A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security

8Safety of 5G Network Physical Infrastructures

Rui Travanca and João André

Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering

8.1 Introduction

The failure of crucial communications is one of the most shared characteristics of all disasters. Whether partial or complete, the failure of telecommunication infrastructures leads to damage to critical assets causing, for example, delays in emergency and disaster relief efforts. Despite the increasing reliability and resilience of telecommunications networks to physical damage in general, the risk level associated with communications failures remains severe because of the growing dependence upon these tools [1]. For example, on December 26, 2004, an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 hit the South Asia region causing a tsunami. Both events caused a large number of injuries, accidents, property damage and destruction to the telecommunications system, seriously damaging monopoles, towers and local switching equipment. Similarly, on May 12, 2008, a strong earthquake occurred in Sichuan, China, causing serious damage to all telecommunication systems. Fortunately, satellite communication was available and was used in relief operations. Other similar examples in recent past years include the July 16, 2007, earthquake of 6.7 magnitude in Japan; the August 15, 2007, earthquake of 8.0 magnitude in Peru; the January 12, 2010, earthquake of 7.0 magnitude in Haiti; the February 22, 2011, earthquake of 6.3 magnitude in New Zealand, or the March 11, ...