by Mark Ollig
Just when we’re getting the entire planet harmoniously
linked together, the question arises; “What happens if one of the neighbors
crashes the party, and spoils it for the rest of us?”
This column is about the undersea communication
submarine cables encircling and connecting the major populated land masses of
the Earth.
Hundreds of fiber-optic submarine cables (each about
3-inches in diameter) crisscross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, linking many
countries to essential network services.
These underwater cables not only carry voice and data
communications, they are carrying the Internet, and are the backbone for
businesses and government networks throughout the world.
Earth orbiting satellites also provide voice, data, and
Internet services; however, fiber-optic submarine cables are preferable, as
they do not experience the signal delay, or latency problems, satellites
contend with.
The average serviceable lifetime of a fiber-optic
submarine cable is approximately 25 years.
The consequences of a break or disruption in one
submarine cable can be minimized by switching its traffic to an alternate cable
– if one’s available.
Today, the world’s economy is especially dependent upon
submarine communication cables.
It is estimated over $10 trillion worth of the world’s
daily commerce takes place over these cables, making them a very valuable
commodity, needing to be safeguarded.
In early February 2008, a major interruption occurred
when two fiber-optic submarine cables providing Internet, telephone, and video
communications to the Middle East and Asia, were intentionally cut.
This part of the world found itself scrambling to find
alternate land or sea routes in order to re-connect citizens, businesses, and
governments back onto the Internet, and other service networks they depended
upon.
Recently, in a New York Times article, I read about an
Adm. Mark Ferguson, who has concerns with Russian submarines coming too close
to fiber-optic undersea submarine cables located off the East Coast of the US.
In September, US spy satellites, nearby ships, and
aircraft monitored the Russian research ship Yantar, as it slowly made its way
along the US eastern border while traveling to Cuba.
The article states there is no evidence of any East
Coast submarine cables being intentionally damaged, or cut.
However, it does say American military and intelligence
officials are concerned that vital submarine cables, carrying most of the
global Internet communications, could become a potential target for
interruption during times of confrontation.
“It would be a concern to hear any country was
tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of
submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics,” Cmdr. William Marks, a Navy
spokesman, said in the New York Times article.
The US Department of Homeland Security considers many
undersea cables along the East Coast “critical infrastructure.”
The US military is also concerned about its “secret
underwater cables.”
These secret fiber-optic submarine cable location
routes are not known by the public, or shown on publically viewable submarine
cable maps.
One such map; the Interactive Submarine Cable Map, is
located on the TeleGeography Data webpage.
I visited this website and obtained detailed
information and location, of some 345 world-wide undersea submarine cables it
listed.
This easy-to-use, interactive submarine cable map is
continually updated by the Global Bandwidth Research Service.
One can scroll around the planet, zoom in, and get
detailed information on a particular submarine cable, by hovering the onscreen
finger curser over the cable’s routing path and clicking.
This action will display detailed information about
what the submarine cable is used for, who owns it, the length of the submarine
cable, and its geographic landing points.
Some of these submarine cables even have their own
website.
You can view the screen-capture I took showing
information about one submarine cable at: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-s2.
To explore the non-classified, publically accessible,
mapping routes of the world’s submarine cables, go to: http://www.submarinecablemap.com.
Of course, normal outages or breaks in submarine cables
do occur; including having a ship’s anchor accidently catch a submarine cable
along the seabed, or in shallow waters.
Submarine cables, as they begin to rise onto the
mainland, are sometimes accidently hooked and dragged by a ship’s anchor.
A fishing trawler can also catch and cause damage to
submarine cables.
Even submarine cables buried many feet beneath the
ocean floor by special undersea rover trenching machines, are susceptible to
natural occurrences; such as earthquakes.
Buried submarine cables can also be damaged by
movements of the planet’s tectonic plates.
GPS systems, showing the general location of submarine
cables, are used by fishing, cargo and other at-sea vessels, in order to know
the areas they need to pay attention to during their operations.
Always “on-call” fiber-optic submarine repair ships are
geographically stationed throughout the world; ready to respond in the event of
a break or damaged submarine cable.
A screen-capture showing the East Coast and southern US
border undersea submarine cable locations can be seen at:
http://tinyurl.com/bytes-s3.
Here’s an animation video showing how an undersea
fiber-optic submarine cable is installed: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-s5.
Be sure to watch this recently uploaded to YouTube,
Business Insider Science video presenting an animated map of the world’s
submarine cables: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-s8.
For now, the global party celebrating the benefits of a
planet interlocked via undersea submarine cables continues.
