Analysis of vulnerabilities of telecommunication systems to natural disasters

This papers discusses vulnerability aspects of telecommunication systems to natural disasters. The discussion focuses on power supply and other ancillary infrastructure issues, such as air conditioners, because this is the source of most outages on communication systems during such critical events. The discussion points out that the conventional approach of studying communication network availability by considering each site an autonomous entity may have hidden important vulnerabilities that become evident during disasters. In the alternative view provided here, communication systems are viewed as a system within a larger system-of-systems that includes other fundamental infrastructures necessary for their correct interdependent operation in all conditions. The analysis is based on reliability analysis tools and supported by empirical observations from damage assessments of past hurricanes.