Impacts of Security Related Applications on NYCT Broadband Network

This paper describes how the New York City Transit (NYCT) operates one of the largest and most complex mass transit systems in the world. Due to the volume of customers the system handles, the transit infrastructure and assets are major targets for vandalism and terrorism. In an effort to secure the infrastructure and assets against attacks, and provide additional security to the customers, NYCT is designing and deploying many new security systems involving CCTV, Access Control & Intrusion Detection, as well as other classified security deterrent systems. Many of these systems are centralized and much of the information is collected at remote facilities, and used by a few data centers and operations control facilities. To support transfer of information from remote to central sites, a communications network must be in place that can handle the volume of information being sent, as well as reach all the locations required for each system. NYCT has an extensive communications network (called the Async Network) within the New York City metropolitan area that has been used to interconnect our various train operations systems (e.g., signaling, mechanical, electrical). This network is based on older technology that does not handle data traffic very well (this network was initially designed to carry TDM – Time Domain Multiplexing – traffic such as voice and legacy data services). However, newer systems being deployed are all based on more complex data networking paradigms. As a result, the Async Network is being replaced by a modern communications network (called SONET/ATM Network) that will be able to more effectively support current and future needs of security and train operations systems. Many of the newer critical security systems were never envisioned during the planning and engineering of the SONET/ATM network back in the late-1990s. As a result, the SONET/ATM network was not sized to handle the additional bandwidth. An additional, parallel network could not be built to handle the high-capacity communications needs of emerging security systems. Thus, major modifications to the SONET/ATM network (that is still being constructed) are required to support these needs. Aside from these networking challenges, the introduction of these security systems resulted in the need to coordinate with outside agencies. This coordination spans both business and operational procedures, and requires opening up parts of our internal network to outside agencies. This paper provides information on the evolution of NYCT’s network design, as security requirements are being developed and coordinated. Section 1 provides a brief overview of our networks. A brief description of the security systems is contained in Sections 2 and 3. Section 4 discusses the impacts of the security systems on the network build-out.