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How do these cables split in the middle of the ocean? Is there a fiber switch laying on the ocean floor?
by zrail 3y ago
How do these cables split in the middle of the ocean? Is there a fiber switch laying on the ocean floor?
- Maakuth 3y agoNo idea of what precise sort of hardware is there, but the fact is that these cables consist of a bunch of fibers. Dozens of them typically, quick search suggests up to 144, but I doubt that's a physical ceiling. So I suppose they make a branch when needed, with some number of fibers going to another direction.
- rdl 3y agoThere are repeaters on the cable every ~50-200km (depending on technology), powered by DC power carried on the cable. There are branching units powered the same way -- I believe they handle branching at the fiber level, rather than waves, but not sure of the specifics on modern DWDM cables. (they can run ~80-160 different frequencies of light on the same fiber, and the cables contain multiple fibers...)
- aDfbrtVt 3y agoQuick correction - not repeaters but amplifiers. The term repeater is commonly used to refer to a device that demodulates and remodulates a signal.