Micene, AT&T WirelessDenny Miller, NortelErick Mogelgaard, CoxBrad Nelson, MarconiChris Oberg, Verizon WirelessGary Pellegrino, CommFlow ResourcesBonnie Petti, Verizon WirelessSam Phillips, BITSChristopher Quesada, PAIX.netKarl Rauscher, LucentTony Reed, CharterArthur Reilly, Cisco SystemsIra Richer, The Telesis GroupJim Runyon, LucentAndy Scott, NCTADon Smith, NCSRon Stear, C&WSandy Stephens, FocalDorothy Stout, NCS/NCCJeff Swinton, Conexion Corp.Whitey Thayer, FCCRobert Vogel, PanAmSat Corp.Doug Williams, Comcast Cable

Voluntary Trial Outage Reporting Units and Thresholds

Type of Internet Access

Customer Definition

Comments

Cable Household Whether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage

Dial-Up Dial-Up Port Whether or not the port is in use at the time of the outage

DSL Household Whether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage

Satellite Household Whether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage

Wireless Customers or Blocked Calls

Historical trends may be used

Internet / IP Service Provider

Inter-Domain Routers

PSTN

DSL

Wireless

Cable

Dial-Up

DNS RADIUSDHCP

Core Backbone

Distribution

Service Aggregation

XYZ Corp

Contents of Confidential Outage Reports• Reporting carrier / service

provider• Contact person• Telephone number of contact

person• Start date• Start time of impact• Geographic area affected• Estimated number of customers

affected• Types of services affected (if

applicable)• Duration of outage (hours and

minutes)

• Apparent or known cause• Name of equipment involved

[OPTIONAL]• Type of equipment involved

[OPTIONAL]• Specific part of network involved• Methods used to restore service

[OPTIONAL]• Steps taken to prevent

recurrence• Root cause and trouble found

[OPTIONAL]• Applicable best practice

[OPTIONAL]

Purpose of the Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Derive information from the analysis of outage reports that is useful in evaluating and improving the reliability of increasingly important Data and Wireless Voice Networks, as has been done by the Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) for Circuit Switched Voice Networks over the last ten years.

Service Provider NCS / NCC Focus Group 2 NRIC VI & Industry

If yes

If no

NCS/NCCLogs Report

Determine ifOutage meets Trial Criteria

Outage Occurs

Create Initial ReportWithin 3 days

Send to NCS / NCC

Conduct RootCause Analysis

Identify Best Practice

Send Final ReportWithin 30 Days

Approve Scrubbed Report

LocalAnalysis

Collect, Validateand Send Data

1 2

initial final

Scrub Data perCriteria established

By FG2

Scrubbed Data Received by FG2

Analyze Scrubbed Data,

Review BP coverage

Provide Status at NRIC VI

Council meetings

MakeRecommendations

Monitor Progress

Concur or ProvideInput on

Recommendations

Develop FinalReport to IncludeRecommendations

File Final Report

initial final

3

NRIC VI Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Process

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

Month Reporting Organizations

January 4

February 10

March 12

April 13

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

0

1

2

3

4

5

Num

ber o

f Out

age

Repo

rts

Nov. 2002 Dec. 2002 Jan. 2003 Feb. 2003 Mar. 2003 Apr. 2003

Month When Event Occurred

Final Outage Reports

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

0

1

2

3

4

Num

ber o

f Out

age

Repo

rts

Nov. 2002 Dec. 2002 Jan. 2003 Feb. 2003 Mar. 2003 Apr. 2003

Month When Event Occurred

Initial Outage Reports

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

0123456789

Num

ber

of P

ositi

ve

Rep

orts

Nov. 2002 Dec. 2002 Jan. 2003 Feb. 2003 Mar. 2003 Apr. 2003

Month Covered by Positive Report

Positive Reports

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

0

1

2

3

4

5

Num

ber o

f Out

age

Repo

rts

Nov. 2002 Dec. 2002 Jan. 2003 Feb. 2003 Mar. 2003 Apr. 2003

Month When Event Occurred

Approved Scrubbed Reports

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

0

1

2

3

4N

umbe

r of

Out

ages

Nov.2002

Dec.2002

Jan.2003

Feb.2003

Mar.2003

Apr.2003

Month When Event Occurred

Outages by Failure Location

Inside Plant Outside Plant

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

02468

101214

Hour

s

Nov.2002

Dec.2002

Jan.2003

Feb.2003

Mar.2003

Apr.2003

Month When Event Occurred

Duration in Hours

Average Median

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Results to Date

020,00040,00060,00080,000

100,000120,000140,000160,000

Cus

tom

ers

Nov.2002

Dec.2002

Jan.2003

Feb.2003

Mar.2003

Apr.2003

Month When Event Occurred

Customers Potentially Affected

Average Median

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial – Conclusions

All participating organizations should submit a positive report if no outages that met the Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial thresholds occurred during the month.

More complete information on the outage reports regarding the cause of the outage and the applicable best practices would improve the analysis of the data and consequently increase the benefit of the Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial to the industry.

The industry should take note of existing NRIC Best Practices, as well as industry activities identified by the Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) and the Common Ground Alliance (CGA), to mitigate outages related to fiber optic cable damage.

NRIC Best Practices are also available for use in other areas identified in the scrubbed outages reports submitted to date, including software design errors, hardware failures, power failures, procedural errors, and maintenance procedures.

For the Initial Stage of the Voluntary Trial Results are promising. Metrics/Indicators are going in the right direction. Initial Report published this week to NRIC Council members.

Participating Organizations Providing Technical Contacts

Allegiance AT&T AT&T Wireless BellSouth C&W CenturyTel Charter Communications Cingular Comcast Cable Communications Cox Communications EarthLink Focal Communications Intelsat Level 3

McLeod Nextel NSF PanAmSat Qwest Sprint SBC T-Mobile Time Warner Cable Verisign Verizon Verizon Wireless Western Wireless WorldCom

Focus Group 2 – Ongoing Work

Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Process Improvements

Model outage reports by network type Outage report withdrawal process Positive communication with all technical

contacts Continue Enhancement of Voluntary Outage

Reporting Trial Guidelines Document Continue Review of 47 C.F.R.§63.100 Publish final report in December 2003