Developing Tools and Capabilities for Increasing Communications Resiliency

To help local, state, and Federal agencies increase the resiliency of their communications, the NCS has developed several tools and capabilities that require varying levels of effort:

• Route Diversity Capability – Campus (RDC-C)
  
  
• Route Diversity Capability – Single Facility (RDC-SF)
  
  
• Abridged Route Diversity Capability (ARDC)
  
  
• Logical Connectivity Analysis

More detail on each capability and tool, as well as a side-by-side comparison is below.

Route Diversity Capability – Campus

The RDC-C is the most comprehensive and thorough capability for assessing the risk to an agency mission at a campus from a dependence on the local access network. The capability includes guidance for gathering infrastructure data, analyzing and calculating risk, and identifying and selecting mitigation solutions.

Key Facts

• Applicability: Single facilities or a collection of facilities (e.g., a campus)
• Scope: A mission-based, detailed physical topology and quantitative risk analysis
• Availability: This is available as a service from the NCS

Route Diversity Capability – Single Facility

The RDC-SF is the first capability developed by the NCS for assessing the risk to communications availability for a single facility based on the local access network. The capability includes guidance for gathering infrastructure data, analyzing and calculating risk, and identifying and selecting mitigation solutions.

Key Facts

• Applicability: Single facilities
• Scope: A high-level, functional physical topology and quantitative risk analysis
• Availability: This is available as a service from the NCS

Abridged Route Diversity Capability

The ARDC is a quick, high-level, and logical analysis of local access network infrastructure. The capability includes basic guidance on information gathering and high-level recommendations on ways to potentially increase communications resiliency.

Key Facts

• Applicability: Single facilities
• Scope: A logical topology analysis
• Availability: This is a self-administered process - document available upon request

Logical Connectivity Analysis

Upon request, the NCS can complete a cursory, logical analysis of the local access network infrastructure for a single facility. The analysis uses an agency's phone numbers or IP address to develop a graphical display of connectivity to key communication facilities and logical links.

Key Facts

• Applicability: Single facilities
• Scope: A logical connectivity analysis
• Availability: Available upon request

Comparison of Tools and Capabilities

The table below offers a comparison of the tools and capabilities. For more information on any of the tools or capabilities, please contact the NCS at routediversity@dhs.gov.

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