Live data from Hacker News

What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

nrk.no

41–50 of 264 posts

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've wondered in the past: is there an actual theoretical upper limit based on the physicality of it on the bandwidth of a single fibre link?

Shannon bound. But it's very large. I don't think we're anywhere close with current DWDM emitter/detector technology.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#42
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?

For completeness: the US navy shot down an Iranian airliner.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered in the past: is there an actual theoretical upper limit based on the physicality of it on the bandwidth of a single fibre link?

Shannon bound. But it's very large. I don't think we're anywhere close with current DWDM emitter/detector technology.

OS2 single mode fibre is pretty future proof. The transceivers may change, but the underlying cable should last a looong time and can be sliced and diced considerably with WDM (16+ channels AFAIK).

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#47
post #15

TLDR; it probably wasn't the russians, most likely a trawler.

If by "the russians" you mean russian defence, I can guarantee they would use something as inconspicuous as a trawler for the job rather than a combat vehicle

For the curious - google “tanker Minerva Julie Nord Stream”. While officially the tanker is Greek, it is tightly connected to Russia.

I’d be looking for the key places in international waters and the likes needed to be cut simultaneously to say paralyze Europe banking and other infrastructure and would be checking whether there are Russian (and affiliated like that Minerva company) “trawlers” with a habit of hanging around those places.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#48
post #34

This reminds me of a story in "Blind Man's Bluff," summary: [Capt James F. Bradley Jr.] was at his office in Naval Intelligence one day at 3 a.m. when the St. Louis native began reflecting on his boyhood life on the Mississippi River. As he later told the authors, he recalled that the river beach was dotted with signs warning, “Cable Crossing — Do Not Anchor,” so a boater would not foul the cable. At that point, he w…

Is it possible to tap fiber-optic cables without the owner getting wise? Even if you could tap modern cables, I assume everything is now encrypted and carries so much bandwidth that it becomes possible to sample the interesting intelligence.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#49
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

For completeness: the US navy shot down an Iranian airliner.

The "full list" posted earlier has that one on it.

Re: What the damaged Svalbard cable looked like

#50

Had a case in Canada where a fisherman ignored the maps and kept picking up a fibre optic line with their fishing gear, and eventually cut it with a saw (twice): (I suspect it was a short-haul line, so carried no electricity for amplifiers) https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2011/2011fc494/2011fc49... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peracomo_Inc_v_TELUS_Communica... > In 2005, however, he managed to pull up the Sunoq…

TL;DR of the court cases: the fisherman was guilty of damages to the tune of $1.2M, and his insurance cover was voided because his act was so reckless.

Funnily enough, the cable owners (Telus) tried to thread the needle of making the owner liable, but not so badly that insurance wouldn't pay for it. The judge didn't buy this, and obviously a sole operator crab boat can't pay over a million in damages (although he did lose his boat), so in the end everybody except the insurance company got screwed.

Post reply on HN