Who’s Destroying Under Sea Internet Cables?
Have you ever thought about what happens if an internet cable at the bottom of the sea gets damaged, maybe even by a shark bite? How do we find and fix the problem in the vast ocean? Let’s dive into how these important cables work and what happens when they need repair.
What Are Undersea Cables?
Most of the internet traffic around the world – about 99% – travels through cables hidden deep in the ocean. These cables connect different continents, forming a huge network that keeps us online. They lie very deep underwater, sometimes over 8,000 meters down, where the water pressure is extremely high, like the weight of an African elephant on your fingertip.
The shortest undersea cable section is around 300 kilometers long, while the longest, called the Maria cable, stretches 6,600 kilometers from the United States to Spain. If all the cables in the world were joined end-to-end, they would total over 1.4 million kilometers, enough to circle all the planets and moons in our solar system and still have some left to go around the Earth!
Why Use Cables Instead of Satellites?
You might wonder why we use cables instead of satellites to connect the world. Undersea cables can handle a huge amount of data – one cable can support 8 million people streaming 4K movies at the same time. In comparison, a satellite can only support 24,000 people doing the same thing. To meet the world’s demand, we would need many more satellites, which would be far more expensive to launch and maintain than laying cables.
Satellites are also harder and more expensive to fix. If a satellite breaks, replacing it can cost up to $40 million. Repairing undersea cables, while still challenging, is usually cheaper and easier.
How Do These Cables Work?
Undersea cables are surprisingly thin, about as thick as a garden hose, but the fiber optic core inside is even thinner – like a strand of hair. This core is made of glass or plastic and sends data using light. The data in your computer is turned into light signals using a transmitter, which sends flashes of light to represent digital data: “1s” and “0s.”
The light travels through the core, which is covered by a layer called cladding. The cladding keeps the light from escaping, reflecting it back into the core. To keep the signal strong over long distances, special devices called repeaters are placed every 100 kilometers along the cable. These repeaters boost the light signals.
The cables also have a copper layer to provide power to the repeaters and several other layers to protect them from water pressure. Even with these protections, cables can still get damaged by things like earthquakes, sharks, or fishing activities.
How Are Damaged Cables Repaired?
The most common cause of cable damage is fishing. Heavy fishing gear can accidentally snag and damage the cables. When a cable breaks, data centers at both ends of the cable notice the problem immediately. They use a device called an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) to find out where the cable is broken. This device sends a light pulse through the cable. When it hits the break, the light bounces back. By measuring the time it takes for the light to return, they can figure out where the damage is.
After finding the break, special underwater robots called Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are sent to the seafloor to check the damage. The damaged part of the cable is carefully brought up to a repair ship on the surface. The broken section is cut out, and a new piece of cable is spliced in. This work is delicate because the fiber optic core is very thin and fragile, so it must be done with great care.
Conclusion
Undersea cables are essential for keeping the world connected. They provide faster and more reliable internet connections than satellites. Even though laying and repairing these cables is hard work, they are the best solution for global internet traffic.
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