ALTERNATE COMMUNICATIONS

DURING TIMES OF DISASTER

By Dr. Jim Kennedy, NCE, MRP, MBCI, CBRM

We have witnessed over the last three to five years many

disasters both in the United States and abroad. Based on what we
are hearing from NOAA and the National Weather Service the
US is likely to see the same number, if not more, tropical storms
this year. Storms like those of the size and ferocity of the type
that were so devastating to the southern portion of the US in
2005. So, tropical storms in the US , earthquakes in South America and Asia or
volcanoes anywhere else on the globe, we, humanity, face another year of
potential emergencies that will need to be responded to.

One thing that all of these natural disasters have in common, besides the
tremendous loss of life and disruption to everyday lives of the populous, is that
they are immediately followed by an almost total loss of the ability to
communicate with the outside world. Power is lost, telephone services are
discontinued, and cell phone service is either non-existent or is so congested
that it takes hours to get a call through.

So, every year, companies and emergency planners face the problem of
providing continued communication before, during, and after a disaster strikes
their areas. This year, more than any other time, in the southern part of America
small, medium and large company business continuity planners are looking for
alternatives to standard communications so that they can keep their business and
critical operations running in the aftermath of a devastating event.

I thought that I would present some alternatives for the spectrum of business
types so that those business continuity planners would have choices to make
informed decisions about backup communications from.

Before we discuss back-up communications solutions lets first discuss the

failure mechanisms for the communications used during normal times.

Failure modes
Most companies continue to rely upon the standard telephone system for their
communications needs. In order to provide this service the telecommunications
carrier, regardless of where you are located in the world, relies upon either
copper wire or fiber optic cables from its central offices to its customers'
premises. This last mile can either be above ground, which is in the majority
of cases, or underground. We have all seen those graphic pictures of poles and
trees uprooted and thrown to the ground after a hurricane or tornado have
devastated an area. When this happens that last mile of connectivity between the
business and its telephone provider, Internet provider, or application service
provider are abruptly disconnected and utility power is lost. Underground cables
are not entirely safe from disruption of service either. Many times due to
flooding and/or power loss these underground services are disrupted as well. In
the case of cell phone providers the cell towers receive your cell phones call
they then route it to a local central office. These towers or the equipment inside
of them can also be damaged or destroyed as well as the last mile circuits which
connect those cell towers to the local telephone network. So cell phone service
is as tenuous as the regular telephone service when a disaster strikes. I should
also mention that the southeast US is not the only area where loss of
communications services takes place and hurricanes and tornadoes are not the
only natural disasters that disrupt communications and power. In the northeast
US over the last several years ice storms and blizzards have also taken their toll
on communications and power utilities, for example.

Usually following an event like a tornado, hurricane, blizzard or the like, the
communications and power service providers work very hard to restore service,
however, in most cases we are talking several days if not a week for the
restoration of power and phone service. This restoration time varies depending
on the size and intensity of the disaster. If it is localized, as it could be for a
tornado, then service could be restored more quickly.

These copper and fiber optic cables also interconnect the local telephone
companys central offices to other central offices in the region and to long
distance providers, cell phone carriers, Internet and data communications
service providers anywhere in the world. These inter-exchange or long haul
circuits provide the ability of interconnectivity and communication to beyond
the local area. So if your business communicates between offices in Baton
Rouge LA and St. Louis MO there are probably several service providers and
miles of cables involved in carrying the information from one point to the other.
These cables travel above and underground and suffer the same fate as the local
last mile circuits do. However, because of the number of calls, subscribers and
the importance of these circuits, the carriers or the businesses that use them
generally employed circuit diversity. What this means is that there are
multiple paths for the voice or data to travel. If one path fails there is another
which can be used to take the call to its intended destination. This works well
for such things as car vs. pole accidents, isolated incidents like localized fires
and floods, but with mass devastation like we experienced with Hurricane
Katrina or the tornadoes in the midwest US, even the diverse routes are
consumed in the overall damage toll.
Power is another failure mode. The central offices and cell phone sites have
their own power sources in the form of batteries and emergency generators. If
the event is limited to a few hours or a few days they will be fully operational.
However, it was found that in the case of the hurricanes and earthquakes of the
last few years power has been interrupted for several days even up to several
weeks and the power plants, central offices, or cell towers in the areas of
devastation were inaccessible for most of that time. This meant that the fuel
trucks needed to refuel the generators were unable to get to their destinations
and subsequently the central offices and cell sites went off-line.

So now that we understand that the power and communications utilities have pl
anne d for adverse events, but the intensity and massive area of devastation
often make these plans fail. It is left to the individual business owner or operator
to determine the criticality of their services and to properly plan for potential
communication and power failures that might impact them.

In the next part of this article, I will endeavor to present the alternatives that
exist in case you experience a disastrous event with a communication failure.

ALTERNATIVES
Before I discuss the alternatives I feel that it is important to note that power is a
main component of any recovery or mitigation strategy. That is, without power
to run these technologies they will not operate. So, it is important to have
reliable and sustainable power for the duration of the resumption and/or
recovery effort. If you cannot verify that this is the case then alternate site
recovery is the only viable alternative.

Infrared
One such alternative to commercial communication systems is infrared. This
alternative is used if a company needs to interconnect two buildings together.
Infrared provides an optical data, voice and video transmission system. Like
fiber optic cable, infrared communications systems use laser light to transmit a
digital signal between two transceivers. However, unlike fiber, the laser light is
transmitted through the air. In order for the digital signal to be transmitted and
received, there must be clear line of site between each unit. In other words, there
should be no obstructions such as trees or buildings between the transceiver
units. So, if your wireline or wireless communications fails you can still provide
communications between two points. The only drawback is the distance and the
line-of-sight requirements.

This solution provides low-cost, high-speed wireless connectivity for a variety

of last-mile applications. It provides narrowband voice and broadband data
connectivity and the various products provide scalable, wireless alternatives to
leased lines. These infrared systems operate at data rates of 1 Megabit to Multi
Gigabit speeds and they are deployable in one day, without requiring right-of-
way or government permits for installation. They can provide an alternative
communication link in hours instead of weeks or months. This is probably not
an option for a small business, but for a medium or large business owner the
cost is affordable. Cost can range from $10K to $25K per installation capable of
distances of up to 1000 meters.

Microwave
Another alternative to commercial communication systems is microwave
(wireless). This alternative is used if a company needs to interconnect two
buildings together that are spaced farther apart than the conventional infrared
can operate (i.e., in excess of 1000m). Microwave also provides a data, voice
and video transmission system. Unlike infrared communications systems, which
use laser light to transmit a digital signal between two transceivers, microwave
uses ultra-high frequency radio frequency (wireless) transmission. In order for
the digital signal to be transmitted and received, there again must be clear line
of site between each unit. However, the distance that this alternative can span is
up to 60 miles as long as no obstructions such as trees or buildings are located
between the two locations. If wireline or wireless communications fails
communications between two points can still take place. There are several
drawbacks to this solution:

* Distance limited to up to 60 miles

* Requires an FCC license to operate

* Right of Way Permits may be required

* Needs highly trained technicians to install equipment

* Cost can be prohibited to small businesses.

The cost of a microwave system can be between $50K and $100K with
installation and license preparation charges to be in the area of another $15K. It
still provides a viable alternative for medium and large businesses.

Small businesses also have an alternative of smaller wireless systems which

utilize non-licensed frequencies and which can be installed by an IT person in
the business operation. Cost is about $1000 to $2000, but I must warn you that
this is not as reliable a solution as the microwave wireless option and reliable
speeds may be slower.

Satellite
So far I have provided solutions that have been better suited for the medium and
large business operations. Satellite provides alternatives for small, medium and
large enterprises and there are various speed and pricing options, which make it
a very attractive alternative or mitigation strategy.

Satellite phones
There are several types of satellite alternatives. If a company is only interested
in providing a short term telephone back-up alternative then satellite phone
service like INMARSAT, at&t, Iridium, Satcom, Skytel, Worldcell, or
Globalstar to name only a few offer basic voice, fax and basic v and e-mail
services. They offer mobile phone services and are not usually capable of
providing sustained data communication or Internet types of services. However,
this communications strategy is good for keeping your senior executives and
critical operations personnel in contact during disasters. You can rent phones for
about $40/week and then pay about $1.00/minute for basic service or you can
buy the phones for $700 to $2000 each and negotiate rates in the area of
$0.85/minute. So as you can see this is not an inexpensive option, but usable
depending on the need for communications.

VSAT
VSAT is an acronym for Very Small Aperture Terminal, an earthbound station
used in satellite communications of data, voice and video signals. A VSAT
consists of two parts, a transceiver that is placed outdoors in direct line of sight
to the satellite and a device that is placed indoors to interface the transceiver
with the end user's communications device, such as a PC. It is very much like a
satellite TV setup.

VSAT service can be placed into two categories: those that provide basic
Internet access services and those that are enterprise grade. For the small and
medium sized business the Internet access type service is often what is selected.
Such offerings as: DirectWay, WildBlue, and Connexstar all offer low cost,
small business types of back up solutions which use equipment much like the
in-home satellite television services.

The data rates are in the area of 200 kbps uplink and 1.5 Mbps downlink which
is very much like residential DSL service. The cost is about $300 for the
equipment and around $100 or less each month. This would provide a small
business the ability to utilize VoIP, VPN and connect to the Internet.

For medium and large size businesses there are more sophisticated satellite
services. They require satellite antennas, which are 3 to 5 meters in diameter
and much more sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Installation of these more sophisticated satellite services can cost in the range of
$100K to $250K with monthly operational service charges from $1000 to
$5000/month. They provide quality of service and committed information rates
as part of the service. They can provide for up to 150 toll-quality phone lines,
broadband Internet, and high speed data communications and also provide
secure communication (encrypted) is required.

Satellite services can also be rented as part of a contract or call up service. But,
rental services are on a first-come-first served basis. As we witnessed during the
tropical storms of last year these portable rental satellite service providers were
inundated with requests and try as they would there were only so many units to
go around. Those who did not plan or contract ahead were left without service.

Last thoughts
I hope that I have given business continuity planners some food for thought in
developing alternative communication mitigation strategies. Each strategy has
its benefits and drawbacks. You need to look at each potential possibility and
determine what is right for you. If you are overwhelmed there are many
consulting organizations and even your own telecommunications services
provider who can help you to identify and select the best options. However, you
need to get started today for the next hurricane, tornado, flood, of catastrophe
season in your geographic region. It will be too late to plan after an event
occurs.

Dr. Jim Kennedy is the Business Continuity Services Practice Lead and a
Consulting Member of Technical Staff for Lucent Technologies. Dr. Kennedy
has over 25 years experience in the business continuity and disaster recovery
fields and holds numerous Master level certifications
in network engineering, information security and business continuity.

He has developed more than 30 recovery plans, planned or participated in more

than 100 business continuity and disaster recovery tests, helped to coordinate
three actual recovery operations, authored many technical articles on business
continuity and disaster recovery and is a contributing author for two books, the
"Blackbook of Corporate Security" and "Disaster Recovery Planning: An
Introduction."