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Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

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Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#61
post #49
post #32

Does it do EU in < 40ms?

No. Speed of light caps it to around 100ms theoretical if memory serves. With practical below 160 being unlikely

Surface distance Cape Town London is 9673 km which corresponds to 33 ms rounded up at light speed (one way).

Surface distance Seattle Berlin is 8143 km which corresponds to 28 ms rounded up at light speed (one way).

Now, these are distances when travelling across earth's curved surface. Neutrino canons or (quite impossible to ever build them) cables in earth's upper mantle would achieve even faster communication. Also, they correspond to direct connections and don't involve putting the cable into international waters far away from any government trying to get some extra bucks from you. The aerospace industry has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to be able to travel through airspace of a particular country.

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#62

Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn’t fathom we’re actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.

If he thinks that's amazing. Tell him about how Five Eyes and Russia managed to tap those cables!

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#63

This cable has a design capacity of ~320Tbps with 16 fiber pairs. The previously announced transatlantic cable, Dunant cable has 12 fiber pairs and a 250Tbps design capacity. These values could probably increase to around 480Tbps and 360Tbps with more advanced optical transmission equipment.

That kind of bandwidth capacity is almost unfathomable

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#64

Anybody remember Google Fiber? Makes you wonder if this may be hit with similar issues. IE: it takes longer than they anticipated, it costs more than anticipated etc..

Last mile internet and backbone internet services are two different businesses operating by two different rules.

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#65

Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn’t fathom we’re actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.

I heartily recommend Andrew Blum's book Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet for any non-technical folks interested in the physical infrastructure that makes all that internet magic happen. It's more in the travel memoir/popular history genres than actual engineering, but a very atmospheric layman's introduction. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes And of course, if you're ever in SW England, the M…

If you want to go back to where it all began, I recommend "A Thread Across the Ocean" by John Steele Gordon:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/410958.A_Thread_Across_t...

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#66

Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn’t fathom we’re actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.

I heartily recommend Andrew Blum's book Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet for any non-technical folks interested in the physical infrastructure that makes all that internet magic happen. It's more in the travel memoir/popular history genres than actual engineering, but a very atmospheric layman's introduction. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes And of course, if you're ever in SW England, the M…

Andrew Blum's Ted talk https://youtu.be/XE_FPEFpHt4?t=292

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#67
post #46

Side question: why is the Middle East not connected to India in the map[1] over Google’s fiber? [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images...

https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/ shows it is connected. The number of cables going through the suez canal is notable.

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#68

This cable has a design capacity of ~320Tbps with 16 fiber pairs. The previously announced transatlantic cable, Dunant cable has 12 fiber pairs and a 250Tbps design capacity. These values could probably increase to around 480Tbps and 360Tbps with more advanced optical transmission equipment.

That kind of bandwidth capacity is almost unfathomable

[deleted]

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#69
post #54
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We run lots of DC stuff in Cape Town and the connection to Europe is excellent. Which data center are you using? Something does not sound right here - perhaps faulty hardware, dodgy datacenter or similar. If you want, I can refer you several reputable providers.

"If you want, I can refer you several reputable providers." In Cape Town? I would have thought the best/only provider would be Hetzner South Africa? If you could recommend more, of similar quality, that would be appreciated.

There are several. Teraco is probably the best, then you have IS, Liquid Telecom, Vox, Hetzner, Vodacom. I think those all have tier 3 DC's in CPT, but you should call them to confirm.

Re: Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

#70
post #61
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Speed of light caps it to around 100ms theoretical if memory serves. With practical below 160 being unlikely

Surface distance Cape Town London is 9673 km which corresponds to 33 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Surface distance Seattle Berlin is 8143 km which corresponds to 28 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Now, these are distances when travelling across earth's curved surface. Neutrino canons or (quite impossible to ever build them) cables in earth's upper mantle would achieve even faster communication. Als…

>London is 9673 km

Closer to 15k via ocean hence the 100ms theoretical. The other 60ms is gear overhead.

But yeah if you could lay the cable as a crow flies then closer to 66

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