Scope Purpose The analysis of network outages has historically been analyzed by the NRSC or by NRSC study teams that have been established to address a particular area of concern to either the FCC or the NRSC. These studies have been extremely valuable and have resulted in documented improvements to the reliability@ interoperability@ and security of the communications network. These NRSC study teams@ in order to more effectively analyze data from network disruptive events@ have identified a need to develop a consistent categorization system for the equipment involved in these events. To address this need@ the NRSC has requested that this categorization system meet the following criteria: ? The equipment categorization system should be consistent@ if possible@ with other industry classification systems (e.g.@ TL 9000). ? The equipment categorization system should extend to include equipment for both converged and next generation networks. ? The equipment categories should facilitate the association of the network outage data to the equipment involved in that outage. ? The equipment categories should consider the following human factors in the recommendation: 1) user-friendly (i.e.@ intuitive)@ 2) and web friendly (i.e.@ flat structure).