7 ms·

Equiano, a subsea cable from Portugal to South Africa

134 points by sauldcosta 7y ago

sixhobbits 7y ago
Would this only be used for services l/sites that run on Google Cloud? Or does the entire Internet benefit directly
- codeisawesome 7y ago
  It's funded by Google completely according to TFA, and it's filed under "Infrastructure - Google Cloud Platform" - I'd hazard a guess that it's probably just for Google Cloud. They might extend it for AMP sites, maybe..
  - goodcanadian 7y ago
    I highly doubt that they would refuse to sell bandwidth if there is a market for it. It is a very valuable market.
    - arccy 7y ago
      Of course they sell it, though Google Cloud
codeisawesome 7y ago
I wonder if this signals that Space/Balloon/Satellite Internet is too far away? Or maybe it's just worth doing this anyway because there's no risk of Kessler Syndrome under the sea.
peter_retief 7y ago
I wonder if Google have plans for Cape Town? It is the most tech savvy city on the continent
- Havoc 7y ago
  They should. Amazon is hoovering up all the local talent currently
  - ageofwant 7y ago
    iirc a significant block of Amazon's tech was developed in Cape Town over the last decade or so.
    - selimthegrim 7y ago
      Any examples?
      - qixxiq 7y ago
        The original version of EC2 (basically AWS) was built in Cape Town.
      - ageofwant 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549735
jojofrears 7y ago
Great to read this. I’ve Experienced problems when the WACs cable goes down so anything to improve comms is good by me. How much better is optical switching btw?
Havoc 7y ago
This is great. SA feels quite far away from the rest of the Internet (think 200ms) so anything that helps improve connectivity is a possive. Especially since this might foreshadow a local data center there. Azure has tech there. Google doesn't. Yet
- rdevsrex 7y ago
  Really? Sometimes when there is a problem with out of SA connectivity the only non-local websites that work are Google and YouTube. I’ve got 20ms ping times so Google must have a point of presence in SA.
  - bobviolier 7y ago
    I am gonna guess he meant a datacenter for Google Cloud. Google probably has their own points-of-presence for Google and YouTube.
    - 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
      Yes, it does, check out the network tab here: https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/ https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/
  - Havoc 7y ago
    They have some sort of caching or CDN yes, but you can't spin up a gcp compute instance for example. Ie far away from a full blown cloud region. Also the presence of local CDN doesn't imply Google presence. Eg the steam servers in SA are hosted by ISPs
  - cheerlessbog 7y ago
    Azure recently opened a datacenter, apparently AWS and GCP do not yet have one. https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsofts-south-african-data-centers-now-open-azure-business/ https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsofts-south-african-data-...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
wtdata 7y ago
Related and a big reason for the existence of this new cable: https://www.skatelescope.org/ https://www.skatelescope.org/ The Square Kilometre Array, on its initial phase, will have close to 200 dish radio telescopes and 130000 radio antennas working together in South Africa and Australia. The amount of data produced is predicted at 50% of all internet traffic (this was calculated 2 years ago, probably it changed a bit). A big part of that data will be distributed across the globe for science, being the main link originating in South Africa and ending up in Europe. This will be the biggest scientific endeavor (by size) of mankind so far. The Phase 2 of the SKA (for now just an idea), will increase the number of telescope dishes and antennas by a factor of 10.
camillomiller 7y ago
Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn’t fathom we’re actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.
- FearNotDaniel 7y ago
  I heartily recommend Andrew Blum's book Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet for any non-technical folks interested in the physical infrastructure that makes all that internet magic happen. It's more in the travel memoir/popular history genres than actual engineering, but a very atmospheric layman's introduction. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes And of course, if you're ever in SW England, the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy near Penzance is an awesome geek-out experience.
  - mbreese 7y ago
    My favorite Wired article of all time was the 1996 article written by Neal Stephenson all about undersea cables. I can’t believe I was able to find a link, but I may still have the physical copy someplace. That was an amazing example of long form writing and was my introduction to Stephenson. https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/ https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
    - vidarh 7y ago
      The moment I saw the subject I thought of the same article. It is one of the all time great articles of 'early modern' era of the net.
    - prepend 7y ago
      I really miss wired. I got into the Internet with their 93 article by William Gibson where they sent him to Singapore. It was a really neat place to have articles by people like Stephenson and Gibson.
      - 7y ago
nsomaru 7y ago
Does it do EU in < 40ms?
- Havoc 7y ago
  No. Speed of light caps it to around 100ms theoretical if memory serves. With practical below 160 being unlikely
  - sgt 7y ago
    160-170ms RTT to Europe is common.
  - est31 7y ago
    Surface distance Cape Town <-> London is 9673 km which corresponds to 33 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Surface distance Seattle <-> Berlin is 8143 km which corresponds to 28 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Now, these are distances when travelling across earth's curved surface. Neutrino canons or (quite impossible to ever build them) cables in earth's upper mantle would achieve even faster communication. Also, they correspond to direct connections and don't involve putting the cable into international waters far away from any government trying to get some extra bucks from you. The aerospace industry has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to be able to travel through airspace of a particular country.
    - Havoc 7y ago
      >London is 9673 km Closer to 15k via ocean hence the 100ms theoretical. The other 60ms is gear overhead. But yeah if you could lay the cable as a crow flies then closer to 66
virtuallynathan 7y ago
This cable has a design capacity of ~320Tbps with 16 fiber pairs. The previously announced transatlantic cable, Dunant cable has 12 fiber pairs and a 250Tbps design capacity. These values could probably increase to around 480Tbps and 360Tbps with more advanced optical transmission equipment.
- linux2647 7y ago
  That kind of bandwidth capacity is almost unfathomable
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
runeks 7y ago
Side question: why is the Middle East not connected to India in the map[1] over Google’s fiber? [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/gcp_subsea_cables_XmzTBDO.max-1000x1000.png https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images...
- AareyBaba 7y ago
  https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/ https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/ shows it is connected. The number of cables going through the suez canal is notable.
lgleason 7y ago
Anybody remember Google Fiber? Makes you wonder if this may be hit with similar issues. IE: it takes longer than they anticipated, it costs more than anticipated etc..
- est31 7y ago
  Last mile internet and backbone internet services are two different businesses operating by two different rules.
twic 7y ago
> Once complete, Equiano will start in western Europe and run along the West Coast of Africa, between Portugal and South Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries. I understand how undersea cables are laid, but how do you make use of a "branching unit" once it's at the bottom of the sea? Send down a submersible to plug in the branch? Lift the cable back up, plug in the branch, and lower it again? Do they lay the cable with patch leads attached to the branching units, so you just have to dredge those up and plug the rest of the branch in?
- stephenhuey 7y ago
  I’ve seen photos of internet cables lifted onto ships to work on them. This article explains how one uses a massive robot to find them: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-boat https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-b...

134 points by sauldcosta 7y ago

sixhobbits 7y ago

Would this only be used for services l/sites that run on Google Cloud? Or does the entire Internet benefit directly

codeisawesome 7y ago
It's funded by Google completely according to TFA, and it's filed under "Infrastructure - Google Cloud Platform" - I'd hazard a guess that it's probably just for Google Cloud. They might extend it for AMP sites, maybe..
- goodcanadian 7y ago
  I highly doubt that they would refuse to sell bandwidth if there is a market for it. It is a very valuable market.
  - arccy 7y ago
    Of course they sell it, though Google Cloud

codeisawesome 7y ago

I wonder if this signals that Space/Balloon/Satellite Internet is too far away? Or maybe it's just worth doing this anyway because there's no risk of Kessler Syndrome under the sea.

peter_retief 7y ago

I wonder if Google have plans for Cape Town? It is the most tech savvy city on the continent

Havoc 7y ago
They should. Amazon is hoovering up all the local talent currently
- ageofwant 7y ago
  iirc a significant block of Amazon's tech was developed in Cape Town over the last decade or so.
  - selimthegrim 7y ago
    Any examples?
    - qixxiq 7y ago
      The original version of EC2 (basically AWS) was built in Cape Town.
    - ageofwant 7y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549735

jojofrears 7y ago

Great to read this. I’ve Experienced problems when the WACs cable goes down so anything to improve comms is good by me. How much better is optical switching btw?

Havoc 7y ago

This is great. SA feels quite far away from the rest of the Internet (think 200ms) so anything that helps improve connectivity is a possive. Especially since this might foreshadow a local data center there. Azure has tech there. Google doesn't. Yet

rdevsrex 7y ago
Really? Sometimes when there is a problem with out of SA connectivity the only non-local websites that work are Google and YouTube. I’ve got 20ms ping times so Google must have a point of presence in SA.
- bobviolier 7y ago
  I am gonna guess he meant a datacenter for Google Cloud. Google probably has their own points-of-presence for Google and YouTube.
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
    Yes, it does, check out the network tab here: https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/ https://cloud.google.com/about/locations/
- Havoc 7y ago
  They have some sort of caching or CDN yes, but you can't spin up a gcp compute instance for example. Ie far away from a full blown cloud region. Also the presence of local CDN doesn't imply Google presence. Eg the steam servers in SA are hosted by ISPs
- cheerlessbog 7y ago
  Azure recently opened a datacenter, apparently AWS and GCP do not yet have one. https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsofts-south-african-data-centers-now-open-azure-business/ https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsofts-south-african-data-...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

wtdata 7y ago

Related and a big reason for the existence of this new cable: https://www.skatelescope.org/ https://www.skatelescope.org/ The Square Kilometre Array, on its initial phase, will have close to 200 dish radio telescopes and 130000 radio antennas working together in South Africa and Australia. The amount of data produced is predicted at 50% of all internet traffic (this was calculated 2 years ago, probably it changed a bit). A big part of that data will be distributed across the globe for science, being the main link originating in South Africa and ending up in Europe. This will be the biggest scientific endeavor (by size) of mankind so far. The Phase 2 of the SKA (for now just an idea), will increase the number of telescope dishes and antennas by a factor of 10.

camillomiller 7y ago

Submarine cables are a mystery to a lot of people. I had to show my dad a complete map of the cables once to convince him they exist. He just couldn’t fathom we’re actually able to run thousands of km of cables at the bottom of the ocean.

FearNotDaniel 7y ago
I heartily recommend Andrew Blum's book Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet for any non-technical folks interested in the physical infrastructure that makes all that internet magic happen. It's more in the travel memoir/popular history genres than actual engineering, but a very atmospheric layman's introduction. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23047146-tubes And of course, if you're ever in SW England, the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy near Penzance is an awesome geek-out experience.
- mbreese 7y ago
  My favorite Wired article of all time was the 1996 article written by Neal Stephenson all about undersea cables. I can’t believe I was able to find a link, but I may still have the physical copy someplace. That was an amazing example of long form writing and was my introduction to Stephenson. https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/ https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
  - vidarh 7y ago
    The moment I saw the subject I thought of the same article. It is one of the all time great articles of 'early modern' era of the net.
  - prepend 7y ago
    I really miss wired. I got into the Internet with their 93 article by William Gibson where they sent him to Singapore. It was a really neat place to have articles by people like Stephenson and Gibson.
    - 7y ago

nsomaru 7y ago

Does it do EU in < 40ms?

Havoc 7y ago
No. Speed of light caps it to around 100ms theoretical if memory serves. With practical below 160 being unlikely
- sgt 7y ago
  160-170ms RTT to Europe is common.
- est31 7y ago
  Surface distance Cape Town <-> London is 9673 km which corresponds to 33 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Surface distance Seattle <-> Berlin is 8143 km which corresponds to 28 ms rounded up at light speed (one way). Now, these are distances when travelling across earth's curved surface. Neutrino canons or (quite impossible to ever build them) cables in earth's upper mantle would achieve even faster communication. Also, they correspond to direct connections and don't involve putting the cable into international waters far away from any government trying to get some extra bucks from you. The aerospace industry has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to be able to travel through airspace of a particular country.
  - Havoc 7y ago
    >London is 9673 km Closer to 15k via ocean hence the 100ms theoretical. The other 60ms is gear overhead. But yeah if you could lay the cable as a crow flies then closer to 66

virtuallynathan 7y ago

This cable has a design capacity of ~320Tbps with 16 fiber pairs. The previously announced transatlantic cable, Dunant cable has 12 fiber pairs and a 250Tbps design capacity. These values could probably increase to around 480Tbps and 360Tbps with more advanced optical transmission equipment.

linux2647 7y ago
That kind of bandwidth capacity is almost unfathomable
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

runeks 7y ago

Side question: why is the Middle East not connected to India in the map[1] over Google’s fiber? [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/gcp_subsea_cables_XmzTBDO.max-1000x1000.png https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images...

AareyBaba 7y ago
https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/ https://submarine-cable-map-2019.telegeography.com/ shows it is connected. The number of cables going through the suez canal is notable.

lgleason 7y ago

Anybody remember Google Fiber? Makes you wonder if this may be hit with similar issues. IE: it takes longer than they anticipated, it costs more than anticipated etc..

est31 7y ago
Last mile internet and backbone internet services are two different businesses operating by two different rules.

twic 7y ago

> Once complete, Equiano will start in western Europe and run along the West Coast of Africa, between Portugal and South Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries. I understand how undersea cables are laid, but how do you make use of a "branching unit" once it's at the bottom of the sea? Send down a submersible to plug in the branch? Lift the cable back up, plug in the branch, and lower it again? Do they lay the cable with patch leads attached to the branching units, so you just have to dredge those up and plug the rest of the branch in?

stephenhuey 7y ago
I’ve seen photos of internet cables lifted onto ships to work on them. This article explains how one uses a massive robot to find them: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-boat https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-b...