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1. 1 id entified ete o Other provider avadable bat not attended paining but iusdequate or odt oi dale but followed gt o Other DOueserviee Fare of ose side of a daplexed systers such as a CIS pias whore eeppedected seeploes sepvico w MEL duration of the outage Do not use this root cause for the complete failure of a o _Service affecting adare ef oge side of destexed svateso suchas sS ONT Contributing Factors Scroll down the menu piek choose the contributing factors that amp t best fit if applicable Contributing factors are problems or causes that are closely linked to the outage Often if a contributing factor were was addressed beforehand the outage could be have been prevented or the effect of the outage would have been reduced or eliminated The form allows two contributing factors for which there are complete descriptions in Section 7 of the NORS User Manual Insufficien software state indications Failure to communicate or display out of Bun dd proeram data ructions losica errorsHncompatibility between features sets software quality control failure wer
2. Comment RG1 Recommend updating system and screen shot from Outage Filing Module to Welcome to the home page of the Report Filing and Review Module Network Outage Reporting System NORS This system is comprised of two separate modules for filing and retrieving outage reports To continue choose one of the following DHS Outage Retrieval Filing Module Module Retrieve Report Outage Network Reports Outage DHS Only For Department of Homeland Security For companies viewing filing updating and withdrawing outage reports In either case you will get to a Login screen The Login screen is used to allow outage analysts outage coordinators and outage inputters to have access to the system The outage inputters can only report Notifications and update resubmit withdraw and access the outages that they personally have already submitted An outage coordinator will be allowed to modify resubmit and withdraw any outage report from his or her company except for a Final or Withdrawn Report The outage coordinator has access to all other inputter reports of their company and can also function as an inputter You will need a UserID and a password The NORS system UserID and password will be authenticated when you click the Login button on the Login screen The Login screen for the Outage Report Filing and Review Module is Network Outage Report Syste
3. to list all report types NORS also lets you list all Active reports these are reports that are updatable This includes Notifications Initial Reports and Draft Reports but excludes Finals and Withdrawn Rreports If you select any updatable report you will be able to update and resubmit or withdraw it In particular if you choose a Notification you will be able to modify it and then submit it only as an Initial Final or Withdrawn Report Withdrawn Rreports are not deleted from the database they are simply marked as withdrawn The following screen will come up for users who select Update Resubmit Withdraw a Report This screen is for anyone updating a Notification or an Initial or Draft Report The system allows users to save Drafts of reports and to revise Initial Reports but not Final Reports Network Outage Report System List From 7 1 30 v 2008 8 v 20 v 2008 ReportType Sort By Reference Number RETRIEVE Ref Incident Number Type Date Notification Updated 08 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 21352170 Initial TESTCO 10 00 14 29 14 37 DISPLAY UPDATE WITHDRAW 08 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 21351710 Initial TESTCO 10 00 14 21 14 23 DISPLAY UPDATE WITHDRAW 08 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 21339451 Final TESTCO 08 00 10 57 10 59 piSPLAY 08 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 07 31 2008 21339293 Final TEST
4. peine Insufficient raining Training not available from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended trainine attended but inadequate or out ol date training adequate but insufficient application followed _ insufficient specificity toc detailed technical for Insufficient raining Training not available from vendor trainine not available fonm service provider training available but not attended training attended but inadequate or out of date training adequate but insufficient application followed gt o Other co Procedural Syston Vender e Adhocaetivities outside scope of MOP Unapproved unauthorized work or i aercedto procedures Pam service provider drains but pot attonded attended but iyadeguete or odt oi date tieng adeguate but Un 2 o Other affecting Falleres of ose side of a daplesed syste sach as amp ONET rine where unprotected simplex service il provided for the duration of the outage Do not use this root cause forthe complete failure ofa o _Service affecting es ope side svete suchas SONT Diversity 3ndie
5. List of NORS Users As of 08 20 2008 Name Username Phone Email Fearless Leader Flead2 Coordinator 202 418 xxxx fearless leader fcc gov TEST USER testuser Inputter 202 418 xxxx test user fcc gov 2 13 XML Filing Utility This utility will help you to create or edit XML files to be submitted to NORS There is one self extractable file nors xml exe in the directory When you choose this option the following dialog box may appear 17 Security Alert 5 You are about to leave a secure Internet connection It will be possible for others to view information you send Do you want to continue In the future do not show this warning Yes If this appears select Yes Another dialog box will appear File Download Security Warning Do you want to run or save this file nors mlexe Application 299 KB From www fcc gov While files from the Internet can be useful this file type can potentially harm your computer If you do not trust the source do not run or save this software What s the risk Save the file to your hard drive and then open it Four files will be extracted when you do this nors dtd is the document type definitions file for the NORS By studying this file you will see what information needs to be included in the XML file to be submitted to the NORS The other three files Setup Exe Setup Ini and Outage XML Deployment
6. 03 08 2007 0700 John Smith 111 222 3333 ttestemail test com 07 06730948 ITESTCO 03 08 2007 0700 John Smith 111 222 3333 testemail test com 07 06849167 ITESTCO 03 09 2007 1200 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fec gov 07 07129396 03 12 2007 0800 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fec gov 07 07133810 rEsTCO 03 12 2007 0800 David Ahn 202 418 0853 davidehn fec gov 07 07134313 03 12 2007 0800 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fec gov 07 07147123 ITESTCO 03 12 2007 1000 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fec gov 07 07336039 0314 2007 0900 David Ahn 202 418 0853 davidahnQfccgov 07 09932203 0409 2007 0700 John Smith 111 222 3333 testemail test com 07 10142270 04711 2007 0800 Location ur 0d 0a 202 418 2448 Location ur 0d 0a Final Reports Due Within 5 Days Reference Number Company Notification Date Time POC Phone Number Email 0820750739 07 25 2008 0800 JohnHealy 202 418 2448 healy fec gov SAVE AS EXCEL 2 7 Heport List NORS can print out a list of outages in a spreadsheet format for a set of dates based on the date the notification was filed When you choose this option the following screen will appear From To Order Columns RETRIEVE 2008 2008 Incident Date Time Time Zone Duration Hrs Duration Min lt Network Outage
7. Cable Telephony Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers If this outage did not affect cable telephony users please leave this blank Satellite Users Provide the number of satellite users affected if known Number of Affected Blocked Calls Provide the number of blocked calls If no calls were blocked please leave the field blank or put O down If blocked call information is available in only one direction for interoffice facilities which handle traffic in both directions the total number of blocked calls shall be estimated as twice the number of blocked calls determined for the available direction If real time information is not available providers may provide data for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage covering a time interval not older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage in an effort to estimate blocked calls In this case the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times the historic carried load If for whatever reason real time and historic carried call load data are unavailable to the provider even after a detailed investigation the provider must estimate the carried call load based on data obtained in the time interval between the repair of the outage and the due date for the Final Report this data must cover the same day of the week the same time of day and the same duration as the outage Justification that such data accurately estimates the t
8. Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Alaskan Atlantic Central Eastern Centrat Greenwich Mean Time GMT Guam Hawaii Aleutian Mountain Other Pacific Alaskan 20 Puerto Rico is in the Atlantic Time zone Date Outage Determined Reportable Date on which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable thresholds This field is voluntary Local Time Outage Determined Reportable 24 HR Clock Time at which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable This field is voluntary Reason Reportable Provide the threshold that was crossed that determined that this outage was reportable If more than one threshold was crossed please choose the primary reason Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Wireline 900 000 User Minutes Wireless 900 000 User Minutes Cable Telephony 900 000 User Minutes MSC E911 Blocked Calls 1350 DS3s minutes DS3 Simplex Greater than 5 Days 57 MTP Messages Airport Other Special Facilities Military nuclear etc Paging Satellite Other E911 Outage Location Effects For non E911 outages leave this field blank For E911 outages select from the scroll down menu one of the following ALI Location Only Affected for wireline carriers when location of the caller could not be provided but the call could be rou
9. 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code or is 201 the central office code is 444 and the line number 15 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format XXXX U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the secondary contact person E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the secondary contact person 6 Fields on the Withdrawn Report Form Primary Contact Person Provide the full name of the primary contact person 32 Phone Number Provide the phone number of the primary contact person in the format NXXNPA NXX XXXX That 15 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code or NPA is 201 the central office code is 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format XXXX E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the primary contact person U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the primary contact person Secondary Contact Person Provide the full name of the secondary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the secondary contact person in the format NXXXNPA NXX XXXX That is 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code is 201 the central office code is 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format XXXX E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the secondary contact person U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the second
10. Company ID blank Reporting Company 350NETWORKS USA X New Company Type in new company name if applicable 360NETWORKS USA INC Company ID Contact Person Phone Number Extension E Mail Address SUBMIT CLEAR If your company has filed an outage report or has an outage coordinator your company will be listed in the scroll down menu under the Reporting Company You will have to choose that company and know the Company ID or password The Company ID is controlled by the outage coordinators for your company if your company has outage coordinator s default value for it is 11111111 The Company ID is used to prevent unauthorized access to your company s outage data on NORS If your company Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto is not in the scroll down menu please give the name of your company You will not have to provide a Company ID in this case In all cases you must provide your name phone number and e mail address You will then be sent to the following screen which provides your UserID and password You can then log onto the NORS and notify the FCC of the outage New Reporting Carrier Your new Username healyj and Password 89403301 have been assigned DONE Large companies with many outage inputters may elect to have or more of the outage inputters co
11. Other Unknown The cause of the outage cannot be determined or the cause does not match any of the classifications above Excludes cases where outage data was insufficient or missing or where root cause is still under investigation When root cause cannot be proven it is usually still possible to determine the probable cause which falls under the heading unknown When classifications provided do not match the cause the approximate match is preferred to be other Power Failure Commercial and or Back up does not include failures of dc dc converters or fuses embedded in switches and transmission equipment which should be reported as a hardware failure unless the problem was caused by the power plant Battery Failure 37 Batteries did not function as designed Breaker Tripped Blown Fuses Equipment Failure associated with tripped breaker or blown fuse Extended Commercial Power Failure System failure due to commercial power failure that extends beyond the design of back up capabilities Generator Failure Generator did not function as designed or ran out of fuel Inadequate Site Specific Power Contingency Plans System failure due to the insufficiency of the emergency operating procedures and contingency plans available and the resulting outage is prolonged because of lack of site specific information This includes equipment engineering data portable engine hook up hardware procedures load shedding plans etc Inadequate Bac
12. cables such as a cut undersea cable In that case please provide the time at the elesest end of the undersea cable closest to the US Detatled explanations will be provided in the Initial or Final Report the local time of the physical outage Time Zone Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Alaskan Atlantic e Central e Eastern Greenwich Mean Time GMT Guam e Hawaii Aleutian Mountain Other e Pacific Puerto Rico is in the Atlantic Time zone Other should be used for some place like American Samoa Reason Reportable Provide the threshold that was crossed that determined that this outage was reportable If more than one threshold was crossed please choose the primary reason Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Wireline 900 000 User Minutes Wireless 900 000 User Minutes Cable Telephony 900 000 User Minutes MSC E911 Blocked Calls 1350 DS3s minutes DS3 Simplex Greater than 5 Days 557 MTP Messages Airport Other Special Facilities Military nuclear etc Paging Satellite Other Outage Duration Provide the total elapsed time hours and minutes from the commencement of the outage as provided in the preceding data fields until restoration of fullservice Full service restoration means includes the restoration of serzvieeall services to all customers impacted by the outage net only resteratio
13. request to reopen a report Network Outage Report System Request to Reopen Final or Withdrawn Report Company ID Report Number RETRIEVE 2 6 Reports Overdue NORS provides information on reports that are overdue and reports that will be due in 5 days To get a listing of these reports select Reports Overdue from the Main Menu The result of such a query is shown below 13 Comment RG3 Update screen shot current does not mention Withdrawn Reports Overdue Reports As of 08 20 2008 Overdue Initial Reports Reference Number Company Notification Date Time Phone Number Email 07 03735436 02 06 2007 0900 202 418 0853 david ahn fcc gov 07 06729220 ITESTCO 03 08 2007 0700 Smith 111 222 3333 testemailtest com 07 06730948 03 03 2007 0700 111 222 2333 testemail test com 07 07129396 03 12 2007 0800 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fcc gov 07 09932203 TESTCO 04 09 2007 0700 111 222 3333 testemail test com 08 21227844 _ 07 30 2008 0700 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david Overdue Final Reports Reference Number Company Notification Date Time POC Phone Number Email 07 03735436 ITESTCO 02 06 2007 0900 David Ahn 202 418 0853 david ahn fec gov 07 06729220
14. Font Bold Font color Auto Only DHS users with valid UserID and Password can log onto NORS retrieve outage reports If you are a member of DHS and do not already have a UserID and Password or need help contact the FCC to obtain a UserID and Password send an e mail to FCC Qutage fcc gov If you have forgotten your password you should click the link marked If you have forgotten your password please go to Reset Password Page If you need other help or have other questions you should click the link marked you have questions about this web page please contact FCC Outage Help 1 3 1 Screen for New Users with New Notifications If you do not already have UserID you will be required to identify yourself including providing a valid e mail address system will respond with your UserID and password You will then be allowed to file Notifications If you are an inputter you will also be able to file and edit Initial and Final Reports for the outages for which you have submitted the original Notification If you are a coordinator you will be able to file and edit Initial and Final Reports for the outages for which your company has submitted the original Notification The screen for New Users is New User Notice company ID is needed for users from companies on this list the defaultis 11111111 Outage Coordinators set this ID for their company If your are entering a new company name you may leave the
15. call load data are unavailable to the provider even after a detailed investigation the provider must estimate the carried call load based on data obtained in the time interval between the repair of the outage and the due date for the Final Report this data must cover 22 the same day of the week the same time of day and the same duration as the outage Justification that such data accurately estimates the traffic that would have been carried at the time of the outage must be available on request In this case the estimate of the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times carried load The number of blocked calls if known should be filled out even if it is not the trigger for an outage being reportable Real Time Historic Check Box Check whether the number of Blocked Calls came from real time data or was based on historic carried loads the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage 0535 Provide the number of previously operating 0535 that were affected by the outage and were out of service for 30 or more minutes regardless of the services carried the 0535 or the utilization of the 0535 DS3s restored to service in fewer than 30 minutes should not be recorded in the box for the number of DS3s For example if an outage initially took 576 DS3s out of service but 384 were restored to service in less than 30 minutes and only 192 were out of service for 30 minutes or longer the number of affected DS
16. direct cause is the event action or procedure that triggered the outage In Section 7 there is a complete description of each of the direct causes For example a cable cut could be the triggering event or direct cause of an outage whose root cause is lack of diversity Root Cause The root cause is the underlying reason why the outage occurred or why the outage was reportable Scroll down the menu and piek choose the root cause that best fits Root Cause is the key problem which once identified and corrected will prevent the same or a similar problem from recurring With today s technology two or more problems may be closely linked and require detailed investigation However in any single incident there should be only one primary cause the Root Cause In Section 7 there is a complete description of each root cause For example a cable cut improper marking could be the triggering event or direct cause but the real cause root cause may be lack of diversity Contributing Factors Scroll down the menu and the contributing factors that best fit if applicable Contributing factors are problems or causes that are closely linked to the outage Often if a contributing factor were was addressed beforehand the outage could have been prevented or the effect of the outage would have been reduced or eliminated The form allows two contributing factors for which there are complete descriptions in Section 7 Lack o
17. that the text for most of the text fields should be already prepared and cut and pasted into the form If you do not hit the Submit button within 60 minutes all your changes will be lost and you will have to start over logon to NORS again The system gives a 10 minute warning If you still need more time you may save the file in NORS as a Draft and then reopen the draft The top of this form is shown below In section 4 there is a detailed explanation of how to fill out each of the fields Outage Report Report Number 08 20750739 Updated Date Time 07 25 2008 14 25 Report Type initial Report gt Name of Reporting Entity e g Company TESTCO Type of Entity Reporting Disruption 911 service provider Date of Incident 07 25 2008 Local Time Incident Began 24 hr clock nnnn Time Zone amic 5 Reason Reportable Wireline 900 000 userminutes Outage Duration o Min Explanation of Outage Duration for incidents with partial restoration times Inside Building E911 Outage Location Affects 11 Comment RG2 Insert new screen shot reflecting discovery date time fields 2 3 2 Filing a Final Report If the report type is a Final Report and you hit the submit button the following screen will come up Security Notice 1 am authorized by the communications provider to legally bind the provider to the truth completeness and accuracy of the i
18. the current Best Practices for the outage If a new Best Practice is needed or an existing Best Practice needs to be modified please indicate Also the following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Comment rg10 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Remarks Provide any additional information that you believe is relevant but did not fit anyplace else on the form Also the following special characters blank may not be used Comment rg11 The FCC will need to identify O what these special characters are in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Primary Contact Person Provide the full name of the primary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the primary contact person in the format NXXNPA NXX XXXX That 15 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code or NPA is 201 the central office code 15 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format XXXX U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the primary contact person E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the primary contact person Secondary Contact Person Provide the full name of the secondary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the secondary contact person in the format NXXNPA NXX XXXX That 1s
19. with valid UserIDs and valid passwords who are filing editing or withdrawing an outage will go to the User Main Menu Screen upon logging on Outage inputters and coordinators have slightly different menus NORS will authenticate your UserID and password and will send you to the correct user menu The Main Menu for coordinators is shown below The menu for inputters is a subset of the menu for coordinators The Request to Reopen a Report selection the List of menu are available only to outage coordinators to inputters as well Network Outage Report System Main Menu Find a Report To find a report by report number Report Notification To create new outage report Update Resubmit Withdraw Report To update resubmit withdraw existing outage report Upload XML File To upload an outage report in XML Request to Reopen a Report To request to reopen Final or Withdrawn Reports Reports Overdue To get the list of overdue reports Report List To get the list of reports by selected dates e List of Open Reports To get the list of open reports Modify Password To modify the password Modify Profile To modify the user profile Modify Company ID To modify the company id Deactivate User To deactivate user e User List To list users XML Filing Utility To download XML filing utility This screen provides a menu of items for m
20. 3s should be recorded as 192 If some failed DS3s were initially knocked out of service but restored in fewer than 30 minutes the rapid restoration of those DS3s can be noted in the Description of Incident field but they should not counted in the field for number of DS3s affected Count any failed STS3c as 3 0535 a failed STS12c as 12 DS3s etc Lost SS7 MTP Messages In cases of an SS7 outage and where an SS7 provider cannot directly estimate the number of blocked calls provide the number of real time lost SS7 MTP messages or the number of SS7 MTP messages carried on a historical basis Historic carried SS7 MTP messages should be for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage The information should not be older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage If the outage does not affect 557 network please leave this field blank Geographic Area Affected State Choose the primary state from the scroll down menu affected by the outage 50 states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are listed Outages affecting major parts of more than one state should be listed as Multi State If an outage occurred outside the fifty states the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico please choose Outside the 50 States City Provide the primary city affected Please do NOT enter the state in this box Enter the state abbreviation in the state box 23 Description of Incid
21. IGO 08 00 10 54 14 15 piSPLAY 08 01 03 2007 07 30 2008 07 30 2008 21252029 Mit a EIE 07 00 14 27 14 38 uris 08 07 30 2008 07 30 2008 21227844 Notification TESTCO 07 00 07 44 DISPLAY UPDATE WITHDRAW 10 No government agencies outside the FCC including DHS can see Drafts You will be able to create a list of all the outages that you are able to view update or withdraw Outage inputters will be allowed to view update or withdraw any Notifications Drafts or Initial reports that they personally have submitted Outage coordinators can view update or withdraw any Notifications Drafts or Initial Reports from their company one can update a Final or Withdrawn without first reopening Ces die de reaper at Pinal epos or a Report Users can request the FCC to reopen a Final Report or a Withdrawn Report which the FCC can change to Initial status The option to reopen a Final Report can be found on the NORS User Main Menu screen To reopen a Withdrawn Report an email must be sent to the FCC FCC Outage fcc gov 2 3 1 Screen for Updating Notifications Initial Reports and Drafts and Filing Final Reports The following screen will come up once you have selected a report to update The screen will present the most recent version of the report This form must be filled out in 60 minutes and submitted This means
22. Report System List 14 the information on each outage can be provided if desired Alternatively you may select to show only certain information by holding down the Control Key while you select the individual columns that you want displayed You can order the outages by Reference Number ID Number type aNotification Initial zReport etc incident date notification date updated date reason reportable or root cause If you hit the retrieve button a table like the following will come up Network Outage Report System Report List 01 13 2006 01 17 2006 provider Ref Notification Updated Entity Incident Time Duration Du Number Date Date Type Type Date Time Zone Hrs 06 01 13 2006 N A Notification TESTCO Lean 01 13 2006 Eastern 0 01362170 17 16 17 00 provider 062 02 23 2006 N A Notification TESTCO TOS 1 3 2006 Eastern 01362241 17 17 17 00 provider 065 01 13 2006 N A Notification TESTCO 01 13 2006 Eastern 0 01362472 17 21 17 00 Each outage report occupies a row Every piece of information about the outage is listed The output can be copied and pasted into Excel for analysis 2 8 Modify Password This screen allows you to modify or change your password Old Password New Password Network Outage Modify Password m Re type New Password CLEAR NORS will confirm your change of password 15 Network Out
23. a tapes or disk etc Insufficient Staffing Support 39 Unexpected conditions depleted available resources predictable but unavoidable shortage unreasonable demand ineffective inadequate roll down or centralization arrangement resource intensive new technology outside scope reach of existing automatic remote administration systems etc Insufficient Supervision Control or Employee Error Resulting from insufficient leadership ineffective administration and or maintenance strategies process or communication failures conflicting priorities etc This sub category should be used when multiple procedural causes are indicated and also when the service interruption results purely from an unintentional action by the employee Insufficient Training Training not available from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended training attended but provides inadequate or out of date information training adequate but insufficient application followed training need never identified etc Other Procedural System Vendor Ad hoc Activities Outside Scope of MOP Unapproved unauthorized work or changes in agreed to procedures Documentation Procedures Out of Date Unusable or Impractical Documentation procedures are not updated correction update available but not incorporated locally Documentation procedures are unwieldy inadequate indexing or cross referencing bits and pieces of information diffic
24. age Reporting System Password has been modified DONE Use your selected password for future outage reporting 2 9 Modify Profile This menu item allows you to modify your profile your name phone number email address and or address If you choose this menu item the following screen will appear Network Outage Modify User Profile Name John Healy Phone 202 418 2448 Extension 234 Number E Mail jemneaiyfcc gov Address ni Yomg Pzovidence NY 34567 SUBMIT CLEAR You may change any of the information in your profile 2 10 Modify Company ID This screen allows outage coordinators to modify or change their Company s ID Network Outage Modify Company ID Old Company ID New Company ID Re type New Company ID CLEAR NORS will confirm the change of Company ID 16 2 11 Deactivate User Outage coordinators can stop access to NORS by one of their company s outage inputters and outage coordinators by selecting this menu item When this item is selected the following kind of screen appears Network Outage Deactivate User UserName dahn2 David hn User Type Coordinator Phone Number Extension 345 E Mail david ahn fcc gov DEACTIVATE CLEAR 2 12 User List NORS can print out a list of users in spreadsheet format When you choose this option the following kind of screen will appear
25. ally filled in from the Notification Date Time Self explanatory This field is automatically filled in based on the time of the previous submission for the same report number Report Type Choose the type of report Initial Draft or Final An Initial Report on an outage is due no later than 72 hours after the reporting entity discovered that the outage was reportable and the Final Report on an outage is due no later than 30 days after the reporting entity discovered that the outage was reportable A Final Report is due in 30 days even in the event that the outage has not yet been cleared by that time The Initial Report shall contain all available pertinent information on the outage and shall be submitted in good faith The Final Report shall contain all pertinent information on the outage including any information that was not contained in or that has changed from that provided in the Initial Report Name of Reporting Entity Lists the name of the company filing the outage report which is the same used by the outage inputter when he she applied for a UserID This field is automatically filled in Outage reports must be filed with the FCC by any cable communications provider wireless service provider satellite operator SS7 provider wireline communications provider paging provider E911 service provider or facility 24 owner and on any facilities which it owns operates leases that experiences an outage that meets the repo
26. anaging and handling outage reports It allows an authorized person to find a report by report number to notify the FCC of a new outage Notification or to update or withdraw a Notification or Initial Rreport or to file a Final Reeport Authorized users can request that a Final Report be reopened and obtain a list of reports for which the Finals are overdue or due within 5 days The last two options which are only available to outage coordinators allow them to modify or change the Company ID or to deactivate a user 8 Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto Formatted Auto Font Bold Underline Font color Formatted Auto Font Bold Underline Font color Auto Formatted Font Bold Underline Font color Formatted Auto Font Bold Underline Font color Auto Formatted Font Bold Underline Font color Auto Formatted Font Bold Underline Font color If you select Find a Report you will be sent to the Find a Report screen to insert the identification number of the particular report you want to retrieve If you are an outage inputter this allows you to retrieve a report by report number that you have personally submitted If you are an outage coordinator you can see a report that you or anyone else from your company has submitted Note that no one from another company can see reports from your com
27. anasAdereetive progran lead suppl ed 59 2 22 ki co fault recevor ep eo Subang ulting ota accidit us d tient din suelto sceeccbwspaemateeceinpesenttss External Failure i ceed tio ang lowes diverse Power Faihire Fire aring Incufficient iud TE h inf j ne ope E oe o Qthes Llakaewn Che caasce ot ne ogtuee cannot be Gerterm tied of the cause docs aot castel seu of the classifieations Does pot cases where outage deta was Pasi Heit Gr gysga pont cause H sHH investigation Whea root eause canestbo proves itis usually still possible to determine probable cause sedes proforred tothe use of aene cause seotfemod to che esc of other 2 2 2222 2 0 22 procedural er iufoppuHon nonse cqatpied enemeenus data portable heok up hardware procedures toad shedding plans ete d ian 2
28. ary contact person Reason for Withdrawnl State the reason that the report is being withdrawn 7 Descriptions of Root Cause Direct Cause and Contributing Factors Cable Damage Cable Unlocated This is considered a procedural error Prior notification of action was provided by the excavator but the facility owner or locating company failed to establish the presence of a cable which was then eventually damaged Digging Error Excavator error during digging contractor provided accurate notification route was accurately located and marked and cable was buried at a proper depth with sufficient clearance from other sub surface structures Inaccurate Incomplete Cable Locate This is considered a procedural error The cable s presence was determined but its location was inaccurately and or partially identified Inadequate No Notification Excavator failed to provide sufficient or any notification prior to digging did not accurately describe the location of the digging work to be performed or did not wait the required time for locate completion Other Shallow Cable 33 The cable was at too shallow a depth notification was adequate locate was accurate excavator followed standard procedures Cable Damage Malfunction Aerial Non Buried Aerial non buried cable was damaged or ceased to function e g power transformer fire tension on span automobile collision etc Cable Malfunction Cable ceased to function e g loss of t
29. ator Lack of Diversity Contributed to or Caused the Outage Determine whether lack of diversity contributed to or caused the outage Fhatisdetermine shederenetacerne stendanb ferdoveersiboere hene Ir Best Practices related to diversity are discussed in any of the Best Practice fields or if the lack of diversity is listed as a root cause or contributing factor to the outage then the diversity cheekbox must alsethis field should be cheeked marked Yes In general determine whether engineering standards for diversity are being followed Malicious Activity Indicate whether you believe that malicious activity might be involved in the outage Malieieus activity could be product of terrorists 1F there is malicious activity the The form asks for some explanation of why the3nputter believesyou believe the activity is malicious or what is suspicious about the activity Malicious activity could be the product of terrorists Also the following special characters blank not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the 94 FCC will need to identify CM LM what these special characters are outage Report from being saved Name and Type of Equipment that Failed Provide the vendor name and the specific equipment including software release if applicable involved in the outage For example if a relay in a power plant fails that subsequently causes a switch
30. ay not the power plant or switch Specific Part of the Network Involved Provide the part of the network involved with the incident Examples are local switch tandem switch signaling network central office power plant digital cross connect system outside plant cable ALI database etc Method s Used to Restore Service Provide a complete chronological narrative of the methods used to restore service both quick fix and final Also the following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Telecommunications Service Priority TSP Indicator Indicate whether TSP was previded involved during service restoration Steps Taken to Prevent Reoccurrence Provide the steps already taken and to be taken to prevent reoccurrence Typically the corrective actions are identified through a Root Cause Analysis of the incident and the steps for prevention can be at both this location and throughout the network s if appropriate If a time frame for implementation exists it should be provided If no further action is required or planned the service provider text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Applicable Best Practices that might have prevented the Outage or reduced its effects Provide the number s and alse pessibly deseriptiens of the Best Practices that could have prevented the outage or reduced its effects Th
31. best guess at this point in time All values can be changed in the subsequent Initial and or Final Reports You have 60 minutes to fill in the form The timer shows in the status bar at the bottom left of the screen No information will be stored unless you hit the Submit button Once you hit this button the Notification has been filed unless an error message appears telling you that one or more of the fields has been filled out incorrectly You can correct the data and resubmit NORS will provide the report number for future reference after a successful filing Note that the name of your company can not be changed A copy of the completed Notification can be saved in Excel it can be pasted into an Excel Word or text file or it can be printed using the File gt Print commands When you are ready to submit an Initial or file a Final Report you must log on to NORS and access the correct Notification To do this select Update Resubmit Withdraw a Report 2 3 Update Resubmit Withdraw Report The system allows you to list reports and then select the report that you want to update and resubmit or withdraw There are five types of reports Notifications Initial Reports Final Reports Withdrawn Reports and Drafts A Draft is an informal copy of a report that the system keeps The system allows you to choose outages listed by date and by report type For example you can list only your Notifications during the month of September Select
32. c Central Eastern Greenwich Mean Time GMT Guam Hawaii Aleutian Mountain Other Pacific Alaskan Hawaii Aleuti 25 Guam Other Puerto Rico is in the Atlantic Time zone Other should be used for some place like American Samoa Reason Reportable Provide the threshold that was crossed that determined that this outage was reportable If more than one threshold was crossed please choose the primary reason Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Wireline 900 000 User Minutes Wireless 900 000 User Minutes Cable Telephony 900 000 User Minutes MSC E911 Blocked Calls 1350 DS3s minutes DS3 Simplex Greater than 5 Days S57 MTP Messages Airport Other Special Facilities Military nuclear etc Paging Satellite Other Outage Duration Provide the total elapsed time hours and minutes from the commencement of the outage as provided in the preceding data fields until restoration of full service Full service restoration includes the restoration of all services to all customers impacted by the outage even if the restoral is over temporary facilities If the customers locations are destroyed such as by a hurricane flood tornado or wildfire the duration continues until the reporting carrier is capable of again providing service to those locations If an outage is ongoing at the time the Final Report is filed report the outage duration as the total time between the commenc
33. can only see reports that they have filed NORS will display the following screen after selecting Find a Report Network Outage Report System Search Outage Number RETRIEVE The requested report will be displayed 2 2 Notification To submit a Notification you must provide the information on the following screen Notification of New Outage Report If this outage is a national security concern please call DHS at 703 235 5080 Name of Reporting Entity e g Company TELCO Type of Entity Reporting Disruption gt Date of Incident 63 04 2009 Local Time Incident Began 24 hr clock nnnn Time Zone S Reason Reportable z E911 Outage Location Affects Failure Occurred in Another Companies Network Effects of the Outage Number of Potentially Affected Wireline Users Wireless non paging Users Paging Users Cable Telephony Users Satellite Users Number Affected Blocked Calls Real Time Historic DS3s Lost SS7 MTP Messages Real Time Historic Geographic Area Affected State Territory Commonwealth or the District of Columbia hd City Description of Incident Primary Contact Person John Healy Phone Number 202 418 2448 Extension E mail Address john healy fcc gov Details on how to fill out each field are given in Section 4 Any values provided in one or more of the numeric fields are considered to be the
34. ccurate underestimated notification Other 42 Choose the type of report Initial Draft or Final An Initial Reports are due within 2 days of the on an outage Final Reports are due within 30 days of is due no later than 72 hours after the reporting entity discovered that the outage frem whenwas reportable and the Final Report an outage started is due no later than 30 days after the reporting entity discovered that the outage was reportable A Final Report is due in 30 days even in the event that the outage has not yet been cleared by that time The Initial Report shall contain all available pertinent information then available on the outage and shall be submitted in good faith The Final Report shall contain all pertinent information on the outage including any information that was not contained in or that has changed from that provided in the Initial Report Name of Reporting Entity Lists the name of the company filing the outage report which This field is autematieally filled in is the name ofthe compans thatsame used by the outage inputter used when he she applied for a UserID This field is automatically filled in Outage reports must be filed with the FCC by any cable communications provider wireless service provider satellite operator SS7 provider wireline communications provider paging provider E911 service provider or facility owner and on any facilities which it owns ope
35. ces e g E911 are restored if different than other services In addition for outages that last an unusually long time an explanation should be provided in this field Inside Building Indicator Indicate whether the outage occurred inside a building owned leased or otherwise controlled by the reporting entity Outages that oecur on fibe or m fiber huts are considered outside building A building is a structure that is temperature controlled E911 Outage Location Effects For non E911 outages leave this field blank For E911 outages select from the scroll down menu one of the following ALI Location Only Affected for wireline carriers when location of the caller could not be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when Phase 2 location information could not be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP Phase 1 and Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when neither Phase 1 nor Phase 2 could be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP More than Location Affected for wireline and wireless carriers when the call could not be routed to the appropriate PSAP Failure Occurred in Another Company s Network Check the box if the failure occurred in another company s network Effects of the Outage Services Affected Cable Telephony Check the box if cable telephony users were affected Wireless oth
36. e Network Reliability and Interoperability Council NRIC and Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council CSRIC have has developed a list of Best Practices They can be accessed via seev nrie erg or https www fcc gov nors outage bestpractice BestPractice cfm You can find relevant Best Practices by using keywords Alternatively Best Practices can also be sourced from the ATIS Best Practices website http wwvw atis org bestpractices 31 Comment rg7 FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Comment rg8 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Comment rg9 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Best Practices used to diminish effects of the Outage Provide the number s and also possibly descriptions of the most important Best Practices that were actually used to lessen the effects of the outage These chosen Best Practices helped shorten the outage reduced the restoration times prevented the outage from affecting more customers and or reduced the effects on customers e g ensured that E911 was not affected If none were used please leave blank Best Practices can be sourced from the https www fcc gov nors outage bestpractice BestPractice cfm http www atis org bestpractices Analysis of Best Practices Provide an evaluation of the relevance applicability and usefulness of
37. e and where an SS7 provider cannot directly estimate the number of blocked calls provide the number of real time lost SS7 MTP messages or the number SS7 MTP messages carried on a historical basis Historic carried SS7 MTP messages should be for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage The information should not be older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage If the outage does not affect an SS7 network please leave this field blank Geographic Area Affected State Choose the primary state from the scroll down menu affected by the outage 50 states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are listed Outages affecting major parts of more than one state should be listed as Mult State Finally if an outage occurred outside the fifty states the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico please choose Outside the 50 States City Provide the primary city affected Please do NOT enter the state in this box Enter the state in the state box More Complete Description of Geographical Area of Outage Provide a more complete description of the geographical area of the outage In particular for Multi State outages it is important to list the states affected For outages affecting more than one community it is important to describe actual communities affected Include CLLIs if applicable 29 Description of Incident Provide a narrative that describes the sequence of events lead
38. e or NPA is 201 the NNX is 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number in format aannX XXX Comment rg7 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Comment rg8 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the secondary contact person E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the secondary contact person Eeasond amp eportable Provide tho reason why this cuteee ie ceportable Real Time Historie Cheek Mobile Switehine MSC Failed TBB KAL Outage Af oets TBB
39. eason for withdrawing the report Withdrawn Rreports should be internally consistent For example if the reason for Withdrawal is that the outage duration was less than thirty minutes then the outage duration shown in the report should be less than thirty minutes etc When withdrawing a report the only field changes that are allowed to be made are the primary contact the secondary contact and the reason for withdrawing the report Therefore changes to any 12 other fields should be made before changing the report s status to Withdrawn That is if the values shown in the Notification are incorrect it may be necessary first to update the Notification to an Initial Rreport with the correct values before withdrawing it 2 4 Upload XML File This screen allows you to submit outage reports in XML format There is a utility provided to help you prepare XML files see Section 4482 13 Once you provide the name of the XML file it will be uploaded to NORS according to the information in the file Upload Outage Report in XML Browse SUBMIT 2 5 Request to Reopen a Report This screen allows outage coordinators to request to reopen either a Final er Withdrawn Rreport Recall that Final Rreports and Withdrawn Rreports cannot be updated The request is then forwarded to the FCC which then changes the report to an Initial Rreport which can be updated You need to provide both Company ID and Report Number to
40. ecting Occurs when there is a failure of one side of a duplexed system such as a SONET ring yet an unprotected simplex service will still provide service for the duration of the outage Do not use this root cause for the complete failure of a duplexed system or in cases where any of the circuits in the duplexed system are provided under SLAs which require protection Service Affecting Failure of one side of a duplexed system such as a SONET ring where an unprotected simplex service was provided for a period of time but was not repaired during the usual maintenance window or in cases where any of the circuits in the duplexed system are provided under SLAs that require protection Spare Not Available Sparing processes did not result in an available replacement e g Service Provider inventory inaccuracies transportation of spare located at centralized facility etc Spare On Hand Failed Sparing processes provided an available replacement however the replacement malfunctioned e g out of box failure of spare incompatible software versions etc Spare On Hand Manufacturer Discontinued MD Obtaining spare made difficult or complicated by MD d status e g Service Provider unaware of MD d status scarcity of MD s spares etc Traffic System Overload Common Channel Signaling Network Overload 557 system network overload associated with true high traffic loads congesting STP SCP processors or SS7 link network If the overl
41. ement of the outage and the time the Final Report is filed Date Outage Determined Reportable Date on which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable thresholds This field is voluntary Local Time Outage Determined Reportable 24 HR Clock Time at which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable This field is voluntary Explanation of Outage Duration for incidents with partial restoration times Describe the stages of restoration if different blocks of users were restored at different times Often times significant blocks of users may be restored to service prior to full 26 restoration of service If this is the case provide information on the number of users each block restored to service and the elapsed time to partial so that an accurate assessment of the outage impact may be made In addition it is important to report when some services e g E911 are restored if different than other services In addition for outages that last an unusually long time an explanation should be provided in this field Inside Building Indicator Indicate whether the outage occurred inside a building owned leased or otherwise controlled by the reporting entity A building is a structure that is temperature controlled E911 Outage Location Effects For non E911 outages leave this field blank For E911 outages select from the scrol
42. ent Provide a narrative that describes the sequence of events leading up to the incident the steps taken to try and resolve the incident once it had occurred and the action s that finally resolved the incident This is for the reader to better understand what happened Include any factors that may have contributed to the duration of the incident quick fix actions that may have resolved or at least mitigated the immediate problem but were not the final long term solution and any other contributing factors At the Notification stage it is anticipated that many of the details will not be known Primary Contact Person Provide the full name of the primary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the primary contact person in the format NXX NXX XXXX That is 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code or is 201 the central office code 15 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format XXXX E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the primary contact person 5 Fields on the Initial Draft and Final Report Forms Note that all of the data previously filled in are carried forward when updating a report fields can be changed to reflect new information except the Report Number Name of Reporting Entity Type of Entity and the Date Time of the previous submission Report Number List the unique identifying number for the report This field is automatic
43. er than paging Check the box if wireless users were affected E911 Check the box if E911 service or some aspect of E911 service was affected Paging Check the box if paging users were affected by the outage Satellite Check the box if satellite facilities were affected by the outage Signaling SS7 Check the box if SS7 service was affected by the outage Wireline Check the box if wireline users were affected by the outage This includes whether intraLATA or interLATA service was affected Special Facilities Airport Government etc Check the box if some special facility lost telecommunication service Other please specify Fill in any other services affected Number of Potentially Affected Wireline Users Provide the sum of the number of assigned telephone numbers potentially affected by the outage and the number of administrative numbers potentially affected If this outage did not affect wireline users please leave this blank Assigned numbers are defined as the telephone numbers working in the Public Switched Telephone Network under an agreement such as a contract or tariff at the request of specific end users or customers for their use and include DID numbers This excludes numbers that are not yet working but have a service order pending 1129 Administrative numbers are defined as telephone numbers used by communications providers to perform internal administrative or operational fu
44. et ATIS Board Officers Chair Kristin Rinne AT amp T First Vice Chair Nick Adamo Cisco Systems Second Vice Chair Thomas Sawanobori Verizon Treasurer Joseph Hanley Telephone and Data Systems President amp Chief Executive Officer Susan M Miller ATIS Vice President of Finance amp Operations William J Klein ATIS 1200 G Street NW 202 628 6380 Suite 500 202 393 5453 Washington 20005 W www atis org July 19 2012 Via Email Jeffrey Goldthorp Chief Communications Systems Analysis Division Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street SW Washington DC 20554 Re NRSC Recommendations to the NORS User Manual Help File and Cause Codes Dear Jeff On behalf of its Network Reliability Steering Committee NRSC the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions ATIS is writing to provide recommendations for changes to the Network Outage Reporting System NORS User Manual Version 6 and NORS Help File These recommendations enclosed herewith are intended to ensure that the content of the User Manual and Help File accurately reflect what is in the production system of NORS Additionally to accommodate VoIP services modifications were identified for two specific areas of the Cause Codes This feedback is attached to this letter The NRSC appreciates the opportunity to provide these recommendations If there are an
45. etermining the number of users potentially affected by a failure of a switch a concentration ratio of 8 shall be applied If this outage did not affect wireless users please leave this blank Paging Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers for those paging networks in which each individual user is assigned a telephone number If this outage did not affect paging users please leave this blank Cable Telephony Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers If this outage did not affect cable telephony users please leave this blank Satellite Users Provide the number of satellite users affected if known Number Affected Blocked Calls Provide the number of blocked calls If no calls were blocked please leave the field blank or enter 0 If blocked call information is available in only one direction for interoffice facilities that handle traffic in both directions the total number of blocked calls shall be estimated as twice the number of blocked calls determined for the available direction If real time information is not available providers may provide data for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage covering a time interval not older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage in an effort to estimate blocked calls In this case the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times the historic carried load If for whatever reason real time and historic carried
46. f Diversity Contributed to or Caused the Outage Determine whether lack of diversity contributed to or caused the outage If Best Practices related to diversity are discussed in any of the Best Practice fields or if the lack of diversity is listed as a root 30 Comment rg4 The FCC will need to identify the number of these characters Comment rg5 The will need to identify what these special characters are Comment rg6 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are cause or contributing factor to the outage then this field should be marked Yes In general determine whether engineering standards for diversity are being followed Malicious Activity Indicate whether you believe that malicious activity might be involved in the outage The form asks for some explanation of why you believe the activity is malicious or what is suspicious about the activity Malicious activity could be the product of terrorists Also the following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Name and Type of Equipment that Failed Provide the vendor name and the specific equipment including software release if applicable involved in the outage For example if a relay in a power plant fails that subsequently causes a switch to go out of service due to lack of power then report the make and model of the rel
47. ftware Upgrade Scheduled Maintenance Hardware Replacement Unidentified Power Surge Equipment failure associated with unidentified power surge Procedural Other Vendor Contractor Ad hoc Activities Outside Scope of MOP 38 Unapproved unauthorized work or changes in agreed to procedures Documentation Procedures Out of Date Unusable Impractical Lack of updated documentation procedures the correction update is available but not incorporated locally or the document is unwieldy Some examples are the use of inadequate indexing or cross referencing bits and pieces of information being too difficult to integrate ineffective delivery vehicle etc Documentation Procedures Unavailable Incomplete Documentation or procedures vendor or service provider are not published published but not distributed distributed but not available on site or that some documentation is obscure oblique too general lack of practical detail too detailed technical for practical use etc Insufficient Staffing Support Unexpected conditions depleted available resources predictable but unavoidable shortage unreasonable demand ineffective inadequate roll down or centralization arrangement resource intensive new technology outside scope reach of existing automatic remote administration systems etc Insufficient Supervision Control or Employee Error Resulting from insufficient leadership ineffective administration and or maintenance strategies pr
48. he AppendixSection 7 there is a complete description of each eftheroot eauses cause For example a cable cut is eftenimproper marking could be the triggering event or direct cause but the real cause er root cause may be lack of diversity pin numbering schemes insufficient room or clearance between pins back ae Fire 2 Data Fail iostion if lid id iforeacion Go eclenmdnec Cosy A NHAC UNE ple procedure Se ee ee DOE ipformaton equatpiseateasieconne dela portable cese hook up Nace ph MM procedural Lees of power Feature directly associated with 22 Insufficient training Training not available from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended trainine attended but 1 id entified ete seneral_insufficient specificity too detailed technical for practical use
49. heat humidity Component loss or fault associated with extreme temperature rapid temperature changes or high humidity due to loss malfunction of environmental control s If the failure was the result of inadequate lack of response to alarmed un alarmed environmental failures or due to incorrect manual control of environmental systems consider this a procedural fault Fire Suppression water chemicals Damage Component loss or fault associated with corrosion electrolytic or other caused by fire suppression activities this root cause assumes that no substantial failure was directly associated with the smoke fire that triggered suppression Fire Arcing Smoke Damage Component loss or fault associated with damage directly related to central office or equipment fires open flame or smoldering corrosive smoke emissions or electrical arcing whether or not ignition of surrounding material occurs Manhole Cable Vault Leak Component destruction or fault associated with water entering manholes cable vaults CEVs etc Other Roof Air Conditioning Leak Component destruction or fault associated with water damage direct or electrolytic caused by roof or environmental systems leaks into in central office environment Hardware Failure Circuit Pack Card Failure Other Circuit pack or card other than within the processor failed e g component failure pin edge connector failure firmware failure etc Circuit Pack Card Failure Processor C
50. hquake Component destruction or fault associated directly or indirectly with seismic shock However if damage was the result of inadequate earthquake bracing consider the fault to be a hardware design Fire Component destruction or fault associated with a fire occurring starting outside the service provider plant This includes brush fires pole fires etc Flood Ice Storm Lightning Transient Voltage Component destruction or fault associated with surges and over voltages caused by electrical atmospheric disturbances Other Storm Water Ice Component destruction or fault associated with fog rain hail sleet snow or the accumulation of water ice flooding collapse under weight of snow etc Storm Wind Trees Component destruction or fault associated with wind borne debris or falling 35 trees limbs Vandalism Theft Component loss destruction or fault associated with larceny mischief or other malicious acts Vehicular Accident Component destruction or fault associated with vehicle car truck train Formatted Indent Left 0 5 First line 0 collision Environment Internal Cable Pressurization Failure Component destruction or fault associated with cable damage resulting from cable pressurization failure Dirt Dust Contamination Component loss or fault associated with dirt or dust typically resulting in component overheating or loss of connectivity Environmental System Failure
51. igger for an outage being reportable Real Time Historic Check Box Check the number of bleeked ealsBlocked Calls came from real time data or was based on historic loads carried leads the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage DS3s Provide nmunberes provieusl operating 352 circuits that were affected hte eutage Provide the number of previously operating 0535 that were affected by the outage and were out of service for 30 or more minutes regardless of the services carried on the DS3s or the utilization of the DS3s DS3s restored to service in fewer than 30 minutes should not be recorded in the box for the number of DS3s For example if an outage initially took 576 DS3s out of service but 384 were restored to service in less than 30 minutes and only 192 were out of service for 30 minutes or longer the number of affected DS3s should be recorded as 192 If some failed DS3s were initially knocked out of service but restored in fewer than 30 minutes the rapid restoration of those DS3s can be noted in the Description of Incident field but they should not counted in the field for number of DS3s affected Count any failed STS3c as 3 0535 a failed STS12c as 12 0535 etc Lost SS7 MTP Messages In cases of an SS7 outage and where an SS7 provider cannot directly estimate the number of blocked calls provide the number of real time lost SS7 MTP
52. ing up to the incident the steps taken to try and resolve the incident once it had occurred and the action s that finally resolved the incident This is for the reader to better understand what happened Include any factors that may have contributed to the duration of the incident quick fix actions that may have resolved or at least mitigated the immediate problem but were not the final long term solution and any other contributing factors The description should be sufficiently detailed to allow the reader to reach the same conclusions as the writer as to the Direct Cause and Root Cause of the incident The maximum number of characters that will be saved in this field is blank Additional text may be referenced here and placed in the remarks field Also the following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Description of the Cause s of the Outage Provide a text description of all the causes of the outage This text should be in mputer s inputter s own words and should not use the words in the pull down menus for Direct Cause or Root Cause The following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Direct Cause The direct cause is the immediate event that results in an outage Scroll down the menu and choose the direct cause that is the most accurate The
53. iodically to enhance security of their reporting and viewing of their reports The menu to change a password is available by selecting Modify Password Modify Profile allows you to change information in your profile name phone number email address and or address The Company ID is a company password maintained by the company s outage coordinators It is NORS way of allowing companies with outage coordinators to control who can submit outage reports from their company Anyone who wants to submit outage reports for a particular company must know the Company ID in order to get a UserID that is assigned to that company Outage coordinators maintain the Part 4 Report and Order 19 FCC Rcd at 16856 4 47 Company ID Outage coordinators can change the Company ID This is done under the heading Modify Company ID Outage coordinators are allowed to deactivate the privileges of any outage inputters from their company One coordinator can deactivate another coordinator from their company This is achieved by selecting Deactivate User An outage coordinator can print a list of all inputters and coordinators from his or her company To choose this option select User List XML Filing Utility is used to download the utility to help filers to locally create modify XML files 2 1 Find a Report You can review your company s submitted reports by report number Coordinators have access to all reports filed by their company Inputters
54. ion E911 service provider is for companies that only provide all or some portion of E911 service The designation Facility owner or operator is for companies that are not carriers but own operate and lease facilities for use in telecommunications A carrier which provides both wireline and wireless services should choose the designation which most closely relates to the incident being reported Date of Incident Provide the month day and year at the commencement of the outage The expected format is mm dd yyyy NORS automatically inserts today s date but you can change that by first deleting the entire date then re entering the correct date Local Time Incident Began 24 hr clock Provide the local time at the location of the outage not the reporting location of commencement of the outage 24 hour clock unless referencing GMT That is for 1 00 PM you should use 1300 The format should be XXXX that is do not use a colon this number should be between 0000 and 2359 In most cases both the physical location of the outage and the majority of the effects are in the same time zone However some outages have wide ranging impacts which may not be at the physical location of the outage such as a cut undersea cable In that case please provide the time at the end of the undersea cable closest to the US or the local time of the physical outage You should include more detailed explanations in the Initial or Final Report Time Zone
55. ircuit pack or card within the processor failed e g component failure pin edge connector failure firmware failure etc Memory Unit Failure 36 Other Passive Devices Equipment hardware or devices that contain no electronics e g demarcation points cross connect panels splitters attentuators etc Peripheral Unit Failure Processor Community Failure Self contained Device Failure Equipment or hardware that contains electronics but does not contain replaceable components Shelf Slot Failure Failure of entire equipment shelf chassis connectors or backplane e g physical damage corrosion contamination wear etc Software Storage Media Failure Hardware failure resulting in corruption of office data program data routing data eEtc Insufficient Data Insufficient Data Blank There is not enough information from the failure report and subsequent investigation if any to determine cause s of failure Cleared While Testing Service restored before the cause could be determined Non Service Provider Personnel Failure is caused by non service provider personnel e g contractors building maintenance personnel tenant of telco hotel etc Outside Owned Network Failure occurred in another company s network e g leased transport capacity contracted signaling service etc Under Investigation Root cause analysis pending Other Unknown Insufficient data available due to a reason not noted above
56. k up Power Equipment Located on Customer Premise Customer premise power equipment unable to support communications equipment due to extended loss of commercial or back up power Inadequate Missing Power Alarm System failure associated to an un alarmed or under alarmed power failure an alarm not provided initially due to inadequate standards failure to implement standards or an alarm alarm system failure broken or modified Because of the success in avoiding severe battery depletion failure where power alarms are effective and effectively responded to system failures directly associated with power alarms should be classified as such instead of as procedural Insufficient Response to Power Alarm System failure associated response to power failure alarm system worked but support personnel did not respond properly Consider this a procedural fault Lack of Power Redundancy Failure directly associated with insufficient redundancy of power system components including ae AC rectifiers chargers battery power plan de DC distribution facilities etc Lack of Routine Maintenance Testing System failure resulting from infrequent power system testing maintenance and or detailed inspection Consider this a procedural fault Other Overloaded Undersized Power Equipment System failure attributable to insufficient sizing design of power configuration Rectifier Failure System failure resulting from rectifier malfunction Scheduled Activity So
57. l down menu one of the following ALI Location Only Affected for wireline carriers when location of the caller could not be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when Phase 2 location information could not be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP Phase 1 and Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when neither Phase 1 nor Phase 2 could be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP More than Location Affected for wireline and wireless carriers when the call could not be routed to the appropriate PSAP Failure Occurred in Another Company s Network Check the box if the failure occurred in another company s network Effects of the Outage Services Affected Cable Telephony Check the box if cable telephony users were affected Wireless other than paging Check the box if wireless users were affected E911 Check the box if E911 service or some aspect of E911 service was affected Paging Check the box if paging users were affected by the outage Satellite Check the box if satellite facilities were affected by the outage Signaling SS7 Check the box if SS7 service was affected by the outage Wireline Check the box if wireline users were affected by the outage This includes outages where only intraLATA service or only interLATA service was affected Special Facilities Airport Government etc Check the box if some special facility
58. le from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended trainine attended but 1 d entified ete bta seneral_insufficient specificity too detailed technicaltor practical use inadequate or out of date training adequate but insufficient applieation followed 1 id entified ete o Other Pop provider ayatlable bat not attended attended bur or adeqaete but appleasien followed gt o Other CIR pias whore eepredecexi seeplos v duration of the outage Do not use this root cause for the complete failure of a o _Service affecting adare ot oge sideofaduslexed syskon suchas SONT Root Cause The root cause is the underlying reason why the outage occurred or why the outage was reportable Scroll down the menu and piek choose the root cause that best fits best Root Cause is the key problem which once identified and corrected euld will prevent the same or a similar problem from recurring With today s technology two or more problems may be closely linked and require detailed investigation However in any single incident there should be only one primary eauses cause the Root Cause In t
59. lost telecommunication service Other please specify Fill in any other services affected Number of Potentially Affected Wireline Users Provide the sum of the number of assigned telephone numbers potentially affected by the outage and the number of administrative numbers potentially affected If this outage did not affect wireline users please leave this blank 27 Assigned numbers are defined as the telephone numbers working in the Public Switched Telephone Network under an agreement such as a contract or tariff at the request of specific end users or customers for their use and include DID numbers This excludes numbers that are not yet working but have a service order pending Administrative numbers are defined as the telephone numbers used by communications providers to perform internal administrative or operational functions necessary to maintain reasonable quality of service standards Wireless Users Provide the number of potentially affected wireless users In determining the number of users potentially affected by a failure of a switch a concentration ratio of 8 shall be applied If this outage did not affect wireless users please leave this blank Paging Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers for those paging networks in which each individual user is assigned a telephone number If this outage did not affect paging users please leave this blank
60. m Filing Login UserName _ case sensitive Password case sensitive LOGIN CLEAR If you don t have username password please go to New User Page If you have forgotten your password please go to Reset Password Page If you have questions about this web page please contact FCC Outage Help If you do not already have a UserID and Password you should click the link marked If you don t have username password please go to New User Page This will send you to the New User screen see Section 1 3 1 NOTE If you forget your password you should click the link marked If you have forgotten your password please go to Reset Password Page The system will send you to a screen that asks for your UserID and e mail address Your password will be e mailed to you If you need help or have questions click the link marked If you have questions about this web page please contact FCC Outage Help The login screen for DHS to use for Retrieving Outages is Network Outage Report Login UserName case sensitive Password case sensitive LOGIN CLEAR If you have forgotten your password please to Reset Password Page If you have questions about this web page please contact FCC Outage Help Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto Formatted No underline Font color Auto l Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto 4 Formatted
61. ment rg5 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Comment rg6 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Formatted Not Highlight Formatted Not Highlight Provide an evaluation of the relevance applicability and usefulness of the current Best Practices for the outage If a new Best Practice is needed or an existing Best Practice needs to be any text fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Remarks Provide any additional information that you believe is relevant but that did not fit anyplace else they will prevent the outage Report from being saved Primary Contact Person Provide the full name of the primary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the primary contact person in the format aanNPA nnaNXX npnnX XXX That is 201 444 5656 would mean that the area code or NPA is 201 the NNX is 444 and the line number is 5656 Extension Provide the extension number if used in format annnX XXX U S Postal Service Address Provide the address of the primary contact person E mail Address Provide the e mail address of the primary contact person Secondary Contact Person Provide the full name of the secondary contact person Phone Number Provide the phone number of the secondary contact person in the format axanNPA nnnNXX nnnnXXXX That is 201 444 5656 would mean that the area cod
62. messages or the number 557 MTP messages carried on a historical basis Historic carried 557 MTP messages shaHshould be for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage and for a time interval The information should not be older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage If the outage does not affect an SS7 network please leave this field blank Geographic Area Affected State Choose the primary state from the scroll down menu affected by the outage 50 states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are listed 1n addition eutages Outages affecting major parts of more than one state should be listed as zmulti state Multi State Finally if an outage occurred outside the fifty states the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico please choose Outside 50 States City Provide the primary city affected Please do NOT enter the state in this box Enter the state in the state box More Complete Description of Geographical Area of Outage Provide a more complete description of the geographical area of the outage In particular for widespreadMulti State outages affectine several states it is important to list the states affected For outages affecting more than one community it is important to describe actual communities affected Include CLLIs if applicable Description of Incident Provide a narrative swhiehthat describes the sequence of events leading up to the incident
63. msi can be used to install the NET utility to help you to create edit XML files You also need to download dotnetfx exe Microsoft NET Framework Version 1 1 Redistributable Package from the Microsoft website after verifying that your system meets system requirements for the executing the file http www microsoft com downloads details aspx familyid 262D25E3 F589 4842 8157 034D1LE7CF3A3 amp displaylang en 18 2 13 1 Creating XML Facility Once you have downloaded the XML facility and have dotnetfx exe Microsoft Framework Version 1 1 Redistributable Package you can create the XML facility You should execute the file Setup Exe This file will create the Outage XML exe file This is the program to easily create XML files 2 13 2 Creating XML Files Open the Outage XML facility You will be given four choices 1 Create a Notification 2 Edit Notification 3 Update a Report This is to change a Notification into an Initial Report or Draft or Final Report It can also be used to update an Initial Report or create a Final or Withdrawn Report You will need the Report ID from when you submitted the Notification to NORS 4 Exit the System Create the file type that you want to upload 3 Screen for DHS Retrieve Outage Reports The NORS has a module so that DHS can view outages If you have chosen the retrieval module and successfully logged onto NORS see Section 1 3 thus gaining access to the retrieval m
64. n of the service s which may have madeeven if the restoral is over temporary facilities If the customers locations are destroyed such as by a hurricane flood tornado or wildfire the duration continues until the reporting carrier is capable of again providing service to those locations If an outage repertable to the FCC is ongoing at the time the Final Report is filed report the outage duration as the total time between the commencement of the outage and the time the Final Report is filed Date Outage Determined Reportable Date on which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable thresholds This field is voluntary Local Time Outage Determined Reportable 24 HR Clock Time at which a company determines that an outage has occurred and meets one or more of the reportable This field is voluntary Explanation of Outage Duration for incidents with partial restoration times Describe the stages of restoration if different blocks of users were restored at different times Often times significant blocks of users may be restored to service prior to full restoration of service If this is the case provide information on the number of users in theeach block restored to service and the elapsed time to partial restoration should be provided so that an accurate assessment of the outage impact may be made In addition it is important to report when some servi
65. nctions necessary to maintain reasonable quality of service standards Wireless Users Provide the number of potentially affected wireless users 1 this cutage did not affectavireless users please teavethis blank In determining the number of users potentially affected by a failure of a switch a concentration ratio of 8 shall be applied If this outage did not affect wireless users please leave this blank Paging Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers for those paging networks in which each individual user is assigned a telephone number If this outage did not affect paging users please leave this blank OA numbers od dig ubl order sending Cable Telephony Users Provide the number of assigned telephone numbers If this outage did not affect cable telephony users please leave this blank e e k endte p oreore ford Hence Aso ot heave gw Satellite Users Provide the number of satellite users affected if known Number Affected Blocked Calls Provide the number of blocked calls If no calls were blocked please leave the field blank or put 0 down Fe If blocked call information is available in only one direction for interoffice facilities which handle traffic in both directions andfor whichblocked call informati
66. nformation contained in this report attest that have read the report prior to submitting it and on oath depose and state that the information contained therein is true correct and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief and that the communications provider on oath deposes and states that this information is true complete and accurate Accept Go Back and Edit Report To file the Final Report you must accept the above statement that states that you are authorized by your company to file the Final Report to the Commission that you are authorized by your company to legally bind it to the truth completeness and accuracy of the information contained in the Final Report and that you attest that you have read the Final Report and depose and state under oath that the information therein is true correct and accurate to the best of your knowledge and belief and the company that you represent under oath deposes and states that the information is true complete and accurate 2 3 3 Withdrawing a Report Occasionally after filing a aNotification and perhaps an Rreport you may subsequently determine that the outage did not meet the reporting criteria Such a report should be withdrawn To withdraw a report you need to select the report that you want to withdraw from the list of outage reports When you do you will see the information contained in the outage report and be presented with a text box which asks for the r
67. nize or communicate query warning in response to commands with obvious major system network impact Ineffective Fault Recovery or Re initialization Action Simple single point failure resulting in total system outage failure of system 34 diagnostics resulting from the removal of a good unit with restoral of faulty mate failure to switch protect the switch to standby spare mate component s Other Diversity Failure External Failure to provide or maintain the diversity of links or circuits among external network components which results in a single point of failure configuration Internal Other Failure to provide or maintain diversity of equipment internal to a building This is excluding power equipment and timing equipment Links 557 communication paths were not physically and logically diverse Power Failure to diversify links circuits or equipment among redundant power system components including ac rectifiers chargers battery power plants dc distribution facilities etc Timing Equipment Failure to diversify critical equipment across timing supplies e g BITS clocks Environment External for limited use when applicable root causes caused by a service provider or vendor cannot be identified it can also be listed as contributing factor Animal Damage Component destruction associated with damage caused by animals e g squirrel rodent chewing of cables insect infestation bird droppings bird nests etc Eart
68. nverted to outage coordinators Outage coordinators have the ability to view and update any outage report from their company Only the NORS administrators can convert an outage inputter to an outage coordinator If you would like one or more of your outage inputters converted to outage coordinators send an e mail to Qutage fcc gov You will then be called and your request processed 1 3 2 Screen for Password Request The following Password Request screen appears after someone at the Login screen clicks the link marked If you have forgotten your password please go to Reset Password Formatted Font Bold Font color Auto Page Network Outage Report System Password Request UserName Email address must same as the one in the system REQUEST CLEAR NORS will send you your new password via e mail 1 3 3 Password Expiration NORS Keeps track of the time that a password has been operative After 60 days when a user logs into NORS NORS creates a new password tells the user that a new password has been created and sends the new password to the user s e mail address The user can use this new password or can modify the password through the Modify Password menu option on the main menu If the new password is not received at the user s e mail address the user can click on Reset Password Page on the Login Screen and NORS will send a new password 2 User Main Menu Screen Those users
69. oad XME 13 2 3 Request to Reopen a Report sess 13 2 6 Reports cau c 13 2 7 terii EDS 14 2 8 Modify Pass word schen si aene ee 15 2 9 Modify Profile MH 16 2 10 Modify Company ttn e arrei 16 2 11 Deactivate SETS Wr 17 2412 Wer 8 zie etre tee Dee Ee EE aS 17 213 XML Filing Utility oaisenieensema inc ager scis teens 17 2 13 1 Creating XML 19 2 13 2 Creating XML Files ucc eee teret eene 19 3 Screen for DHS Retrieve Outage 19 4 Fields on the Notification Form eese tenentes tn sensns tasa tnsnue 19 5 Fields on the Initial Draft and Final Report Forms 24 6 Fields on the Withdrawn Report Form 3231 7 Descriptions of Root Cause Direct Cause and Contributing Factors 3331 ii 1 Logging Onto the Network Outage Reporting System 1 1 Accessing the Network Outage Reporting System The Network Outage Reporting System NORS can be accessed by first going to the FCC homepage The address is www fcc gov Once you are at the FCC homepage you can find the NORS under the E Filing menu at the top of the page Alternatively you may go directly to NORS using the follo
70. oad was associated with STP SCP message handling congestion false or reactivated link congestion inappropriate or incorrect 557 network management message s protocol errors etc then consider the problem to be a software design fault Inappropriate Insufficient Network Management NM Control s System network overload or congestion associated with an ineffective NM system switch response resulting due to the lack of either effective NM control that the system switch response to control was inappropriate or that its implementation was flawed If failure was related to inappropriate control strategy or execution by NM organization consider it procedural Ineffective Engineering Engineering Tools System network overload or congestion directly associated with under engineering of the system network due to rapidly changing network demand or introduction of new network components and or technologies If failure was associated with simple under engineering absent changing environment consider it procedural 41 Mass Calling Focused Diffuse Network Overload System network overload or congestion directly associated with unplanned external trigger s causing a significant unmanageable traffic load Media Stimulated Calling Insufficient Notification System network overload or congestion directly associated with a media stimulated calling event where the event sponsor generator failed to provide adequate advance noticed or provided ina
71. ocess or communication failures conflicting priorities etc This sub category should be used when multiple procedural causes are indicated and also when the service interruption results purely from an unintentional action by the employee Insufficient Training Training not available from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended training attended but provides inadequate or out of date information training adequate but insufficient application followed training need never identified etc Other Procedural Service Provider Documentation Procedures Out of Date Unusable or Impractical Documentation procedures are not updated correction update available but not incorporated locally Documentation procedures are unwieldy inadequate indexing or cross referencing bits and pieces of information difficult to integrate ineffective delivery vehicle etc Documentation Procedures Unavailable Unclear Incomplete Documentation or procedures vendor or service provider are not published published but not distributed distributed but not available on site etc Documentation procedures are obscure oblique too general insufficient specificity too detailed technical for practical use etc Inadequate Routine Maintenance Memory Back Up Failure could have been prevented minimized by simple maintenance routines The resulting recovery action was delayed complicated by old or missing program office dat
72. odule NORS will display a screen from which you may select an outage to view DHS can not change any contents of any report 4 Fields on the Notification Form Name of Reporting Entity This lists the name of the company filing the outage report This field is automatically filled out It is the name of the company that the outage inputter used when he she applied for a UserID The Commission requires providers of wireline wireless cable circuit switched telephony satellite paging Signaling System 7 communications services to submit outage reports regarding disruptions 10 communication when disruptions meet the reporting thresholds as defined in Part 4 of the Commission s Rules on any facilities provided for a fee to one or more unaffiliated entities by radio wire cable satellite and or lightguide two way voice and or paging service and or SS7 communications Type of Entity Reporting Disruption Pick from the scroll down menu the type of entity your company is relative to the incident being reported The choices are Wireline carrier Wireless carrier Cable telephony provider Paging provider Satellite provider 19 557 network provider E911 service provider Facility owner or operator A carrier that provides SS7 service E911 service and is a facility owner should identify itself as a wireline carrier The designation 557 network provider is intended for companies that only provide 557 service Similarly the designat
73. onis avaitablein one direction only the total number of blocked calls shall be estimated as twice the number of blocked calls determined for the available direction Providers If real time information is not available providers may use histerie earried callloeadprovide data for the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage and fercovering a time interval not older than 90 days preceding the onset of the outage in an effort to estimate blocked calls wheneverditis not possible te obtain realtime blocked eall eounts In this case the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times the historic carried load n situationswhere If for whatever reason real time and historic carried call load data are unavailable to the provider even after a detailed investigation the provider must determineestimate the carried call load based on data obtained in the time interval between the ensetrepair of the outage and the due date for the final epertFinal Report this data must cover the same day of the week the same time of day and the same duration as the outage Justification that such data accurately estimates the traffic that would have been carried at the time of the outage had the eutage not oeeurred must be available on request In this case the estimate of the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times carried load The number of blocked calls sheuld if known must be filled out even if it is not the tr
74. pany The only people allowed to view your outage reports are authorized FCC and DHS personnel except DHS chooses to release them subject to the terms of our Part 4 Order If you are notifying the FCC of a new outage you should choose Report Notification You will be sent to the Notification Screen If you want to update or withdraw an Initial rReport you should choose Update Resubmit Withdraw Report In addition if you want to view your reports please choose the Update Resubmit Withdraw Report menu option You could also submit the file using Upload XML File selection By providing a XML file name in your computer it will upload the file to NORS according to the information in the XML file NORS has a provision for the user to ask the FCC to reopen a Final or Withdrawn Report by clicking the link marked Request to Reopen a Report NORS provides a list of Final Reports that are overdue or due within 5 days in order to encourage the timely filing of reports This function is available by selecting the Reports Overdue function on the menu NORS can print out a list of outages in spreadsheet format for a set of dates based on the date the notification was filed the information on each outage is provided To choose this option select Report List NORS can print a list of all outage reports that have neither been finalized nor withdrawn To choose this option select List of Open Reports users should change their password per
75. prevent the outage Report from being saved Applicable Best Practices that might have prevented the Outage or reduced its effects Provide a deseriptionthe number s of the Best Practices that could have prevented the outage reduced its effects The Network Reliability and Interoperability Council NRIC Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council CSRIC has have developed a list of Best Practices They can be accessed via wsvw nrie ore or https www fcc gov nors outage bestpractice BestPractice cfm You can find relevant Best Practices by using keywords Alternatively Best Practices can also be sourced from the ATIS Best Practices website http www atis org bestpractices Best Practices used to mitigate diminish effects of the Outage Provide a deseription ofthe number s and also possibly descriptions of the most important Best Practices that were actually used to mitigatelessen the effects of the outage These chosen Best praetieesPractices helped shorten the outage reduced the restoration times prevented the outage from affecting more customers and or reduced the effects on customers e g ensured that E911 was not affected If none were used please leave blank Best Practices can be sourced from https www fcc gov nors outage bestpractice BestPractice cfm or the ATIS Best Practices website http www atis org bestpractices and frem oer Analysis of Best Practices Com
76. raffic that would have been carried at the time of the outage must be available on request In this case the estimate of the number of blocked calls reported should be 3 times 28 carried load The number of blocked calls if known must be filled out even if it is not the trigger for an outage being reportable Real Time Historic Check Box Check whether the number of Blocked Calls came from real time data or was based on historic loads carried the same day s of the week and the same time s of day as the outage 0535 Provide the number of previously operating DS3s that were affected by the outage and were out of service for 30 or more minutes regardless of the services carried on the 0535 or the utilization of the DS3s DS3s restored to service in fewer than 30 minutes should not be recorded in the box for the number of DS3s For example if an outage initially took 576 DS3s out of service but 384 were restored to service in less than 30 minutes and only 192 were out of service for 30 minutes or longer the number of affected DS3s should be recorded 192 If some failed DS3s were initially knocked out of service but restored in fewer than 30 minutes the rapid restoration of those DS3s can be noted in the Description of Incident field but they should not counted in the field for number of DS3s affected Count any failed STS3c as 3 0535 a failed STS12c as 12 DS3s etc Lost SS7 MTP Messages In cases of an SS7 outag
77. ransmission due to aging connector failure etc Design Firmware Ineffective Fault Recovery or Re Initialization Action Failure to reset restore following general system restoral initialization Insufficient Software State Indications Failure to communicate or display out of service firmware states failure to identify communicate or display indolent or sleepy firmware states Other Design Hardware Inadequate Grounding Strategy Insufficient component grounding design duplex components systems sharing common power feeds fusing Other Poor Backplane or Pin Arrangement Non standard confusing pin arrangements or pin numbering schemes insufficient room or clearance between pins backplane pin crowding Poor card frame mechanisms latches slots jacks etc Mechanical physical design problems Design Software Faulty Software Load Office Data Inaccurate mismatched office configuration data used applied wrong defective office load supplied Faulty Software Load Program Data Bad program code instructions logical errors incompatibility between features sets software quality control failure wrong defective program load supplied software vulnerability to virus infection Inadequate Defensive Checks Changes to critical or protected memory were allowed without system challenge contradictory or ambiguous system input commands were interpreted responded to without system challenge Failure of system to recog
78. rates or leases that experiences an outage meetingthat meets the reporting thresholds as defined in Part 4 of the Commission s Rules and Regulations ea any Type of Entity Reporting Disruption Lists the type entity your company is type This entry is automatically filled with the information taken from the Notification Companies are not able to change the entry on the Initial Report regardless of what appears on the Notification The possible entries were e Wireline carrier e Wireless carrier e Cable telephony provider e Paging provider e Satellite provider 557 network provider e E911 service provider e Facility owner or operator Date of Incident Provide the month day year at the commencement of the outage The expected format is mm dd yyyy Local Time Incident Began 24 hr clock Provide the local time at the location of the outage not the reporting location of commencement of the outage 24 hour clock unless referencing GMT That is for 1 00 PM you should use 1300 The format should be nnnn thatis do not use 1 xveuld be 800 0800 2300 ete This this number should be between 00000 and 2359122359 I most cases both the physical location of the outage and the majority of the effects BP ep are in the same time zone However some outages have wide ranging impacts and at times the greatest customer impact that may not be at the physical location of the outage Fer undersea
79. rting thresholds as defined in Part 4 of the Commission s Rules and Regulations Type of Entity Reporting Disruption Lists company type This entry is automatically filled with the information taken from the Notification Companies are not able to change the entry on the Initial Report regardless of what appears on the Notification possible entries were Wireline carrier Wireless carrier Cable telephony provider Paging provider Satellite provider 557 network provider E911 service provider Facility owner or operator Date of Incident Provide the month day and year at the commencement of the outage The expected format is mm dd yyyy Local Time Incident Began 24 hr clock Provide the local time at the location of the outage not the reporting location of commencement of the outage 24 hour clock unless referencing GMT That is for 1 00 PM you should use 1300 The format should be nnnn do not use a colon this number should be between 0000 and 2359 In most cases both the physical location of the outage and the majority of the effects are in the same time zone However some outages have wide ranging impacts that may not be at the physical location of the outage such as a cut undersea cable In that case please provide the time at the end of the undersea cable closest to the US or the local time of the physical outage Time Zone Pick from the scroll down menu one of the following Alaskan Atlanti
80. t fields as they will prevent the outage Report from being saved PISCINES Spee REISE Direct Cause The direct cause is the immediate event that results in an outage Scroll down the menu and piekchoose the direct cause that fits best is the most accurate The direct cause is the event action or procedure that triggered the outage In the AppendixSection 7 of the NORS User Manual there is a complete description of each of the direct causes For example a cable cut is often could be the triggering event or direct cause but the real cause orof an outage whose root cause may be is lack of diversity apio ae ki g tem criagno tha 22 7040 0 Fire 2 mE Hieient Fail od lid id Cosy The onse ot ihe outage cannot be deteminad orshe case doesnot 2 ordeo aen tng pu ain iefeemaHen dede eqatpiseatbeaemeenime data portable eme book up Nace iere dedu aiu adig a stent olas procedural Lees of power directly associated with imsutfictent 2 Insufficient training Training not availab
81. ted to a PSAP Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when Phase 2 location information could not be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP Phase 1 and Phase 2 Only Affected for wireless outages when neither Phase 1 nor Phase 2 could be provided but the call could be routed to a PSAP More than Location Affected for wireline and wireless carriers when the call could not be routed to the appropriate PSAP Failure Occurred in Another Company s Network Check the box if the failure occurred in another company s network Number of Potentially Affected 21 Wireline Users Provide the sum of the number of assigned telephone numbers potentially affected by the outage and the number of administrative numbers potentially affected If this outage did not affect wireline users please leave this blank Assigned numbers are defined as the telephone numbers working in the Public Switched Telephone Network under an agreement such as a contract or tariff at the request of specific end users or customers for their use and include DID numbers This excludes numbers that are not yet working but have a service order pending Administrative numbers are defined as the telephone numbers used by communications providers to perform internal administrative or operational functions necessary to maintain reasonable quality of service standards Wireless Users Provide the number of potentially affected wireless users In d
82. the steps taken to try and resolve the incident once it had occurred and the action s whiehthat finally brought resehitiontoresolved the incident This is for the reader to better understand what happened Include any factors swhiehthat may have contributed to the duration of the incident quick fix actions swhiehthat may have resolved or at least mitigated the immediate problem but were not the final long term solution and any other contributing factors whieh may aid the readerin better understanding thedneident The description should be sufficiently detailed to allow the reader iin eenjunctionowith otherinformation provided im the report to reach the same conclusions as the writer as to the Direct Cause and Root Cause of the incident The maximum number of characters that will be paved in this field is blank Additional text Comment rg1 The FCC will need to identify the number of these characters Comment rg2 The FCC will need to identify what these special characters are Description of the Cause s of the Outage Provide a text description of all the causes of the outage This text should be in the inputter s own words ef eutageinputterand should not neeessarily use the words contained in the pull down menus for Direct Cause or Root Cause The following special characters blank may not rg3 The will need to identify hat th ial ch be used in any tex
83. to go out of service due to lack of power then report the make and model of the relay not the power plant or switch Specific Part of the Network Involved Provide the part of the network involved with the incident Examples are local switch tandem switch signaling network central office power plant digital cross connect system outside plant cable ALI database etc Method s Used to Restore Service Provide a complete chronological narrative Hi methods used to restore service ION Wc fix and final gt swas used Also the EE li may not che in any text fields as hey will prevent the outage Report from being saved Telecommunications Service Priority TSP Indicator Indicate whether TSP was used involved during service restoration Steps Taken to Prevent Reoccurrence Provide the steps already taken and to be taken to prevent reoccurrence Fhese steps could beat both thisocation and threughout the network sHf appropriate Typically the corrective actions are identified through a Root Cause Analysis of the incident and the steps for prevention can be at both this location and throughout the network s if appropriate If a time frame for implementation exists it should be provided If no further action is required or planned the service provider should so indicate Also the following special characters blank may not be used in any text fields as they will
84. ult to integrate ineffective delivery vehicle etc Documentation Procedures Unavailable Unclear Incomplete Documentation or procedures vendor or service provider are not published published but not distributed distributed but not available on site etc Documentation procedures are obscure oblique too general insufficient specificity too detailed technical for practical use etc Insufficient Staffing Support Unexpected conditions depleted available resources predictable but unavoidable shortage unreasonable demand ineffective inadequate roll down or centralization arrangement resource intensive new technology outside scope reach of existing automatic remote administration systems etc Insufficient Supervision Control or Employee Error Resulting from insufficient leadership ineffective administration and or maintenance strategies process or communication failures conflicting priorities etc This sub category should be used when multiple procedural causes are indicated and also when the service interruption results purely from an unintentional action by the employee Insufficient Training Training not available from vendor training not available from service provider training available but not attended training attended but provides inadequate or out of date information training adequate but insufficient application followed training need never identified etc 40 Other Simplex Condition Spare Non service Aff
85. wing URL https www fcc gov nors outage 1 2 Security Banner The following Security Banner will be displayed once the URL for the NORS has been sent Press ENTER or click ACCEPT to continue fede de de de Se e de de e de e de de de ded WARNING ede de de de e de e die de e de e de de eoe Security Notice You are entering an official United States Government System which may be used only for authorized purposes Unauthorized modification of any information on this system may result in criminal prosecution The Government may monitor or audit the usage of this system and all persons are hereby notified that use of this system constitutes consent to such monitoring and auditing ede die de e e e cfe de e cfe de oe e de e e ded WARNING ede de de e de ce ce de oe e de ote de e e e e e Accept Cancel You will have to acknowledge that you accept the conditions stated in the Security Banner 1 3 NORS Login Screen There are two main types of users Department of Homeland Security DHS and all others DHS will be using the DHS Retrieval Module others will be using the Outage Report Filing and Review Module From the Outage Report Filing and Review Module you can view input update and withdraw outage reports All new users should pick the Outage_Report Filing and Review Module In summary if you are not from DHS you will use the Outage Report Filing and Review Module
86. y questions regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me Sincerely gt 2 2 d Thomas Goode ATIS General Counsel cc John Healy Associate Division Chief Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division Attachments lt e QNICATIQ Fe USA 9SH WO Network Outage Reporting System User Manual Version 6 April 9 2009 Table of Contents 1 Logging Onto the Network Outage Reporting System 1 1 1 Accessing the Network Outage Reporting 1 1 2 security Banner cdita nee RE RU REO e 1 1 3 NORS Login SCIGeD dicte ie e EGRE ROSTER OE 2 1 3 1 Screen for New Users with New 4 1 3 2 Screen for Password Request 5 1 3 3 Password Expiration ditte rentrer bueno ore bien 6 2 User Main Menu Screen 2 21 2 0 68 6 6 2 1 Find a Report aee tench ie See ORI E ORE ORE 8 2 2 Report Notification eee eene 8 2 3 Update Resubmit Withdraw a Report eene 10 2 3 1 Screen for Updating Notifications Initial Reports and Drafts and Filing Final 11 2 3 2 Filing Final 12H 2 3 3 Withdrawing Report eee 12 2 4 Upl

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