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Cable-Laying Boom Will Boost Internet Capacity
Barence writes "Dozens of new undersea internet cables are set to be laid over the next couple of years, providing a huge boost to worldwide capacity. The huge boom in internet video has led to doomsday scenarios of the internet running out of capacity. Although experts believe that there is abundant amounts of 'dark fibre' lying unused in oceans across the world, major telcos are pushing ahead with projects that will see at least 25 new cables laid by 2010, at a cost of $6.4bn."
Dark fiber is fiber optic that is unused. Fiber optic has light going through it. Unused it has no light going through it. No light means it's dark.
So what they are talking about is lots of fiber optic line that is not being used for one reason or another(some have redundent lines that are used only if there is a break or other pointless reasons). I hope that helps.
Which is excellent BTW
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html
It also resulted in one of the thickest copies of Wired ever produced (seriously, it was like a friggin' phone book.)
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Much of the dark fiber out there is in the form of unused strands in cable bundles.
When a fiber line is run nobody runs a single pair of fiber stands, they run a cable with dozens to hundreds of strands in it.
They then light one or two pairs with gear running at anything from 1 to 40 Gb/s
The results is that there are many-many inter-city cables with 72 fiber strands each of which could carry (with dwdm harware) 160 x 40Gb/s channels but are only being used for a single 10Gb/s link.
So a typical fiber cable has a capacity of:
72 strands / 2 (we need pairs)
36 pairs * 160 wavelengths
5760 channels * 40Gb/s
230400 Gb/s in a single cable.
Even the cheapest cable with only 12 strands:
12 / 2
6 pairs * 8 wavelengths (cheap Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing)
48 channels * 10Gb/s
480 Gb/s
I can't comment on the new Cable being laid across Africa or the Middle east, but I have been following the situation in the Caribbean for a while. It really has taken off, with residential speeds in some countries going from 256kbps, to 2Mbps, to 6Mbps (at the same pricepoint) within the span for just a couple months. If you want a cool graphic showing the new fiber connections being made in the region, click the link below: http://nwncable.com/ Most of the reason for this happens to be in the "lucky" position the Caribbean finds itself in geologically. It's right between the US and South America, so as economies grow on both sides, lots of new cable gets laid in between. The new US-Colombia Expressway cable, for example, as increased capacity in Jamaica tremendously, with residential speeds approaching 15Mb/s for the equivalent of $40 US dollars. There is also quite a bit of fiber being run into the oil rich island of Trinidad in the Southern Caribbean. Shouldn't require too much explanation for that one.
"Anchors Aweigh" means that the anchor is free of the bottom.
Your trusty Quartermaster logs the event, and the ship is legally underway (should paint be traded with another vessel, and a trip to the "Long Green Table" ensue).
The command (in the US Navy, anyway) is "Let go the anchor", and the bosun trips the pelican hook (usually with a sledge hammer), a deafening roar ensues as the chain comes flying out of the chain locker, and everyone on the fo'c'sle has a religious experience.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
One of the oddest blogs out there, but strangely compelling.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Early this year Pakistan, Iran and parts of the mid-east lost international broadband when one or more undrseas cables were cut. It was unclear weather it was a natural disaster, saboage or industrial accident. Of course, many countries blamed their historic enemies for the alleged sabotage including the world's favorite Devil- the USA.
More fiber means more redundancy. But there are still vulnerable chokepoints.