Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION: TELECOMMUNICATION

TED G. LEWIS

Center for Homeland Defense and Security, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

1 INTRODUCTION

The telecommunications sector is a complex adaptive system exhibiting self-organized criticality (SOC) suggesting its vulnerability to systemic failure. Over its 100-year history, the architecture of the telecommunications sector in the United States has evolved into a scale-free network with critical nodes located in a small number of major telecom hotels, that is, buildings containing a high concentration of switching equipment, storage, and interdependent connections. These hubs were formed by economic, regulatory, and technical forces operating over four historical periods: an unregulated beginning, the telecom war years, the regulated vertical monopoly period, and the current deregulated competitive era. This article briefly traces the evolution of telecommunications in general and telephony in particular. Using network science theory, we show that hubs and betweener nodes are the most critical components in the national system. Furthermore, these critical nodes are the direct result of regulatory forces shaping the industry, which have had major impact on telecommunications. Because of economic, regulatory, and technical forces ever-present in the industry, the telecom sector has evolved into a state of SOC. Although the industry has not experienced a calamity on a scale similar to the 2003 Eastern Power ...