How hard is your network really, comms watchdog asks telcos
- Reference: 1702299796
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/11/ofcom_looks_into_higher_resilience/
- Source link:
Watchdog Ofcom, aka the Office of Communications, wants to ensure telecoms networks are sufficiently resilient to cope with increasing demand, and said it is going to give operators "greater clarity" on how they're expected to comply with an updated framework for security and resilience that came into force in October 2022.
As part of the [1]consultation , Ofcom is also seeking feedback on beefing up power backup for mobile networks, as more subscribers ditch the landline and rely increasingly on mobile networks to contact emergency services.
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The regulator notes that being online is now a part of daily life, and claims that 93 percent of adults have internet access at home. Many people access the internet largely via a smartphone connected to a mobile wireless network.
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There is now more dependence on access to digital services to carry out essential day to day tasks such as banking, and more than one in five employees work at least one day from home a week, and about one in eight people work from home exclusively, according to a UK Parliament report.
The current move to [5]migrate landline customers from the old analog PSTN service to digital (VoIP) technology means that consumers will become more reliant on mobile networks in the event of a power outage that affects fixed-line networks, Ofcom says.
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Telcos were already subject to rules around resilience, but these were revised in 2021 as part of updates to the [7]Communications Act 2003 . The updates require them to take “appropriate and proportionate measures” to identify, prepare for and reduce the risk of any “security compromise,” which includes anything that may compromise the availability, performance or functionality of the network.
Biggest issue? Not malware-flingers. Single points of hardware failure
Security compromises therefore now cover not only service interruptions such as those caused by online attackers or malware, but also outages caused by external factors.
According to Ofcom, [8]hardware failures were the most common cause of outages over recent years, and external events such as winter storms are having a greater impact. It highlighted the number of incidents reported to it between December 2021 and March 2022, when Storm Arwen caused complete power outages for almost a million homes and Storm Eunice also caused a record power outage over a 24-hour period, with over 1.4 million homes affected.
Ofcom said its guidance not only includes information gathering powers, but powers to direct communications providers to explain any failure to act, and enforcement powers under sections 105S to 105V of the 2003 Act.
The guidance notes that the access part of a telecoms network, to which subscribers connect, tends to be much more extensive and geographically dispersed, and therefore subject to more single points of failure.
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As such, it sets out measures that Ofcom expects communications providers to take to mitigate against these risks. These are largely concerned with providers ensuring that access networks are designed to avoid or limit single points of failure. As an example, Ofcom claims cell base stations and street cabinets are often connected to a single "parent" site without resilient connectivity.
Recommendations also include ensuring that key infrastructure points have automatic failover capability, so that network traffic is immediately diverted to another site that can maintain connectivity in the event of failure. Telcos must set out the processes, tools, and training to support the resilience requirements.
On the resilience of mobile networks, Ofcom said it has not so far included in its guidance any measures covering additional power backup at cell towers and the like. It is therefore issuing a separate call for input on this.
[10]Meta starts rolling out end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger
[11]It's ba-ack... UK watchdog publishes age verification proposals
[12]UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms
[13]Brits turn off Twitter, although teens and tweens keen on generative AI
Currently, battery backup across the mobile access sites varies by network operator, in both the proportion of cell sites that are backed up and the backup capacity. The regulator said it is exploring what additional measures operators might take regarding the extent of any power backup provision.
Ofcom is inviting responses to this consultation, with a deadline of 1700 UK time on Friday 1 March 2024. A statement on the resilience guidance will then be published in the summer, along with any changes for mobile network power resilience. A response form is [14]available on Ofcom's website. ®
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[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/resilience-guidance
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZXdAN3qefnAmQfGrrsSXigAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXdAN3qefnAmQfGrrsSXigAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXdAN3qefnAmQfGrrsSXigAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/26/bt_begins_big_switchover_ahead/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXdAN3qefnAmQfGrrsSXigAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2003/21
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/10/kyndryl_aer_lingus/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXdAN3qefnAmQfGrrsSXigAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/messenger_encryption/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/uk_age_verifcation_proposals/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/29/uk_sim_farm_ban/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/28/uk_twitter_stats_down/
[14] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/resilience-guidance
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Yes but no but
Given the likes of VM are shutting off their POTS (I had to move over to a dongle on the modem last week*), and offer to supply an "emergency handset" if you're "vulnerable" I would very much have hoped that the system to have your mobile automatically work with any tower without any additoonal cost to you would have been in place already.
Related to this is the fact that the mobile companies are determined to get everyone onto expensive contracts, evne if they just want "PAYG"
A friend who has an old PAYG sim that he was very careful to keep in credit for his mobile he mainly uses for emergencies/taxis (he's disabled, on a limited budget and basically suck in the house) was furious that his phone provider apparently cancelled the sim without any warning to him, no message about "you need to make a call in the next week" or "you need to top up again in the next week to retain functionality" the first he knew was when he tried to buy something and didn't get the code SMS from his bank and someone not being able to contact him via his phone mentioning it in an email.
In his case he rang up and after a discussion and the call handler talking to a manager they reactivated the sim on the old number but without any credit.
I've since found the emergency phone I bought for my dad has done the same thing because he didn't use it for a couple of months, so the loss of physical landlines if there is a power cut means that unless you're on a contract phone there is a very good chance your occasional use mobile is going to be worthless when you need it most.
*The "Instructions" supplied made it seem like you needed to call them if you had a simple double adaptor for your phone.
How hard is your network really
Depends what you hit it with.
Seriously though, there're a ridiculous number of potential failure points. Idiots stealing copper cables, vandalism to the hardware, floods, lightning, fallen trees, that bloke and his rented backhoe...
...and that's just looking at hardware, never mind hacking and such.
Hard Was Never Easy, But Sometimes It Must Be faced
The idiots can be such premium-grade morons, that they take fibre optic cables. However, the disrupter list is long, so it needs some management. Power-loss is a catastrophe. It gives rise to many other issues; as a result, recovery might be seriously compromised. Dead systems do not respond to control signals since they are offline. Old standby batteries are a nightmare failure, just itching to cause havoc. Seeing a 3~4-hour battery die in less than 10 minutes, is ‘discomforting’. Because something is challenging, does not mean it can be ignored, without first identifying issues, no efforts to stabilise the situation can follow.
Yes but no but
Power resilience, as any maintainer will know, is important for those difficult to reach sites. Installing insufficient battery reserve is a fools choice since the batteries will be exhausted by the time people can get there, and will have to be replaced. Adding solar and/or wind charging will help.
However Ofcom could get radical and require a mobile operator with a failed cell site to allow subscribers to roam to other networks in the area free of charge until the cell site is fixed. That should get the attention of the bean counters.