3 ms·

That is a good point, they also could be targeted. But I think there is enough redundancy in that case.

by f1shy 4y ago

askvictor 4y ago
One would hope, but it's probably pretty easy for a nation state to attack dozens or more cables, and the sea is pretty huge and hard to police https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
mschuster91 4y ago
Especially they can be repaired very quickly and the crews have a lot of experience given that damages e.g. from anchor droppings, earthquakes or ground-trawler fishing nets are very common. Worst case would be someone damaging a lot of cables at once, e.g. near Highbridge, Skewjack, Bude (UK) or Bilbao (Portugal) - almost all Europe-US links end there [1], so a single sabotage submarine could place time-based explosives that cause a sudden catastrophic loss, large enough to overwhelm the capacity of cable runner ships. In any case, a complete loss of communication between the US and Europe is highly unlikely. European traffic would simply be redirected among the bunch of SEA-ME-WE cables and hop from there over Malaysia and Japan to the US East Coast. A ton more latency and likely much less capacity along the route, but enough to survive. [1] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
- tpmx 4y ago
  Is it generally feasible to increase the capacity of surviving links dramatically "simply" by upgrading the equipment on land to the newest/most expensive stuff? Or would you need to upgrade all the repeaters in the sea as well?
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    Fascinatingly, I had thought the same as you, but it seems at least some submarine cables can be upgraded after installation, e.g. EIG [1] and AJC [2]. No idea what they do with the repeaters though, the distances involved in these cables are definitely higher than the 100km spacing repeaters have [3]. Maybe someone can chime in with direct experience? [1] https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/asia-europe-africa/eig/eig-cable-system-upgrades-with-additional-24-3tbps-capacity https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/asia-europe-afr... [2] https://www.computerworld.com/article/3485615/capacity-upgrade-for-australia-japan-submarine-cable.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3485615/capacity-upgra... [3] https://www.networkworld.com/article/2235353/the-incredible-international-submarine-cable-systems.html https://www.networkworld.com/article/2235353/the-incredible-...

That is a good point, they also could be targeted. But I think there is enough redundancy in that case.

by f1shy 4y ago

That is a good point, they also could be targeted. But I think there is enough redundancy in that case.

One would hope, but it's probably pretty easy for a nation state to attack dozens or more cables, and the sea is pretty huge and hard to police https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

mschuster91 4y ago

Especially they can be repaired very quickly and the crews have a lot of experience given that damages e.g. from anchor droppings, earthquakes or ground-trawler fishing nets are very common. Worst case would be someone damaging a lot of cables at once, e.g. near Highbridge, Skewjack, Bude (UK) or Bilbao (Portugal) - almost all Europe-US links end there [1], so a single sabotage submarine could place time-based explosives that cause a sudden catastrophic loss, large enough to overwhelm the capacity of cable runner ships. In any case, a complete loss of communication between the US and Europe is highly unlikely. European traffic would simply be redirected among the bunch of SEA-ME-WE cables and hop from there over Malaysia and Japan to the US East Coast. A ton more latency and likely much less capacity along the route, but enough to survive. [1] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

tpmx 4y ago
Is it generally feasible to increase the capacity of surviving links dramatically "simply" by upgrading the equipment on land to the newest/most expensive stuff? Or would you need to upgrade all the repeaters in the sea as well?
- mschuster91 4y ago
  Fascinatingly, I had thought the same as you, but it seems at least some submarine cables can be upgraded after installation, e.g. EIG [1] and AJC [2]. No idea what they do with the repeaters though, the distances involved in these cables are definitely higher than the 100km spacing repeaters have [3]. Maybe someone can chime in with direct experience? [1] https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/asia-europe-africa/eig/eig-cable-system-upgrades-with-additional-24-3tbps-capacity https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/asia-europe-afr... [2] https://www.computerworld.com/article/3485615/capacity-upgrade-for-australia-japan-submarine-cable.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3485615/capacity-upgra... [3] https://www.networkworld.com/article/2235353/the-incredible-international-submarine-cable-systems.html https://www.networkworld.com/article/2235353/the-incredible-...