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Submarine Cable Map 2014

submarine-cable-map-2014.telegeography.com

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Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#71

Post by pllbnk »

mentat wrote: post #59

The lack of interconnect between Africa and South America is interesting. Wouldn't that be a better route with other transatlantic failures than moving to Pacific transit? Surveillance issue?

A few weeks ago I read an article on undersea cables somewhere. I think it was posted on HN. It mentioned about a planned cable between South America and Europe for exactly the reasons you mentioned. A quick duckduckgo gave me this link: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2174686/data-center/eu-m.... It mentions the NSA surveillance as one of the unofficial reasons for laying this cable.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#72

Post by sanoli »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #6

I recommend 'A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable' by John Steele Gordon. [1] From description, "But in 1866, the Old and New Worlds were united by the successful laying of a cable across the Atlantic. John Steele Gordon's book chronicles this extraordinary achievement -- the brainchild of American businessman Cyrus Field and one of the greatest engineering feats of the nineteenth ce…

Also check out "The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers"

http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteen...

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#73

Post by runeks »

dfox wrote: post #56
runeks wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will notice that almost all the cables are laid out in a ring shape. For example, check out the TAT-14 cable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14#mediaviewer/File:Map_TA... If only a single cable break occurs, every point is still reachable from every other point -- the worst thing that happens is that ping times might increase because the packets will have to travel a longer route. This layout is called a self-…

As typical L2 technology for such cables is SDH/SONET, the difference in latency after single ring failure tends to not be noticeable for normal IP traffic.

Interesting. Can you expand on this? How is that possible?

If we take the TAT-14 example again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14#mediaviewer/File:Map_TA...

How will the ping times not increase dramatically from Bude (UK) to Saint-Valery-en-Caux (FR) if the connection between them breaks?

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#74

Post by Havoc »

analyticsjam wrote: post #51

I spent a few years supporting these from the financial end. Modern cables are built in a loop so that they automatically fail-over. For instance, most Trans-Atlantic cables have pops in New York, Florida, England, and mainland Europe. If there is a cut in one segment, traffic automatically switches to the other. Most customers these days are also on products that mux across these cables. So, if your Trans-Atlantic c…

>Modern cables are built in a loop so that they automatically fail-over.

I know of a company that did this on a regional network - ring physical layout. Only to discover that murphy's law never fails to deliver and the SLAs suffered as a result. They switched to multiple interlocking rings soon thereafter.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#75

Post by Havoc »

justincormack wrote: post #7
RankingMember wrote: post #2

It still amazes me that we laid giant bundles of cabling at the bottom of the ocean and they're as reliable as they are.

Especially given the first one laid in 1850 failed within hours http://atlantic-cable.com/stamps/Cableships/indexstc.htm

True. Then again my grandfather led the charge on laying one under decidedly difficult conditions and that thing is still live (carries insignificant traffic though...mostly for backup).

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#76

Post by jimktrains2 »

elsjaako wrote: post #68
jimktrains2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> James M. Barrett, a former deputy director of international engineering for AT&T , said that there were 55,000 or 60,000 miles of old undersea cable made out of copper that did not have a single case of shark biting, meaning sharks prefer to snack on fiber optic cables specifically. It is believed that the electrical current in the fiber-optic lines attract the sharks, triggering a feeding reflex. "electrical curre…

I think that electrical cables have pretty low current. The fiber optic ones need to power amplifiers, so they have quite a bit of power going through.

I guess I figured copper wire would also required amplification.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#77

Post by MichaelGG »

analyticsjam wrote: post #51

I spent a few years supporting these from the financial end. Modern cables are built in a loop so that they automatically fail-over. For instance, most Trans-Atlantic cables have pops in New York, Florida, England, and mainland Europe. If there is a cut in one segment, traffic automatically switches to the other. Most customers these days are also on products that mux across these cables. So, if your Trans-Atlantic c…

So if someone can cut them with their clippers by accident, certainly a malicious actor could wreak tons of havoc? Why does this not seem to occur? Even from a juvenile "hey I turned off the Internet lol" kind of level?

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#78

Post by MichaelGG »

analyticsjam wrote: post #51

I spent a few years supporting these from the financial end. Modern cables are built in a loop so that they automatically fail-over. For instance, most Trans-Atlantic cables have pops in New York, Florida, England, and mainland Europe. If there is a cut in one segment, traffic automatically switches to the other. Most customers these days are also on products that mux across these cables. So, if your Trans-Atlantic c…

So if someone can cut them with their clippers by accident, certainly a malicious actor could wreak tons of havoc? Why does this not seem to occur? Even from a juvenile "hey I turned off the Internet lol" kind of level?

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#79

Post by jimktrains2 »

tsomctl wrote: post #69
jimktrains2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> James M. Barrett, a former deputy director of international engineering for AT&T , said that there were 55,000 or 60,000 miles of old undersea cable made out of copper that did not have a single case of shark biting, meaning sharks prefer to snack on fiber optic cables specifically. It is believed that the electrical current in the fiber-optic lines attract the sharks, triggering a feeding reflex. "electrical curre…

Fiber optic wire has a very high voltage wire to power the amplifiers. (Interestingly, it's only one. The ocean water provides the return path.)

I guess I figured copper wire would also required amplification.

Interesting on the return path. Where does the source connect i.e. one side of the "battery" goes to the amplifier (which returns to the sea, not the battery) and the other side of the battery goes to where? the sea?

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#80

Post by ChuckMcM »

MichaelGG wrote: post #77
analyticsjam wrote: post #51

I spent a few years supporting these from the financial end. Modern cables are built in a loop so that they automatically fail-over. For instance, most Trans-Atlantic cables have pops in New York, Florida, England, and mainland Europe. If there is a cut in one segment, traffic automatically switches to the other. Most customers these days are also on products that mux across these cables. So, if your Trans-Atlantic c…

So if someone can cut them with their clippers by accident, certainly a malicious actor could wreak tons of havoc? Why does this not seem to occur? Even from a juvenile "hey I turned off the Internet lol" kind of level?

As I recall there have already been cases of cutting cables to move traffic to other cables which have better monitoring capability. But as for the lulz, I expect that even the most naive of folks who might do this understand that it would get them some serious prison time, and there would be a huge amount of effort put into catching them and making an example out of them. Not quite worth it I'd expect.

That said, we've had folks take sniper shots at power substations in California[1], which can cut power to big chunks of real estate.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26419083/pg-e-substat...

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