Travanca and André
188
8.5 Opportunities and Recommendations
The communication sector is becoming increasingly important in our modern society
as communication within social, economic and industrial systems is becoming increasingly digital, wireless and interdependent, consumer market is globally expanding and
there is an escalating offer/demand input. Standing on the edge of the 5G technological
revolution, because of its scale, scope and complexity, its impact on society involves
remarkable opportunities and benefits, but also large threats. It is not possible to know
yet just how it will unfold, but one thing seems clear: the process must be an integrated
and comprehensive initiative, involving all stakeholders, both from the public and private sectors, to academia and civil society.
Communication structures are critical infrastructures. One of today’s most pressing
challenges is to allocate limited resources to reduce as low as reasonable practicable the
risks posed by natural and/or man‐made hazards to these key physical infrastructures.
Failure to do so will certainly have enormous consequences, as the value at risk is massive. Not by the economic value of the physical infrastructures themselves but because
the present and future society welfare and sustainable development strongly depend
on the capability of this system to continue to progress and to provide reliable public
services and to adapt to our civilisation evolution.
Management of key physical infrastructures of communication networks can
be achieved by adapting the existing or developing new standards and design
methodologies.
Existing codes were calibrated so as to assure performance expectations focusing on
the single asset level and based on historical practice, but with significant limitations in
certain fields. Current code design philosophies continue to be mainly based on prescriptive rules, many of them calibrated only at the individual element level, from which
the final design solution is deemed to satisfy a variety of different goals. When the engineer is confronted with an omission on the code about a given problem, related for
instance to modelling or human errors, generally there is no other option than to resort
to heuristic methods such as what is considered to represent good practice. The more
subtle aspects of this approach are based on intuition, and are often referred to as “engineering judgement”. However, examples abound of new issues and new problems, where
the experience of previous work does not provide an adequate guide due to structural
or economical aspects.
Furthermore, uncertainties can appear in the process of extrapolating past experience
to existing problems due to differences in the current and past design methodologies.
An evident example where such problems will arise is the planning, analysis, design,
construction and management of key physical infrastructure of the communication
networks. Additionally, there is a lack of recommendations and guidance towards resilience‐based design, including adequate consideration of climate change effects on key
physical infrastructures. Therefore, the present basis for design does not assure optimal
design in terms of resources allocation and risk acceptance. The traditional standards‐
based approach is becoming increasingly inadequate to handle the allocation of limited
resources for key physical infrastructures plan, design, operation or management, in a
climate of growing public scrutiny.
In order to develop a methodological guide with recommendations to achieve more
effective standards and design methodologies, it is indispensable to determine the
188
8.5 Opportunities and Recommendations
The communication sector is becoming increasingly important in our modern society
as communication within social, economic and industrial systems is becoming increasingly digital, wireless and interdependent, consumer market is globally expanding and
there is an escalating offer/demand input. Standing on the edge of the 5G technological
revolution, because of its scale, scope and complexity, its impact on society involves
remarkable opportunities and benefits, but also large threats. It is not possible to know
yet just how it will unfold, but one thing seems clear: the process must be an integrated
and comprehensive initiative, involving all stakeholders, both from the public and private sectors, to academia and civil society.
Communication structures are critical infrastructures. One of today’s most pressing
challenges is to allocate limited resources to reduce as low as reasonable practicable the
risks posed by natural and/or man‐made hazards to these key physical infrastructures.
Failure to do so will certainly have enormous consequences, as the value at risk is massive. Not by the economic value of the physical infrastructures themselves but because
the present and future society welfare and sustainable development strongly depend
on the capability of this system to continue to progress and to provide reliable public
services and to adapt to our civilisation evolution.
Management of key physical infrastructures of communication networks can
be achieved by adapting the existing or developing new standards and design
methodologies.
Existing codes were calibrated so as to assure performance expectations focusing on
the single asset level and based on historical practice, but with significant limitations in
certain fields. Current code design philosophies continue to be mainly based on prescriptive rules, many of them calibrated only at the individual element level, from which
the final design solution is deemed to satisfy a variety of different goals. When the engineer is confronted with an omission on the code about a given problem, related for
instance to modelling or human errors, generally there is no other option than to resort
to heuristic methods such as what is considered to represent good practice. The more
subtle aspects of this approach are based on intuition, and are often referred to as “engineering judgement”. However, examples abound of new issues and new problems, where
the experience of previous work does not provide an adequate guide due to structural
or economical aspects.
Furthermore, uncertainties can appear in the process of extrapolating past experience
to existing problems due to differences in the current and past design methodologies.
An evident example where such problems will arise is the planning, analysis, design,
construction and management of key physical infrastructure of the communication
networks. Additionally, there is a lack of recommendations and guidance towards resilience‐based design, including adequate consideration of climate change effects on key
physical infrastructures. Therefore, the present basis for design does not assure optimal
design in terms of resources allocation and risk acceptance. The traditional standards‐
based approach is becoming increasingly inadequate to handle the allocation of limited
resources for key physical infrastructures plan, design, operation or management, in a
climate of growing public scrutiny.
In order to develop a methodological guide with recommendations to achieve more
effective standards and design methodologies, it is indispensable to determine the