Study notes pandemic’s impact on networks

Jan. 9, 2008—A study on how communications networks stand to be affected by greater telecommuting during a pandemic shows heightened risks of network congestion at such times and offers recommendations on how to prepare.

The study was coordinated through the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber Security and Communications.

Subject matter experts in the study, drawn from a wide array of private sector and government fields, looked at what is likely in the event of a rise in telecommuting during a pandemic. Participants agreed that many enterprise systems may not be large enough to handle the spike in use and that local, residential networks are likely to face similar strains. To help mitigate the impact, they came up with recommended preparations and developed a model to test those.

The modeling produced some key assumptions for businesses, telecommuters, the public and network providers in preparing for a pandemic situation. These include:

• businesses should use a 40 percent absenteeism rate as a guideline but tailor that to their specific situation, size and remote-user capabilities;
  
  
• employees planning to telecommute during a pandemic and who are critical to operations should not rely on best-effort, residential Internet access;
  
  
• limiting non-critical recreational traffic among the general public, especially during daytime work hours, will be key;
  
  
• network service providers, which will be working with a reduced work force, will be limited in their ability to respond to a surge in traffic or to increase capacity.