The role of communications technologies for national security is hard to overstate, as platforms not just for communicating person-to-person but to enable cyber-physical systems, information and financial movements. Governments have asked for telecoms systems in 6G to be resilient. This paper stems from a discussion with a variety of stakeholders at 6GSymposium, 23 September in Washington DC, exploring what that means in practice and how to accomplish resilience at a national level.
This paper summarises the results of a conversation under Chatham House rules, covering definitions, measurement and key aspects of resilience, challenges the group was aware of and proposed next steps. This is not intended to be a comprehensive detailing of every issue but may help point the way towards future work and ideation.
Resilience as a concept is reasonably well understood, but the discussion soon revealed that what might count as resilient, or sufficiently resilient, at the level of an individual telecoms provider’s network or service may not meet the needs of a nation, and vice versa.
It became clear that resilience is not solely a question of technology. Instead business-level and industry-level processes, education, business culture and even governmental structures will need to adapt to create and implement a more resilient national strategy. A properly resilient national communications system stretches beyond any individual service provider but also beyond any individual industry. It stretches from national-scale telecoms providers through to international infrastructure players, private networks, MVNOs and more.
Who Should Read It?
Anyone who wants to understand how national-scale telecoms systems may need to evolve, including the kinds of regulatory and policy discussions, business and process implications coming down the line.
