IP: NRIC V and ISP outage monitoring

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: CyberTelecom <cannon () WORLD OBERLIN EDU>
>
>
> NRIC V had its first meeting today.  NRIC is a Federal Advisory Counsil
> providing information to the FCC on telecommunications (ie telephone)
> network reliability.  Information on NRIC can be found at www.nric.org
> The Chair of NRIC V is Jim Crowe from Level3.
>
> The primary focus of this NRIC will be to continue the
> telecommunications network reliability work of the group, including
> packet switched networks.  NRIC will be broken into the following
> subgroups (1) Y2K - finishing the work (2) Network Reliability and (3)
> Interoperability.
>
> NRIC IV recommended that a one year voluntary trial period of network
> outage reporting be initiated for a wide variety of communications
> service providers, including Internet Service Providers.  The final
> report of NRIC IV's recommendations in this area can be found at
> http://www.atis.org/atis/nricgr3.htm  The relevant language from the
> Executive Summary is below.  This Report was placed on the web for
> public comment in February for public comment.  Those comments were
> received and incorporated.  The recommendation has been accepted by
> NRIC.  Thus,NRIC will move forward to initiate a one year voluntary
> trial period of ISPs report outages to NCC/NCS, NRIC, and ultimately to
> the FCC.  At the completion of the trial, an analysis will be done of
> the usefulness of the reporting.  NRIC indicates that the issue of ISP
> involvement in the voluntary reporting was supported by Ira Richter of
> IOPS  www.iops.org
>
> The presentations from todays NRIC meeting should soon be on the NRIC
> website www.nric.org
>
> Exec Summary:
>
> "A voluntary trial is recommended with participation by service
> providers of CMRS, satellite, cable, data networking and INTERNET
> SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs) to alert National Communications
> Systems/National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications (NCS/NCC) of
> outages that are likely to have a significant public impact.
>
> "* Industry associations should provide an informational notice to their
> membership to inform them of a voluntary outage reporting trial and
> encourage their participation.
>
> "* Analysis of the data from this voluntary trial should be done by a
> neutral party.  This analysis should be similar to scope to the analysis
> conducted on wireline carrier segments.
>
> "* At the completion of a voluntary trial period (minimum 1-year) an
> evaluation of the effectiveness of the data for usefulness to
> participants and the FCC should be understaken.
>
> "Industry communication of NRIC IV 'Best Practices' to CMRS, Satellite,
> cable, ISP, data networking service providers is recommended."