Lawful interception: Equipment installed in Delhi & Bangalore

To automate the process of lawful interception of telephone and internet services, government has set up centralised data centres in Delhi and Bengaluru while servers have been installed at locations of telcos.
The government had in June 2011 approved a centralised monitoring system (CMS) to automate the process of lawful interception and monitoring of communications like voice, data, SMS and internet. For the purpose, the Centre had allocated a sum of Rs 400 crore.
Sources said, as part of the project, installation of equipment at centralised data centre (CMC), Delhi and disaster recovery site at Bengaluru has been completed and testing is in progress.

"Installation of the interception store and forward (ISF) server at all the 195 locations of telecom service providers has also been completed," the source said.
The source further said that sites have been finalised for setting up regional monitoring centres (RMCs) at all 21 locations except J&K and civil and electrical works are completed for 14 locations while for 6 locations, the work is on the verge of completion.
"The equipment has been procured for 14 regional centres and installation is under progress," the source said.

However, the source did not elaborate on the timing of the completion of the project but said in the first phase, Delhi and Bengaluru sites will be commissioned followed by other sites.

"On commissioning, the sites will be handed over to Department of Telecom (DoT) for operation and maintenance of the system and support infrastructure," the source said.
The source added DoT will deploy the manpower for carrying out functions of interception and monitoring.
As per the architecture of CMS, it will have central and regional database which will help central and state level law enforcement agencies in interception and monitoring.
Analysis of call data records will help in establishing linkage between anti-national and anti-social elements.
The CMS will have a centralised data centre (CMC) and disaster recovery site, which are housed in C-DOT campus in Delhi and Bangaluru.

These data centres are linked to regional monitoring centres, one each in each licenced area. India has 22 telecom service areas. The centralised data centres will be connected to the regional centres by BSNL network.
Further, the regional centres will be connected to all the licenced telecom service providers and each law enforcement agency in that area.
"There are four nodes: CMC, RMC, ISF server at telecom operators site and lawful interception and monitoring equipment at law enforcement agencies," sources said.