emerging communications tech: lessons from hurricane sandy and super typhoon haiyan

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 1© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 1

Emerging CommunicationsTechnologiesLessons learned from Hurricane Sandyand Super Typhoon Haiyan

Cisco Systems Tactical Operationswww.cisco.com/go/tacops

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 2

Agenda

• About Cisco Tactical Operations

• The Fundamental Technology Problem

• Hurricane Sandy

• Lessons From Sandy

• Super Typhoon Haiyan

• Lessons From Haiyan

• Key Takeaways


IntroducingCisco Tactical Operations


History of Tactical Operations• 2003: Team formed to provide networking support for military operations

• 2005: Hurricane Katrina decimates Gulf region, Cisco sends hundreds of volunteers and tons of equipment but response is not coordinated

Many willing engineers, but few trained for the environment Poor situational awareness Lack of coordination Conflicting messages confused customers No standardized Cisco mobile platform for disaster response

• Post-Katrina, TacOps mission changed to focus on disaster response and recovery


Corporate Social Responsibility Product Grants

Trained Personnel

Support for Corporate Give-Back Events

Accountability: Cisco annual Corporate Social Responsibility Reports http://csr.cisco.com

Good for the Community, Good for Cisco!

http://csr.cisco.com/


Emergency Response - TacOps Dedicated crisis response team that establishes emergency networks

after a disaster

TacOps personnel skills include:Technical Expertise

Planning, Logistics and Operations

Trained First Responders (Fire, EMS)

Military Service


Emergency Response - DIRT Disaster Incident Response Team

Cisco employees who volunteer with TacOps during deployments

Trained in TacOps solutions, incident command, disaster environments

US and global presence (China, UK / Ireland, Brazil) with additional international teams planned


TacOps Delivery Platforms• Network Emergency Response Vehicle (NERV)

- NIMS Type II Mobile Comm Center- Large scale network services core- “Respond locally, communicate globally”

• Emergency Comm. Unit Trailer (ECU)- NIMS Type III Mobile Comm Center- Same tech capabilities as NERV- “Drop and go” solution- C-17 Airlift Capable

• Mobile Communicator Vehicle (MC2/MCV)- NIMS Type IV MCC (with satellite, VoIP) - Medium scale network services core

• Emergency Communications Kit (ECK)- Rapidly deployable communications capability- Airline checkable or carry-on form factors

• Platforms evolve as technology improves!

• Many other “tools in the toolbox”


Cisco Tactical Operations DeploymentsDisaster Incident Responses• 2005 – Hurricane Katrina (LA)• 2007 – Harris Fire (San Diego, CA) *• 2008 – Evans Road Fire (NC) *• 2008 – Cedar Rapids Floods (IA) *• 2008 – Hurricane Gustav (LA) *• 2008 – Hurricane Ike (TX) *• 2009 – Morgan Hill Fiber Cut (CA) *• 2010 – Earthquake (Haiti)• 2010 – Plane Crash (Palo Alto, CA) *• 2010 – Four Mile Canyon Fire (CO)• 2010 – Operation Verdict (Oakland, CA) *• 2010 – Earthquake (Christchurch, NZ)• 2010 – Gas Pipeline Explosion (San Bruno, CA) *• 2011 – Flooding (Queensland, AU)• 2011 – Tornados (Raleigh, NC) *• 2011 – Tornados (AL) *• 2011 – Tornado (Joplin, MO)• 2011 – Tornado (Goderich, Ontario)• 2011 – Flooding (Brazil)• 2011 – Earthquake and Tsunami (Japan)• 2012 – Waldo Canyon Fire (CO) *• 2012 – Hurricane Sandy (NY / NJ) *• 2013 – Boston Marathon Explosion (MA)• 2013 – Fertilizer Plant Explosion (West, TX) *

Planned Exercises 2010 – Golden Guardian (CA) * 2010 – Operation Hotel California (CA) * 2010 – Bay Area Urban Shield (CA) * 2011 – Bayex (CA) * 2011 – Boston Urban Shield (MD) * 2011 – DMI Vehicle Rally (CA) * 2011 – Fairfax County Vehicle Rally (VA) * 2011 – Pacific Endeavor (Singapore) 2011 – Bay Area Urban Shield (CA) * 2012 – Quake on the Blue Ridge (NC) * 2012 – Fairfax County Vehicle Rally (VA) * 2012 – Pacific Endeavor (Singapore) 2013 – Quake on the Blue Ridge (NC) * 2013 – Golden Guardian (CA) * 2013 – Pacific Endeavor (Thailand) 2013 – Bay Area Urban Shield (CA)

* = NERV or ECU Deployed

Disaster Incident Responses (cont’d) 2013 – Tornado (Moore, OK) * 2013 – St. Mary’s College Fire (Leyland, UK) 2013 – Navy Yard Shooting (Washington, DC) 2013 – Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda (Philippines)


Emergency Response Tech: The Challenge


The Fundamental Problem…Public Safety

1111

In complex disasterswith multiple response organizations …

How to deliver the right information in the right format to the right person on the right device at the right time?

Defense

National, State & Local Government

HealthcareCritical Infrastructure

Transportation

NGOs/VOADs/ International Orgs


Changing Technologies Affect Mission Success

• Radio, Phone Radio + Integrated Mobile/Fixed Data

• Single Device Any Device

• Voice only Voice, Video, Data

• Closed Teams Open Collaboration

• Cmd&Control Centric In the field, social media, everybody

• Fixed Locations Deployable anywhere

Goal: Mission workflowand productivitybenefits that save livesand speed recovery.

Goal: Mission workflowand productivitybenefits that save livesand speed recovery.

Evolution in People, Process and Technologies to support Disaster and Humanitarian reliefEvolution in People, Process and Technologies to support Disaster and Humanitarian relief


Internet is Essential In Disaster

“…I need someone up there to get on social media and let people know what we’re doing here…” – Boston Police Transcript,Boston Marathon Bombing April 2013

“Information is a basic need in humanitarian response”– Humanitarianism in the Network Age, UN OCHA (2013)

20 million tweets between 27 Oct – 1 Nov 2012 about Hurricane Sandy.


Hurricane Sandy


Hurricane Sandy The deadliest storm of the 2012

hurricane season.

Landfall (US) on October 29, 2012 nearBrigantine, NJ

Second costliest storm ever ($68B USD)

The largest Atlantic storm on record(1,100 mile diameter)

286 fatalities in seven countries

Significant disruption to critical infrastructure:transportation, utilities, aviation, Wall Streetetc.


Cisco TacOps Response to Sandy Activated Cisco’s internal Customer Crisis Team

supporting critical customers + deployed team

Launched response team to affected area

Provided on-scene support to public safety agencies, local governments, disaster relief centers, and NGOs in the NYC and NJ areas

Stayed on scene Nov 1 – Nov 16 2012

Restored communications to public safetyagencies who had lost pre-storm capabilities

Deployed new temporary infrastructurefor relief agencies

Implemented Hastily Formed Network (HFN) architectures for data, voice and video


Tech Lessons From Hurricane Sandy


Technology = Empowerment

Every emergency is local: technology empowers anyone to organize and respond

“Respond locally, organize globally”

Multiple pre-existing and ad-hoc groupsjoined forces to augment overwhelmedresponders

Challenge: How do traditional respondersand agencies interface with ad-hoc or non-traditional organizations?


IP Telephony = Flexible and Resilient

• Legacy POTS customers had very long restoration times (months!)

• Flexibility of VoIP allowed quicker recovery, even in alternate locations

• Cloud-hosted and centralized, agency-run solutions deployed

• Proper design is important(Backup Power, Capacity, QoS)

• “Survivable” solutions resilient to centralized server failures

• Specific backhaul medium less critical (VSAT, 4G, Cable Modem, T1)


Remote Access = Critical for Continuity

• AnyConnect VPN software allowed “work-from-anywhere” flexibility (BYOD or agency-owned assets)

• ASA and Router hardware for single, multi-user sites or vehicles

• Multiple, geographically separated VPN head-ends were critical

• Agencies with specific software requirements on laptops needed more time to deploy assets. Have these pre-staged!


Social Media = Engagement Significant engagement of mobile and

online technologies by gov’t before, duringand after landfall

Use of www.[agency].gov/sandy tosimplify agency contact point for Sandy

Facilitated multi-way information sharing:

Government to Public Private Sector to Public Public to Government (e.g. FDNY “911” twitter) Public to Public

• Rumor control & misinformation management

• The conversation happens with or without you.You don’t control whether it happens or not.

FAKE!


Video Matters (more than ever)

• Sandy = TacOps’ first major experience of video providing actionable intelligence at a disaster

• Emerging hazard situation: on-scene firechief couldn’t get proper resources over phone or radio

• Only when we put cameras on the hazard, and streamed it to city’s EOC, did proper resources get dispatched

• Also provided situational awareness for personnel inside agency buildings re: crowd situations, rising water, weather conditions


4G for Disaster Communications

• LTE is significantly deployed in the United States

• We tested both WiMax and LTE data communications in NYC post Sandy

• In several instances, this allowed us to move awayfrom VSAT = faster speeds, less latency

• Consider the use of terrestrial mobile data whereappropriate; pre-deployed as backup circuit

• Plan for contingencies, mobile network congestion, transition back to normal operations


Deploy Hard-Wired Local Area Networks

• “Wired when you can, wireless when you must”

• Physical connection = increased reliability

• Limits password and user accessmanagement headaches

• 2.4 / 5.8 GHz spectrum congestion

• Buildings attenuate signals

• Be prepared to deploy wired networksearly in the response!


It’s a BYODD (Bring Your Own Device tothe Disaster) World

• Phases of tech deployment (predicted):1) HQ, 2) Field, 3) Public

• Observed deployment sequence:1) HQ, 2) Public (BYOD), 3) Field

• Applications enabled rapid data sharing to/from large audiences

• Most applicable for developed populations (for now); Increasing trend in developing countries, too, where more people have cell phones than TVs

• Be alert for underserved communities, those with less access to tech(special needs / populations)


Use of Ka-band VSAT

• Increasing use of Ka-band VSAT

• Attractive pricing model

• Increased bandwidth(typically 10x over Ku-band)

• Smaller terminals = more portable

• Hardware can be less expensive

• Rain-fade challenges

• Limited service provider choices


Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)


Super Typhoon Haiyan


Cisco TacOps Response to Haiyan Two TacOps teams mobilized.

Over 5,000 lbs of equipment and suppliesairlifted by Philippine Air Force.

Teams staged in Manila

Deployed to Guiuan, Borongan

Tech deployed in Tacloban

Support to Philippine Armed Forces, Philippine gov, United Nations, NGOs


Tech Lessons From Super Typhoon Haiyan


Provide Sustainable Technology Solutions

• Sustainability = ability to maintain and support solution throughout duration of the incident (response and recovery phases)

• Advanced technology is great. Who will support it when the skilled technicians go home?

• Consider less sophisticated, more sustainable tech; or manage staffing accordingly

• All TacOps missions have success criteria, support plans and transition/exit strategies

• Plan for demobilization before you deploy!


Set Up Staging in Complex Responses

• You need a place outside of the disasterto plan, coordinate logistics, manageintelligence.

• It needs to be outside of the disaster zone(normal services and infrastructure)

• Send your people and equipment to “staging,” then send them in when you have sustainability and clarity of tasks.

• We were able to test our gear to make surenothing broke on the way over.

• Getting in is easy – sustaining yourself isharder!


The Little Comforts Matter…


Wrapping up…


Key Takeaways From Deployments

• Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in disaster and humanitarian relief must be deployed early

• Emergency ICT teams need proper equipment,

training, processes to scale and sustain

• Consumer technology is getting less expensive, more available, better apps, better adoption; Leverage these trends!

• It’s all about the “5 Rights” of emergency comms:Right Information, Right Time, Right Format,Right Device, Right Person


Connect With Us… On Cisco.com: www.cisco.com/go/tacops

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Email: [email protected]

Emergency activation contacton our cisco.com page


Thank you.

emerging communications tech: lessons from hurricane sandy and super typhoon haiyan

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