Submarine Cable Map 2014 • Hacker News Board

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#81

Post by mikeyouse » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 8:59 PM UTC

runeks wrote: post #73

dfox wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The total length of the cable is 'only' 15,428km. So the maximum one-way latency between any two points is only ~70ms assuming 0.7C. You'd definitely notice if you were gaming, but probably not if you were watching YouTube.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#82

Post by sgustard » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 9:43 PM UTC

arc_of_descent wrote: post #5

Does each cable actually lie at the sea bed? What if the route comes across a really deep part of the ocean?

That's answered in the linked map.

"Beyond 1500 meters from the shoreline, builders typically lay unarmored cable directly on the seabed ... a few reach depths greater than 8000 meters."

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#83

Post by rbanffy » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 9:48 PM UTC

When a telco hired me (they were the owners of the portal I worked for) I got, as a gift, a book with beautiful maps detailing where their fiber network, down to street corner level. I called it the Modern Terrorist Manual.

With that book in hand (and I don't know how many copies were actually made) any resourceful bad guy could knock off about 60% of Brazil's phone and data network.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#84

Post by kissickas » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:18 PM UTC

ape4 wrote: post #27

kissickas wrote: post #9

Does anyone know of a map where I can select two locations and find the shortest path (via submarine cable, obviously) between them? By the way, this is a nice one. Happy to see that I can scroll indefinitely in one direction.

traceroute :)

While that's not exclusively following submarine cables, it is of course the more practical and useful solution to the problem. Thanks.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#85

Post by cgusto » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:36 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #83

When a telco hired me (they were the owners of the portal I worked for) I got, as a gift, a book with beautiful maps detailing where their fiber network, down to street corner level. I called it the Modern Terrorist Manual. With that book in hand (and I don't know how many copies were actually made) any resourceful bad guy could knock off about 60% of Brazil's phone and data network.

Yes, it is scary when you realize how susceptible some of this infrastructure is.

Reminds me of an instance in 2009. I was working in Santa Cruz, CA. I was configuring some of our servers remotely, when suddenly I lost internet connection. The whole office was out. VoIP was down - no signal on my cell phone as well. I went to the front desk and tried the land line. No dial tone.

This was weird.

I saw a few people from other offices milling about the courtyard. I went outside. They were all experiencing the same thing. A few of us went to Starbucks. Couldn’t buy coffee because their registers were down.

At this point, people were starting to leave their offices in droves. Santa Cruz PD actually began to have a few officers walk around the area, since no one could make phone calls.

The only thing that worked was Verizon cell phones. These were being passed around so people could make calls (data did not work however).

All in all, this lasted about 6 hours.

This was caused by a single frustrated former ATT employee. He just went in and clipped some fiber lines and left.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344762,00.asp

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#86

Post by alexqgb » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:36 PM UTC

pchristensen wrote: post #35

_ilv1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This long article from Wired in 1996, Mother Earth Mother Board [1], would answer your question. It is long, it took me more than a couple of hours to read, but it's also my all-time favourite article from any magazine, and whenever the topic of submarine cables comes up on Hacker News I often see this link. [1] http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html Edit: Also, it's written by Neal Stephenson fo…

Yeah, I'm the MEMB fairy, sprinkling that link in the comments of any story about submarine cables. But you beat me to it this time! I consider it my small contribution to the world to make sure as many nerds as possible get to read that story.

Awesome article. Thanks for diligent work.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#87

Post by vool » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:38 PM UTC

rootuid wrote: post #34

Ireland has multiple undersea cables landing there but none are on this map. Makes one wonder about the readability of this particular map.

Was thinking the same, considering that the first few transatlantic landed in Ireland. Recently visited a section of the first transatlantic cable in Valencia Island no idea how they got much of it on a ship.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#88

Post by alexqgb » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:40 PM UTC

ape4 wrote: post #29

snake_plissken wrote: post #25

Why does Saudi Arabia have so many?

Probably because of their key location.

That part of world has been capitalizing on its position with regard to trade routes since the Sumerians pioneered exchange with the Indus Valley civilization. It's remarkable to see this development as the latest iteration of a truly ancient tradition.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#89

Post by simplemath » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 10:56 PM UTC

pchristensen wrote: post #35

_ilv1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This long article from Wired in 1996, Mother Earth Mother Board [1], would answer your question. It is long, it took me more than a couple of hours to read, but it's also my all-time favourite article from any magazine, and whenever the topic of submarine cables comes up on Hacker News I often see this link. [1] http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html Edit: Also, it's written by Neal Stephenson fo…

Yeah, I'm the MEMB fairy, sprinkling that link in the comments of any story about submarine cables. But you beat me to it this time! I consider it my small contribution to the world to make sure as many nerds as possible get to read that story.

Cannot believe I'd never read it.

Fantastic bit of journalism.

Re: Submarine Cable Map 2014

#90

Post by speeder » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 11:51 PM UTC

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?

Brazil is actually proposing this after the NSA revelations ( specially the one that our president was personally tapped, she is furious with that )