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What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

nrk.no

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Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#21

> The current is used to amplify the fibre optic signals that flow through the 1300km long cables between the peninsula and the Norwegian mainland. This is magic to me. Anyone have a search term I could use to better understand how electricity is used to boost a fibre optic signal?

I don’t know about this cable specifically, but it can be done by transferring more power to the optical signal.

Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers work by utilizing a nonlinear optical effect where energy is transferred from a pump laser to the signal. This is in principle possible in any optical (glass) fiber, but by doping with exotic elements, the amplification characteristics can be optimized. Erbium is suitable for the conventional communication wavelengths.

For reference I have a PhD in information theory and signal processing for fiber channels.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article details how certain russian trawlers criss-crossed a lot over another cable in Norway that broke some time before... ...and then the same trawlers were in the vicinity of this cable in Svalbard when another trawler criss-crossed over it until it broke (In Norwegian but hopefully Google Translate will do an OK job and mainly graphics) https://www.nrk.no/nordland/xl/russiske-tralere-krysset-kabl...

Criss crossing is quite normal behavior btw. I see it all the time here at the North Sea near England.

Sure, but that also makes it an ideal cover story too.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#23
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The optical signal repeaters that are part of the cable every N kilometers need power to do their job.

Ohh there’s physical electronic repeaters. Okay. I thought this was some sort of electromagnetism witchcraft.

There is still some witchcraft. Look up "optical pumping amplifier" for instance.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#24

> The critically important cable that connects Svalbard to the mainland is no thicker than a pinkie finger This is amazing. I wonder how much data per unit of time this is capable of transporting. Wikipedia says "Each segment has a speed of 10 gigabits per second (Gb/s), with a future potential capacity of 2,500 Gbit/s." [1] Wikipedia also notes that NASA helped fund this system. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sva…

I think NASA helped fund it because they wanted more (And more reliable) data to a groundstation on the island, not because this subsea cable is anything special.

Fibre optic is great because you can usually add more bandwidth by lighting up another wavelength. The amplifiers don't need to be substituted if the wavelength is within its range.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#25

> The current is used to amplify the fibre optic signals that flow through the 1300km long cables between the peninsula and the Norwegian mainland. This is magic to me. Anyone have a search term I could use to better understand how electricity is used to boost a fibre optic signal?

I don’t know about this cable specifically, but it can be done by transferring more power to the optical signal. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers work by utilizing a nonlinear optical effect where energy is transferred from a pump laser to the signal. This is in principle possible in any optical (glass) fiber, but by doping with exotic elements, the amplification characteristics can be optimized. Erbium is suitable for…

Comments like this are why I love HN!

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#26

> The critically important cable that connects Svalbard to the mainland is no thicker than a pinkie finger This is amazing. I wonder how much data per unit of time this is capable of transporting. Wikipedia says "Each segment has a speed of 10 gigabits per second (Gb/s), with a future potential capacity of 2,500 Gbit/s." [1] Wikipedia also notes that NASA helped fund this system. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sva…

Locals liked to say they had the best internet connection in the worlds, idk about that. NASA is a customer of the satellite station there.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#27
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"NRK has previously reported how a Russian trawler crossed the Svalbad cable more than 140 times, and more than a dozen times before the damage occurred in January 2022. The shipowners have denied having anything to do with the damage." The norwegians seem to think it was a russian trawler and that trawler doesn't exclude the possiblity that russians did it.

Yeah the Russians also used "trawlers" to hide their recovery operations of KAL007 to hide their mass murder. Trawler does not mean unintentional or not state related.

Wow, the Russians shot down another plane. I never heard of KAL007 and thought MH17 was the first time this happened. Did any other nation states ever shoot down passenger airplanes?

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the Russians also used "trawlers" to hide their recovery operations of KAL007 to hide their mass murder. Trawler does not mean unintentional or not state related.

Wow, the Russians shot down another plane. I never heard of KAL007 and thought MH17 was the first time this happened. Did any other nation states ever shoot down passenger airplanes?

Full list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airliner_shootdown_inc...

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the Russians also used "trawlers" to hide their recovery operations of KAL007 to hide their mass murder. Trawler does not mean unintentional or not state related.

Wow, the Russians shot down another plane. I never heard of KAL007 and thought MH17 was the first time this happened. Did any other nation states ever shoot down passenger airplanes?

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752

Siberia Airlines Flight 1812

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#30
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was January 2022. Didn’t the alleged Russian interference happen later, during the invasion of Ukraine?

Maybe you're thinking about Nord Stream

What would the Russian motivation be for blowing that up? They could have just turned off the gas supply.
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