[Report] Drones Spotted at KT Guro Exchange... A Look into Emergency Communication Network Recovery Training

Ministry of Science and ICT Conducts Joint Simulation Drill with Four Major Telecom Companies and Related Agencies for Emergency Restoration of Communication Services

In the afternoon of the 24th, an unauthorized drone appeared over KT Guro Exchange Station. This was a joint emergency communication service restoration drill conducted in coordination with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the four major telecommunications companies, Gwanak District Office, and other related organizations. Photo by Cha Min-young

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] "Emergency! Unauthorized drones have appeared in the airspace."

At around 3:30 PM on the 24th, unauthorized drones appeared over the KT Guro Exchange, a key telecommunications infrastructure facility. The drones dropped bombs on the exchange, causing fires and numerous injuries. The nearby 52nd Division was dispatched and, together with the police, conducted a joint operation to apprehend the drone operator hiding nearby. However, some telecommunications infrastructure, including KEPCO's utility poles and incoming cables, was destroyed by the fire. The Guro Exchange, which serves as a gateway for the government's backbone network, also covers nearby areas such as Geumcheon-gu, Gwanak-gu, and Guro-gu, making the damage unavoidable.

It is a chilling moment if one thinks it is an actual terrorist incident. However, the emergency situation on that day was part of a simulated drill conducted in conjunction with the government's Eulji Exercise. The Ministry of Science and ICT conducted a joint simulation exercise for about an hour at the Guro Exchange located in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, involving four telecommunications companies and related agencies to practice emergency restoration of communication services.

Hong Jin-bae, Director of Network Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, and Seo Chang-seok, Vice President and Head of KT Network Division, along with other officials, are observing the site.

The core of the exercise was how quickly and accurately the response and recovery would be carried out after a communication network failure. Immediately after the incident, a multilateral real-time video conference was held connecting KT Guro Exchange, KT Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters, and the Ministry of Science and ICT Disaster Situation Room.

After receiving a report from KT, the Ministry of Science and ICT Disaster Situation Room began a situation assessment meeting for communication disaster response. Following the standard manual, they issued a crisis response level and instructed the Communication Safety Management Center to cooperate with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to send disaster alert messages.

The baton was passed to the KT Gwacheon Control Center, which reported the damage situation caused by the Guro Exchange bombing. A Gwacheon Control Center official said, "Due to the bombing of the Guro Exchange, in-app cables and others were damaged, affecting nationwide Internet TV, internet phones, and wireless devices, but services are being provided normally nationwide through rerouting," adding, "However, urgent damage recovery is needed in nearby areas directly affected." The communication service outage was disclosed on the homepage and communicated to the customer center. From then on, reports continued on whether nationwide rerouted communication was proceeding normally.

In the three affected areas, disaster Wi-Fi was first broadcast. Following the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'open' order, each telecom company broadcast commercial Wi-Fi, which was detected on consumers' smartphones under the name 'SSID (Public WiFi Emergency)'. Small business owners were able to temporarily operate emergency payment systems (POS devices and card payment) by connecting via USB cable and activating the phone's tethering function according to the guidance messages. Even customers who used SK Telecom's wired internet could connect tethering using smartphones on KT or LG Uplus networks regardless of their telecom provider.

Meanwhile, emergency recovery was underway. For wireless mobile phones, emergency recovery work was carried out using the electric battery attached to the electric vehicle 'Ioniq.' This involved increasing the output of nearby base stations and connecting to a vehicle or pole-type mobile base station to temporarily restore service. It is expected that in disaster situations such as large wildfires, nearby undamaged base stations can be used to temporarily utilize wireless networks.

5G Emergency Recovery Solution Utilizing Electric Batteries Built into Electric Vehicles

For internet and TV services, wireless networks were connected using the 5G emergency recovery solution. Thirteen TV channels were provided. This solution is planned to be expanded through miniaturization development. During the recent heavy rains, the 5G emergency recovery solution was also used for about 400 households in an apartment complex in Suji, Yongin, where optical cables were lost. After KT's recovery was completed, the Ministry of Science and ICT ended the crisis alert level.

Although not included in the day's drill, the Ministry of Science and ICT will also improve the disaster roaming system. Disaster roaming, which allows users to access services through other telecom companies' wireless networks with their existing mobile devices during regional wireless network failures, will have its capacity expanded. The disaster roaming capacity is planned to increase from 2 million to 3 million users by the end of the year.

Hong Jin-bae, Director of the Network Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Through this drill, we were able to vividly confirm the recovery methods and procedures for responding to communication failures," adding, "The idea of mobile base stations prepared for power outage situations stood out and is expected to be useful in emergencies."

He continued, "We prepared measures throughout the first half of the year following the KT network failure in October last year, and we were able to confirm the implementation results well," emphasizing, "Small business owners had a lot of difficulties and inconveniences due to payment failures, but (the tethering-linked support) is a meaningful auxiliary measure that can drastically reduce damage."