Enhancing Reliability Through Communications Network Diversity

Image courtesy of Philip Bragg under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Deed, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.

Utilities in all sectors should be focused on expanding communications network diversity to foster more reliable, secure, and resilient communication during emergency restoration efforts. These communication networks are essential for monitoring and controlling critical infrastructure, but they are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, natural disasters, and equipment failures. To protect operations in an evolving landscape, utilities should diversify their communications networks.

Why and How Utilities Should Aim for Communications Network Diversity

There are several reasons why utilities should diversify their communications networks, including but not limited to.

• Increased resilience: A diversified network is less vulnerable to disruptions. If one network fails, the utility can switch to another network to maintain operations.
• Improved security: A diversified network is more secure – if one network is compromised, the attacker will not be able to access the entire network.
• Greater flexibility: A diversified network is more flexible, allowing utilities to pick and choose the best network for each application.
• Reduced costs: A diversified network can reduce costs by enabling utilities to choose the most cost-effective network for a given situation.

Of course, this begs the question – how, exactly, can communications network diversity be achieved?  Well, there are 3 primary pillars associated with achieving the necessary level of diversification:

• Public-to-public redundancy: Dual-radio routers capable of connecting to multiple public carriers give utilities a first line of defense against outages.
• Public-to-private hybrid flexibility: Private LTE networks offer utilities greater control, security and quality of service.
• Public-to-satellite resilience: Employ satellite communications as a viable failover option when cellular towers are unavailable.

In the final analysis, communication outages can dramatically reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of utility storm restoration and recovery efforts, and therefore redundancy is the key.  Configuring systems for optimal communications network diversity is the best way to achieve this level of redundancy and ensure that a communication network outage doesn’t cripple operations.