61–70 of 103 posts
Unrelated, but if interested in ocean cables check out “A Thread Across the Ocean” by Steele. It’s the story of the first transatlantic cable. It’s a riveting read that is hard to put down. Full of interesting technical details intertwined with the stories of the characters involved. Highly recommended!
When they say a single cable can deliver 340 Tbps capacity, do they mean a single fiber strand, or a bundle of strands in a sheath that we know as "cables"?
Generally the throughput for a single mode fibre in the C + L Bands (the wavelength regions used for telecom applications), is about 100 Tbit/s for a one span link (50-100km) for a submarine cable across transatlantic distances IIRC the record is around 50-70 Tbit/s. This is research demonstrations, so the 340 Tbit/s would be for a cable with plenty redundancy. Also note that fibres are used in one direction only (on…
I wonder how long it will be before we see the first hollow-core fiber subsea cables. They are 50% faster, and tests from the last year or two have seen record low signal losses. https://www.laserfocusworld.com/fiber-optics/article/1419605... https://www.ofsoptics.com/wp-content/uploads/Hollow-Core-Fib...
I might be totally wrong; It seems likely to me that, due to capillary action, if a hollow undersea fiber gets physically cut then seawater would flow into the hollow center. The ends of the fiber might be at different depths with a pressure difference that could move water a long way into the fiber. I imagine the length that water got into would be ruined even if the water was pushed out again. I conjecture that und…
And, a hole that small in a block of glass could withstand a titanic amount of pressure.
The internet includes many components: semiconductors/electronics/chips, hardware, fiber optics, communication systems, networking, wireless, software, etc. There is a lot of work that must be done in different parts of this stack for this system to work. Yet, the private sector focuses mostly on the software part, or services. I have rarely seen a start up on improving optical fiber or electronic chips. The public s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally the throughput for a single mode fibre in the C + L Bands (the wavelength regions used for telecom applications), is about 100 Tbit/s for a one span link (50-100km) for a submarine cable across transatlantic distances IIRC the record is around 50-70 Tbit/s. This is research demonstrations, so the 340 Tbit/s would be for a cable with plenty redundancy. Also note that fibres are used in one direction only (on…
It seems like the expense would be in the armored outer cable, repeaters, and labor for laying the cable but perhaps at those distances the glass cost matters? Still it seems like you'd want to cram as many fibers into the cable as possible. There must be some limiting factor that prevents you from putting 1000 strands or 10,000 strands in a single cable.
The internet includes many components: semiconductors/electronics/chips, hardware, fiber optics, communication systems, networking, wireless, software, etc. There is a lot of work that must be done in different parts of this stack for this system to work. Yet, the private sector focuses mostly on the software part, or services. I have rarely seen a start up on improving optical fiber or electronic chips. The public s…
Tragedy of the commons, its the same reason there are big car companies but not big road companies.
The internet includes many components: semiconductors/electronics/chips, hardware, fiber optics, communication systems, networking, wireless, software, etc. There is a lot of work that must be done in different parts of this stack for this system to work. Yet, the private sector focuses mostly on the software part, or services. I have rarely seen a start up on improving optical fiber or electronic chips. The public s…
It does? I don't think I follow. In your list of components, every single one of those is, at least in the US, largely or almost entirely handled by private companies.
The big semiconductor companies are private. I actually don't think there are any notable public entities that make their own chips. Hardware companies (I'm assuming you're talking about things like motherboards, routers, switches, etc) are private. Fiber optics/communications/networks are laid almost entirely by private telecom companies (and there's actually a big push to take this away from private companies and make ISPs be government entities). The article that you're commenting on is all about a private entity investing money into laying fiber and improving the protocols that communicate over it.
>I have rarely seen a start up on improving optical fiber or electronic chips.
There are a lot of SMBs working on chip design. I'm less familiar with fiber, but a quick google shows at least a couple, all private.