Providing communications services
This nation's communications infrastructure is indispensable
both as critical infrastructure for socioeconomic activities and
as a lifeline protecting the safety and livings of its people. The
NTT Group works around the clock 365 days a year to provide
highly reliable communications services by maintaining and operating
its nationwide infrastructure in such a way as to ensure
that it functions properly under any circumstances.
Disaster response
NTT EAST, NTT WEST, NTT Communications, and NTT DoCoMo monitor operations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from
their respective operations centers, which can respond promptly
to natural disasters, system malfunctions or other problems
by remote switching to backup systems to restore service as
well as dispatching maintenance personnel to undertake repairs.
Group companies work as one to restore services as
soon as possible, NTT FACILITIES handling the maintenance
of electrical power facilities and other NTT Group buildings,
and NTT COMWARE handling communications software issues.
As an example of how operations centers respond to disaster
situations, on the following page, we provide a glimpse of the
activities of NTT EAST Network Operation Center.
Please also see: NTT Group's disaster countermeasures.
Monitoring the nationwide communications infrastructure from NTT EAST Network Operation Center
NTT EAST
NTT-ME
The 2005 Miyagi earthquake
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred off the coastline of Miyagi
Prefecture in northeastern Japan at 11:46 a.m. on August
16, 2005. The telephone system throughout Miyagi and adjacent
prefectures was immediately inundated with calls from
worried relatives and friends, reaching a volume approximately
20 times the level of ordinary traffic.
"At NTT EAST Network Operation Center, where we monitor
and manage traffic on the nationwide fixed-line communications
network, the situation was tense as emergency alarms
began to go off and the large screen in the center of the room
displayed a map of Miyagi Prefecture colored red, which meant
we had serious congestion to deal with," says NTT-ME Network
Control Group Senior Manager Yukio Takabe, describing
the situation at the time.
Failure to alleviate congestion can result in the overloading
of switching equipment and network paralysis, and so the network
control officer immediately initiated network traffic control
to bring the level of inbound traffic to Miyagi Prefecture
down to manageable levels and ensure the availability of critical
communications services needed for emergency rescue
activities. At the same time, the Center began to investigate
the extent of damage and report its findings to all relevant departments,
and launch NTT's Disaster Emergency Dengon (Message) Dial 171 service to accommodate those people
nationwide who were trying to reach friends and relatives
in the affected area. It was this kind of prompt and appropriate
response that enabled NTT EAST to ensure the availability
of necessary communications services within Miyagi
Prefecture itself.
The people and systems supporting appropriate response to emergencies
To enable rapid and precise response to disasters, the Center
is equipped with advanced ICT-based operation tools. For
example, a Network Control Navigation System enables the
precise and comprehensive management of required actions
in the event of an emergency, and enhances the speed and
efficiency of information dissemination by e-mail, fax and so
forth. "The way we were able to leverage the capabilities of
these systems to manage operations was a major factor inenabling us to respond promptly and appropriately to the 2005
Miyagi earthquake," says NTT-ME Network Control Group
Network Operation Subgroup Associate Manager Takashi
Tanaka.
To maintain and improve the quality of its operations, the Network
Operation Center has obtained ISO 9001:2000 certification.
The Center also puts priority on training, and staff are
encouraged to improve their skills on their own initiative through
an in-house certification system. Most Center staff have used
this system to earn in-house qualifications of various levels
up to the top Network Operations Professional qualification,
holders of which lead operations on the Center floor.
"Our mission," says Takabe, "is to ensure the ready availability
of communications services even during emergencies."
Day in, day out, NTT Group company operations centers maintain
their vigilance to be ready to respond to large-scale disasters
and protect the communications infrastructure that is
so critical to our society.
(right) The network control officer (in red jacket) and other staff members monitor the nationwide communications network
Immediate and appropriate action is the key to effective disaster response
"To protect our communications network from large-scale
disasters and various other threats, it's absolutely vital to
respond promptly and appropriately right from the outset.
Another important role of ours is to provide other NTT Group
companies as well as government and other relevant bodies
with the information they need in the event of an emergency.
Insofar as we're responsible for protecting the
communications infrastructure that is so critical to our society
and ensuring that relevant sections are appropriately
informed when an emergency situation crops up, you
could say that we're the NTT Group's 'crisis management
center'."
