Peace of Mind in the 21CN World
Absolutely key to the success of BT’s 21st Century Network is to create a reliable, resilient, secure network in which all communications providers and their customers can have confidence.
Key to that are reliability, service continuity and resilience: ensuring BT’s network consistently meets its service level agreements and provides continuity of service. Good reliability is achieved by good design using high quality components coupled with a high level of resilience – the ability of a network to continue to provide normal (or near-normal) service even if faults occur. This will be delivered through diverse routing which enables, for example, an alternative node to process the calls of another one.
The resilience of 21CN has been designed to be at least equivalent to that of today's networks, with opportunities taken to improve it where possible. For example, each MSAN in 21CN will connect to two metro nodes whereas a remote concentrator unit (RCU) in the legacy network may only connect to one digital local exchange (DLE). The introduction of the single 21CN IP-based network will result in physically a simpler network which will simplify the service management enhancing reliability and resilience.
In a telecommunications context the key security consideration is the ability of a network to resist attack from, for example, software virus and hackers. The wider security considerations include ensuring secure data transmission and the physical security of BT buildings and infrastructure.
With 21CN calls are using IP (internet protocol) but are not going over the internet, with the security fears that raises for some. They will be carried on our dedicated high capacity IP network and it’s the way an IP network is set-up that defines if it is public, private, open or secure. BT and other communications providers use IP today for data networks. Finance and defence information networks where security is paramount use IP. 21CN will be an IP-based network.
BT deploys security today in the physical and logical world, to protect network infrastructure, services and the confidentiality and integrity of our customers' data. These security measures use technology combined with operational processes, procedures and standards to protect and monitor our IP networks – and we have dedicated, expert teams and control processes to identify and respond to suspicious activity. Building on these measures and our vast experience in both traditional networks and the IP-based networks we already operate, BT is confident 21CN will meet the high standards that BT provides to our customers today.