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from the If-you-laid-all-the-cables-end-to-end dept.
dotdotdot writes:
"All of the fiber-optic cables buried in the sea bed are logged by Washington research firm Telegeography in an interactive Submarine Cable Map. The company's research director Alan Mauldin told CNN about the world's underwater networks."
From the interview:
for international communications, over 99% is delivered by undersea cables.
75% of faults are due to external aggression the majority through human activity such as fishing, and ship's anchors.
There are about 13 cables in service across the Atlantic, and less than 20% of potential capacity is what we call "lit" or in service right now.
cables are designed to last for a minimum 25 years.
Once you build a cable the cost of buying capacity incrementally over time is very affordable.
The last cable across the Pacific cost $300 million; one cable that entered service last year in Asia reaching many locations cost $400 million
(Score: 3, Interesting) by combatserver on Wednesday March 05 2014, @06:15PM
From the Wikipedia entry for the USS Jimmy Carter(SSN-23):
"Carter has additional maneuvering devices fitted fore and aft that will allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. Past submarines outfitted this way were used to tap undersea cables, to intercept communications of foreign countries. Intelligence experts speculate that the MMP may find use in similar missions as an underwater splicing chamber for fiber optic cables."
Ships anchors, my ass. You cannot splice a fiber-optic cable without temporarily interrupting the flow of information--unlike electricity flowing through wires being redirected until the splice is complete, fiber optic cables have to be cut and a device placed into the light stream of each fiber, and this takes time. Remember all of the "boat anchors" that knocked out cabling to the middle-east and southeast-asia a couple of years ago?
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by FuckBeta on Wednesday March 05 2014, @06:54PM
Undersea cables: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fou rth_undersea.html [schneier.com]
So many events with "unexplained" causes make sense in light of last years revelations.
Including the big Skype "outage" in 2009.
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Thursday March 06 2014, @01:15PM
Interesting theory.
For the cable to be cut, and then start working again without any repair boat [acmarepair.com] having to do anything, would be extremely unsubtle. But I wonder whether a stealth submarine could make a 1st cut to look like anchor damage, and then a 2nd cut a mile away, where they splice in their monitoring equipment, and make a quick getaway before the repair boat arrives to deal with the 1st cut?