Citation[]
National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Report on National Security and Emergency Preparedness Internet Protocol-Based Traffic (Nov. 6, 2008) (full-text).
Overview[]
NSTAC examined the risk, if any, to IP-based NS/EP communications traffic, including VoIP, during times of perceived abnormal conditions or network duress. NSTAC studied if network degradation or disruption could affect the receipt or delivery of NS/EP traffic and, if so, what recommendations the NSTAC would make to the President regarding measures to ensure the delivery of IP-based NS/EP traffic during times of network duress.
To conduct its analysis, the NSTAC examined how service providers transport IP-based traffic across their networks and how they shared data regarding their ability to manage traffic end-to-end. The NSTAC also examined how carriers and service providers offer managed services to meet the requirements of their enterprise customers, including some NS/EP authorized users.
The NSTAC recommended that the President should:
- In the short term, establish a policy that requires Federal departments and agencies to:
- Ensure their enterprise networks are properly designed and engineered to handle high traffic volume;
- Manage traffic through QoS programming in its routers to prioritize traffic, including NS/EP traffic; and
- Expand the use of managed service agreements to provision NS/EP services within the new IP-based environment.
- In the long term, require that Federal departments and agencies remain actively involved in standards development of priority services on IP-based networks by supporting efforts to:
- Petition the FCC for a declaratory ruling to confirm that network service providers may lawfully provide IP-based priority access services to NS/EP authorized users.