Continuity of Operations Strategies: Prevail in Rugged Environments

Continuity of Operations Strategies: Prevail in Rugged Environments

Part Three: Prevail in Rugged Environments

Paradoxically, continuity of operations (COOP) becomes most challenging when it's most urgent: on the battlefield, in emergencies, and during disasters. In these situations, federal IT groups must augment day-to-day COOP requirements - resilience, security, and privacy-with additional attributes. These include the ruggedness to continue operating despite adverse environmental conditions or network events; the portability to send actionable information to first responders or military personnel on the move; and rapid deployment in temporary or mobile command centers. Ensuring COOP in these conditions is required for Department of Defense (DoD) network-centric operations (NCO) and network-centric warfare (NCW) strategies as well as for response to non-combatant emergencies and disasters.

A Larstan Business Reports survey of 533 government IT professionals revealed federal government agencies' attitudes and progress in integrating COOP into challenging military combatant, military non-combatant, and civilian environments. Most survey respondents acknowledged that ruggedness, portability, and rapid deployment are crucial qualities for their organizations to operate effectively, with 87% of intelligence or military combatant, 75% of military non-combatant, and 78% of civilian agencies agreeing or strongly agreeing. It's unsettling that 25% of civilian and 23% of military/non-combatant agencies do not recognize the importance of rapid deployment as crucial for effective operations. Events such as the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle, natural disasters, hazardous materials spills, building contamination, and disease outbreaks demand rapid establishment of command centers and effective voice, video, and data communication with mobile personnel called to respond to the disruption.

Note: In the Larstan survey charts, blue denotes civilian respondents; red, intelligence/military combatant; yellow, military/non-combatant.

Most survey respondents can identify the technologies needed to support portability and rapid deployment in COOP scenarios. According to 93% of military combatant, 90% of military noncombatant, and 84% of civilian agencies, wireless and mobility networking play a key role in supporting field operations during COOP events.

As with resiliency planning, however (see Part 1 of Federal COOP Strategies), action lags behind recognition of the need. A disquieting percentage of agencies (29% of military noncombatant and 26% of civilian) report that they do not yet have in place a COOP plan that they regard as rugged, portable, and rapidly deployable. Not surprisingly, military combatant organizations occupy the vanguard of organizations in this aspect of COOP planning, with 87% agreeing their plans are in place.

In fact, the need for COOP in extreme conditions is compelling for both military and civilian agencies. In the military, for the DoD to realize the full potential of NCO and NCW, all defense agencies - not just some - need network solutions that ensure COOP in rugged or hostile conditions or situations requiring rapid deployment. This is especially true in today's collaborative environment, where one agency's disruption can also take down the operations of its partner agencies. And for civilian agencies, effective response in disaster situations such as health or environmental emergencies and terrorist attacks requires instantaneous, continuous communication among multiple agencies, local jurisdictions, and first responders.

"The military drives COOP because the consequences of disruption are so profound, including loss of life, compromised national security and eroded defense capabilities. Therefore, ensuring continuity despite disruption is central to the mission of the military. But many civilian agencies also deal with extreme operational conditions - public safety and space exploration organizations, for example - and can benefit from the same COOP technology that the military deploys."-John Morrell, Director of Marketing, Cisco Systems

This report explains unique COOP requirements in warfare, peacekeeping missions, disasters, and emergencies. It begins by examining the role of COOP in NCW and NCO and then describes the network technologies, applications, and services that enable environmental and operational ruggedness, portability, and rapid deployment.

Big Picture: Role of COOP in Network-Centric Operations and Disaster Scenarios

Military Operations

NCO cannot succeed without COOP. NCO is a real-time operational model based on military capabilities designed to securely deliver actionable information (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, and other logistical content) throughout the chain of command - anytime, anywhere. The goal is to gain a competitive operational advantage by executing operations at a decisive tempo, wherever personnel happen to be. Therefore, no network disruption can be tolerated, whether it's caused by cyber-attack, physical attack, extreme environmental conditions, or logistical delays in establishing a mobile command center.

Federal government IT groups have two key responsibilities within NCO. One is providing decision-makers with situational awareness to enable fast, accurate decisions across the entire chain of command. Commanding officers, for example, need intelligence and reconnaissance information from personnel on the move - in mobile command centers or in vehicles - throughout the theater. The other responsibility for IT groups is ensuring COOP by extending network security, collaboration, and resilience into rugged, hostile, mobile, and temporary environments.

Civilian Emergencies and Disasters

COOP needs are similar for civilian and non-combatant organizations. Consider the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, when wreckage was strewn over multiple states and FEMA and NASA needed to rapidly establish communications with scores of local sheriff 's offices. Or consider a civilian agency responding to a sudden virus outbreak, or charged with monitoring hazardous materials incidents throughout the country. To respond effectively, the agencies must pull together farflung subject matter experts, possibly mobilize personnel to a regional command center, and coordinate with state, local and other federal agencies.

The remainder of this report describes technologies from Cisco Systems that support NCO and disaster response in rugged conditions or in environments requiring portability or rapid deployment.

Ruggedness, Both Operational and Environmental
Ruggedness usually refers to environmental hardiness: the ability to withstand dust, high temperatures, humidity, and vibration. Environmental ruggedness for networking and communications equipment is important in combat and deployment in environmentally hostile theaters. Cisco has established a unit within its Global Government Solutions Group with the explicit charter to meet unique government and program-specific requirements for ruggedness. One of its strategies is to work closely with systems integrators.

"We are responding directly to a huge military investment in network-centric warfare technologies. Our solutions are used in a lot of hostile environments, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, which are given to temperature extremes, dust, and sand. There are people in the military who do nothing but clean routers and switches and technology equipment in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in other overseas installations."-John Morrell, Director of Marketing, Cisco Systems

The other aspect of ruggedness is resilience to adverse operational events such as point failures, natural disasters, or intentional disruption. To succeed with NCO, federal agencies need four levels of resilience: the network itself, applications, communications, and mobile command centers. Cisco COOP solutions protect each layer. At the network layer, Cisco network PAGE 3 devices overcome device and link failures with hot standby, intelligent redundancy and backup paths across the network, and load balancing across parallel links, which avoids congestion and optimizes available bandwidth. Applications resilience is acquired through a combination of high-speed connections to geographically-dispersed contingency data centers, application and content caching at remote offices or command centers, storage area networks (SANs), and Self-Defending Network technologies. Cisco solutions for communications resilience and mobile command center resilience are based on IP communications and wireless and mobility technologies, described later in this report.

Portability Through Wireless Communications
Military and emergency response personnel on the move require real-time communications and coordination in order to accomplish their mission. In fact, the government's 9/11 Commission Report recommends that whenever multiple agencies or multiple jurisdictions join forces to provide emergency response, they should adopt a unified command, which is a prerequisite for federal homeland security funding.

By supporting portable data and voice communications, military agencies gain the following operational advantages:

• Ad hoc, instantaneous collaboration among the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and coalition partners. Note that this capability requires a standards-based IP communications platform. When different military organizations use independently developed, proprietary communications systems instead of standard IP-based systems, collaboration might require complex workarounds, delaying communications and potentially resulting in lost opportunities for defensive or offensive advantage.
• Greater field visibility for tactical commanders. In the past, tactical communications with mobile military units typically required a direct line of sight back to a communications node, which imposed limits on maneuverability and mobility. Today, using standards-based 802.11 wireless technology, military units can roam freely and securely between wireless coverage areas. For example, a vehicle on the move that's equipped with a Cisco mobile wireless router can communicate with field commanders, associating and disassociating with multiple wireless bridges as it moves through the battlefield. Depending on the combination of output power and antenna gain, Cisco Aironet omnidirectional antennas can support distances up to 14 kilometers, and directional antennas can support even longer ranges.
• Extended reach of communications to tanks, ships, and planes. Cisco mobility solutions transform every asset in the theater - sensors, diagnostics, navigation devices, and the like - into network endpoints. IP-based networks provide a common standard that can interconnect diverse field assets used by worldwide military organization into a coordinated force. The result is a "network of networks." Again, greater visibility for tactical commanders fosters greater situational awareness and better decision-making.

  "Cisco's 'network of networks' strategy enables government customers and their systems integrators to link IP-based and other networks, secure them, and make them manageable."-John Morrell, Director of Marketing, Cisco Systems

Defense agencies can acquire these benefits of portability by using Cisco Aironet antennas (directional and omnidirectional), Cisco Aironet bridges, Cisco wireless and mobile routers for invehicle use, and Cisco wireless IP phones. For instant communication between geographically dispersed and mobile personnel, military and civilian agencies can use a Cisco Land Mobile Radio (LMR) system, which enables communications between collections of portable and stationary radio units.

Until recently, LMR systems could only communicate with systems from the same vendor because of proprietary signaling mechanisms, different encryption methods, and isolated frequencies. This hindered collaboration on missions in which different military branches or coalition partners combined forces, and in disaster response efforts involving emergency workers from different federal, state, and local agencies. Cisco overcomes this limitation by sending voice traffic from LMR systems over IP networks, a service called LMR-over-IP. Voice traffic from any LMR that's received on a Cisco voice gateway is encapsulated using a standard protocol so it can be transported over the IP network to another LMR gateway, IP phone, or PC with the appropriate software. A key benefit for military operations and disaster response is that incompatible voice communications transports, after conversion to IP, can be securely bridged, rerouted, and monitored from any other IP-based voice endpoint with the proper security credentials, including 802.11 wireless devices, traditional TDM phones, IP phones, incompatible radios, and cell phones.

Scalable Mobile Architecture for Tactical Communications
Cisco and Scientific Research Corporation (SRC) collaborated to develop a "push-to-talk" system for soldiers based on LMR technology. The system requires minimal configuration, is self-healing, and provides ample bandwidth for military applications. The use of standards-based, off-theshelf components enables interoperability among systems from different vendors used by various military organizations. The standards-based architecture also reduces costs compared to proprietary push-to-talk systems with similar functionality.

Rapid Deployment Through IP Communications
Military operations and emergency disaster response efforts often require rapid establishment of communications - for example, in a mobile command center or in a temporary facility if unexpected events sever vital communications channels. Deploying a traditional TDM-based PBX switch is not practical in these situations because it typically takes days.

Cisco IP Communications solutions, in use in Iraq today, enable rapid deployment in mobile combat units or when agencies need to relocate to temporary facilities. The solutions provide a DoDcertified set of mission-grade capabilities, including advanced IP telephony, an IP-based call processing switch, unified communications, IP video- and audioconferencing, and surveillance and critical emergency response solutions. Designed for mission-critical applications, Cisco IP Communications solutions also conform to government and industry standards such as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), Common Criteria standards, and IPv6.

Civilian and military non-combatant organizations are capitalizing on IP Communications for rapid deployment, as well. For example, several public safety agencies have outfitted vans as mobile command vehicles. When the vehicle arrives at the emergency site, it can quickly establish data and voice communication by connecting an on-board Cisco router to the highest speed connection available: T1, Gigabit Ethernet DSL, wireless, or even dial-up from a local home or business.

The Following are Cisco IP Communications Components

IP-Based Call Processing

Cisco CallManager software, which resides on a dedicated server, can be located anywhere on the network, a useful capability if one or more buildings are damaged. It supports the rapid expansion military and civilian organizations need both during normal operations and crises. Cisco CallManager Express, designed for deployments with up to 240 personnel, is embedded in Cisco routers instead of residing on a dedicated server. It provides redundancy and failover capabilities that meet COOP needs for mobile command centers and tactical field offices. When establishing a new mobile command center, IT personnel can deploy a single Cisco router or switch to provide secure voice, video, and data.

National Guard Rapidly Scales Voice System Up and Down With Cisco CallManager
When a National Guard unit is called to active duty, the communications volume spikes. Therefore, the need for scalability and rapid deployment has emerged as a key tactical issue. For one state's National Guard, for example, capacity needs fluctuate between three lines and 30, and IT has little notice before it needs to scale up or back.

The Guard unit met the need for rapid deployment and capacity adjustment by working with Cisco Systems to migrate from a TDM-based phone system to a Cisco IP Communication solution. Now, rather than having to wait for the phone company to provision or cancel phone lines, IT can scale phone capacity instantly. The Cisco CallManager server resides in a centralized state location and dozens of armories tap into its features through their Cisco routers. The centralized call processing deployment provides even the smallest armories with same phone features available to employees in headquarters - multi-line phones, voice-mail, self-serve conference calling - improving productivity for only the cost of the router, also used for data connectivity.

Command Center in a Box

Military IT groups can prepare a "command center in a box," containing standard Cisco IP communications components and a power supply to quickly establish a mobile field center in the event of a regional disaster or to re-establish communications after a disruption. Using an IP-based mobile command center, IT personnel can establish voice and data communications in less than an hour, compared to days or weeks to rebuild a telecom central office and re-establish traditional TDM voice connectivity. Office-in-a-box components typically include IP phones, wireless access points, and an integrated services router (ISR).

Cisco VirtualCOOP: Connects Remote Sites and Alternate Locations

Missions depend on military, intelligence, and relief personnel operating in remote locations who need secure, continuous access to actionable information in order to maintain a high degree of situational awareness. These personnel are usually dispersed, increasing the odds that a single event cannot take out a critical number of resources.

Cisco VirtualCOOP is an IT-managed COOP solution designed for personnel working in the field or, in the event of an emergency, in alternate locations. It provides a highly available and highly secure means of access to the headquarters network. This improves government services continuity and increases personnel effectiveness by providing actionable information even after the loss of transportation infrastructure or primary facilities.

Traditionally, dispersed resources have used VPN client software to establish a temporary VPN connection. The limitation of this approach is that temporary VPN tunnels do not deliver the quality of service needed for voice over IP or video conferencing, nor the manageability required for secure collaboration in emergencies.

The Cisco VirtualCOOP solution overcomes these limitations by creating an "always-on" VPN tunnel that appears to IP telephony applications as if it were an ordinary enterprise LAN or WAN connection. By connecting a PC to the Cisco IP phone, a government worker can receive and place voice and video calls, use enterprise applications, and check voicemail as if he or she were connected to the central LAN. The solution also allows centralized management of each remote connection. The administrator can apply security policies, push configuration information, and periodically test the connection remotely to ensure it delivers the necessary quality of service for voice and video traffic.

Cisco Crisis Management Solution

A Defense Collaboration Tool Suite (DCTS)-certified solution, Cisco MeetingPlace enables critical emergency response with rich media conferencing capabilities. Agencies can create a virtual command and control center for handling crisis communications, crisis team management, and crisis monitoring. Based on Cisco MeetingPlace, the Cisco Crisis Management Solution immediately connects response teams to a voice and data collaboration conference where they can plan and implement recovery actions.

To do so, it automatically initiates a "dial blast" to contact a predefined set of individuals simultaneously. It attempts up to three phone numbers for each individual and leaves a recorded message if the individual doesn't answer.

In military COOP scenarios requiring rapid deployment, the Cisco Crisis Management Solution enables military commanders to securely, instantaneously dispatch mission-critical information across the chain of command. For military as well as civilian crises, it provides greater control by eliminating location and time issues, enabling more frequent communications, and expanding reach of response beyond the phone and data network, even to field radios.

"The inability to communicate was a critical element at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, [and] Somerset County, Pennsylvania crash sites, where multiple agencies and multiple jurisdictions responded. The occurrence of this problem at three very different sites is strong evidence that compatible and adequate communications among public safety organizations at the local, state and federal levels remains an important problem."-The 9/11 Commission Report

The Cisco Crisis Management Solution is also operationally rugged: an open, scalable, standards-based architecture provides quadruple redundancy

Summary

The Larstan Business Reports survey indicates that federal IT groups recognize the need to execute operations in rugged network or environmental conditions, communicate with personnel on the move, and rapidly deploy solutions in mobile command centers or temporary facilities. Cisco Systems COOP solutions enable the highest levels of situational awareness while addressing the challenges of NCO in rugged environments. They provide the responsiveness and resilience to deliver actionable information to the right destinations and at the right time to achieve the desired results. Ultimately, the technology infrastructure gives military commanders and field personnel greater control over operations, enabling them to better serve, protect, and defend.

The view the entire results of the Larstan Continuity of Operations Survey, go to www.larstan.net/COOP. For a full range of Larstan reports and surveys, go to www.larstan.net.