On Sun, 12 Jan 2003, Simon Lyall wrote:
ObOperational: Does anyone have a pointer to "war footing" practices? Things like gaving prepared links to News websites, reduced maintenance, rumor control and the like?
As reported at the Sprint 2002 NANOG I was the working group lead for the ISP disaster recovery working group. We prepared a document on steps ISPs should take in preparation for a disaster, but its not generally available. However, the paper really didn't contain any surprises. Around the world ISPs have learned how to operate in the middle of wars and unrest over the last 10 years. B92 in the former Yugoslavia was one of the more vocal ISPs operating during a military conflict. EUnet and other ISPs were also active through much of the conflict. There are several other continuing conflicts around the world which don't reach the level of full scale military action. One of the few publically available documents about operating a public network during a disaster is ANSI T1.202-1998 Internetwork Operations Guidelines for Network Management of the Public Switched Networks under Disaster Conditions These guidelines encompass the cooperative intercompany network management actions (that may be) required during emergency conditions associated with disasters that threaten life or property and cause congestion in the public switched networks (PSNs). Network management actions should optimize the integrity of the PSNs while obtaining the maximum use of the network capability during a disaster condition. These guidelines address the network actions required to relieve congestion in the PSN caused by failures resulting from the disaster conditions. Examples of disaster conditions that would benefit from these guidelines are: natural disasters (such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and the like), major accidents (such as transportation, industrial, or environmental), or civil disturbances (such as terrorist acts or other similar events).