Report from the Networking in Times of Disaster

What is a Disaster?

Networks that work in times of disaster should address:• Events that affect a network (or require a new network) where

either:– Capability is reduced– Demand/load increases (e.g., requires deployment of new

network)

These could be due to:• Natural disasters• Attacks

– Physical attack– Cyber attack

• Non-malicious – Unintentional mis-configuration– Unexpected traffic surges

• Crises (“Everyday disasters”)

Problem Statement• Given an existing network, and some event that results in a

significant piece being destroyed– What’s an architecture that allows some reconstitution of communication?

• Three pieces– Rapid deployment of a network– Designing a network in the first place that’s resilient to failures, disasters,

etc. (discussion: can they also be efficient?)– Prioritized communication (is this even possible given the lack of trust

among organizations?). • Should this be explicit, or achieved through support for some set of

services?• Authoritarian vs. market-based mechanisms

• To what extent is the “disaster network” a separate entity?– Permanent vs. ephemeral networks

• How do we solve problems of scarcity? or is there glut? or both?

Lightning Talks• Transient Network Architecture (TNA): Federation,

Self Organization, Identification and addressing. Prototype with City of ABQ.

• PoMo and ResiliNets: Resilience and heterogeneity• CABO / AIP: Identity, Sharing of physical resources• Radio Wormholes: Traffic engineering in wireless

mesh networks• Interoperability: Spectrum gateway• Instant infrastructure: Interoperability, rapid

deployment• Towards an Analytic Foundation for Network

Architectures: architectures for multi-hop wireless, sharing

• Configuration assurance: Auto configuration

Target Requirements• Federation

– Interoperability: heterogeneity, ability to seamlessly interconnect networks of different types

– Can function when there are conflicting claims of authority. Minimize conflicts by devising technologies that can function w/o login

– What happens when multiple entities are in charge with/without overlaps of jurisdiction?

– Support for heterogeneous communications protocols, media, etc.

• Ability to support sharing of physical infrastructure – Isolation: impact of failure should be contained

• Support for types of communication (voice, video, data, etc.)– Appropriate quality of service with graceful degradation– Prioritization of messages

• Security/authenticity of information, Identity

Target Requirements• Rapid deployment

– Efficient use of remaining available resources (vs. resilience?)– Fast resource discovery: what’s there and how do I use it– Zero configuration/Self-organization– Self-forming and self-healing– Self-aware/situationally aware– Ability to support “emergent” infrastructure

• Continuity – Availability/reliability of communication and services (to what extent?)– Intermittent/no/unconventional connectivity (DTN)

• Management of glut– Too much information: attention management, announcement

protocols, data analysis/reduction– Interference (at various layers : physical, namespace issues, etc.)

• Power– Interdependence: power grid requires networks and vice versa– Power awareness (can also help improve resilience)

Grand Challenges• Communications interoperability training

– Operation golden phoenix– From people skills to networks– Various disaster scenarios

• Bio attack• Major fires

– Anyone can participate. Geared for early responders

• Burning Man• Tactical deployment

– Network managers should not be preceding marines up the beach…