Internet Resilience Post-9/11: Observations and Research Issues

1. How Did the Internet Fair During 9-11? Randy H. Katz University of California, Berkeley Post 9-11 Panel Session Networking 2002 Pisa, Italy

2. Observations • No single points of failure, correlated failure modes a problem • Baltimore Tunnel Fire • Ohio train derailment • Communications Infrastructures • Telephone networks (including cellular systems) • Tactical radio networks • Data networks •  Internet did well during 9-11 • Small effect on operation • Some close calls: 60 Hudson Street • Backup power for 48 hours, came within hours of shutdown • Content demand in the face of flash crowds • Community response: missing person databases

3. Observations • Cellular Networks • Largely knocked out in lower Manhattan: correlated placement of BSs • System overwhelmed, no way to distinguish priority from non-priority • Restoration within days • Tactical/Public Safety Radio Systems • Different systems for fire, police, federal law enforcement • Main dispatch centers knocked out in WTC • No support for dynamic reconfiguration, reallocation, interoperation • International Cooperation/Policy • Equivalent of “National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)” • Guidelines for developing/deploying critical comms infrastructures • Law enforcement coordination

4. Research Issues •  Survivable Infrastructures • Self-aware, diagnose own failed/injured components, re-assemble from survivors, spares, replacements • Prioritize access to infrastructure •  Adaptive Infrastructures • Infrastructure aware of its performance in its impacted state, to prioritize internal allocation of resource • Spare capacity/resources allocated to best use • Manage tradeoffs between quality & quantity • Adaptive bearer services adaptive: extensive compression for voice and video streams when transmission capacity has been reduced • Incrementally take advantage of new resources as they become available •  Interoperable Communications Infrastructures • Communicating parties negotiate how to interoperate dynamically • Discover each other’s capabilities, find lowest common dominator in protocols & data representations • Automated xlation of languages/terminology among communicating parties     

5. Research Issues • Heterogeneous Wireless Infrastructures • Integrate diverse wireless access (WLAN, cellular, sat nets) into single transparent communications system • Software radios enable harvesting/organizing spectrum resources for on-demand communications when and where needed • Spectrum embargoed from commercial services to support public safety needs • New waveform (UWB) dynamically superimposed on available spectrum •  Ad-hoc Wireless Infrastructures • Unattended sensors distributed through area affected by the event • Rapidly converging ad-hoc routing over very large number of nodes • No need for a centralized infrastructure • Completely disconnected, sometimes connected, usually connected, and always connected communications infrastructure models •  Dynamic Resource Allocation • More efficient, effective allocations of spectrum, time slots, bandwidth, processor cycles, storage • Economics-based price-discriminated methods (congestion-pricing, auctions) to prioritize allocations • Across multiple mistrusting resource providers and users