41–50 of 64 posts
I have long been thinking that the NSA must have some high capacity "black" cables to help the surveillance of the internet. Primarily to capture data, sending all the captured data back through the public internet would be counterproductive.
A 5eye private subsea network?
I would assume other countries have some for similar reasons
How do these cables split in the middle of the ocean? Is there a fiber switch laying on the ocean floor?
If fiber cables like these are possible, why not pneumatic tubes maybe 1 meter in diameter. Think of the economic and environmental implications!
Given all the compute infrastructure in Ireland, I'm surprised it still has no direct connection to continental Europe (they all go through the UK first).
The interactive online version is available here: https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
I love these maps, and I'm glad they provide downloads like [1]. I wish the resolution was a bit higher. As it is the names of the towns on the coasts can be read with difficulty. [1] https://submarine-cable-map-2023.telegeography.com/images/Su...
Wow, that map is very political. Israel is not mentioned by name, but the Palestinian Territories are.
There's a rotating sphere at the top of the map, but part of it is black, and apparently you're not supposed to use it? It's just decoration? You scroll down to what you think is the map, but it immediately gets covered by a caption, so you scroll down more ... It turns out that downloads for the actual map are at the top of the page.
...but only after you scroll all the way to the bottom. What a horrible design.
Fortunately mmwelt posted another link for exploring:
It's amazing how many cables there are routing through the Suez Canal, especially directly connecting Mumbai all the way through to Marseille. I wonder how well protected they are specifically in the Suez Canal. Presumably the whole area is pretty well surveilled by the Egyptian government, but I have no clue. I just think it's really interesting how many cables are (understandably) routed this way and wonder whether…
How do these cables split in the middle of the ocean? Is there a fiber switch laying on the ocean floor?
There are repeaters on the cable every ~50-200km (depending on technology), powered by DC power carried on the cable. There are branching units powered the same way -- I believe they handle branching at the fiber level, rather than waves, but not sure of the specifics on modern DWDM cables. (they can run ~80-160 different frequencies of light on the same fiber, and the cables contain multiple fibers...)