Describing the system of wiring that encompasses the Internet, author Neal Stephenson compared the Earth to a computer motherboard.
From phone poles hanging cables to warning signs warning of buried fiber optic cables, our world is surrounded by countless wires.
These lines form the backbone of the Internet.
In fact, the above-ground Internet infrastructure we can see is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are countless optical cables laid in the cold depths of the ocean.
The following is a list of 10 facts about submarine optical cables that you may not know.
1. The laying of submarine optical cables is a long and expensive project. 99% of international data is transmitted through submarine communication optical cables.
The length of submarine optical cables reaches hundreds of thousands of miles, and some cables are as deep as the height of Mount Everest.
2. Sharks like to bite submarine optical cables. Sharks like to bite submarine optical cables. There are different reasons. Some say it is related to the electromagnetic field, some say it is just out of curiosity, and some even jokingly say that they intend to destroy our cables. communications infrastructure and then launch a ground attack.
Whatever the cause, sharks chewing on fiber optic cables is a fact of life, sometimes disrupting Internet communications.
3. Undersea fiber optic cables are just as fragile as underground fiber optic cables. It seems that every few years, construction workers’ bulldozers inadvertently dig up fiber optic cables, causing network outages.
Although there are no engineering machinery damaging optical cables in the ocean, there are many threats.
4. Connecting the world through submarine optical cables is not a new idea. In 1854, the first transoceanic telegraph cable began to be laid, connecting Newfoundland and Ireland. Four years later, the first telegram was sent, which read: " Whitehouse received a signal that lasted 5 minutes. The coil signal was too weak to pass on.
Please be slow and regular.
5. Intelligence agencies loved tapping submarine cables during the Cold War. During the height of the war, the Soviets routinely transmitted lightly encrypted signals between the two main naval bases.
Soviet officials at the time considered deep encryption cumbersome and an unnecessary excess. Using an undersea optical cable to connect through Soviet territorial waters full of sensors, the Americans could not risk igniting World War III by destroying the optical cable.
In addition, they did not believe that the US military was "big". The USS Halibut was able to break through the Soviet defenses.
However, it was the American submarine that they ignored that discovered the fiber optic cable and installed a huge bug, which was transmitted back to collect data once a month.
This operation was called "Ivy Bell"
Later, former NSA analyst Ronald Pelton sold intelligence to the Soviet Union. , leaking the secrets of the "Ivy Bell" operation
Now, eavesdropping on submarine optical cables has become a kind of intelligence agency&l.dquo;Standard work."
6. Many governments plan to bypass the United States to prevent eavesdropping. The United States has a huge advantage in electronic espionage.
American scientists, engineers and Businesses play a major role in inventing and building the global communications infrastructure
Large data lines often cross U.S. borders and seas, making it easier for Americans to eavesdrop. After former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden exposed classified documents, many countries have learned how bad the U.S. intelligence agencies have been in intercepting foreign data.
Now, some countries are extremely angry. Rethinking Internet Infrastructure.
Brazil has launched a plan to lay a fiber-optic cable to Portugal that not only bypasses the United States, but also specifically excludes American companies from the plan.
7. Undersea optical cables are cheaper and faster than satellites. We have put more than 1,000 satellites into orbit, sent probes to comets, and even plan to implement manned Mars exploration missions.
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You may think that using satellites to connect to the Internet is a more ideal solution than submarine optical cables. Satellites must be better than submarine optical cables, a technology invented before the birth of the telephone.
However, the actual situation is. Not so, at least not yet.
Optical cables and communication satellites were both invented in the 1960s. Satellites have a major disadvantage, that is, sending and receiving signals needs to travel through space, which takes a long time.
Optical cables can transmit data at 99.7% of the speed of light.
Without submarine optical cables, the Internet would never be what it is today.
8. Let. There is no need to launch a cyberwar to bring down the Internet. All you need is a scuba tank and a pair of cord cutters. The good news is that cutting undersea communication cables is not an easy task, because each one carries thousands of volts of lethal voltage.
The bad news is that this kind of damage is not impossible. This happened in Egypt in 2013.
9. Submarine optical cables are not easy to repair. If you think that replacing a network cable is a hassle. If the submarine optical cable is damaged, professional repair ships will rush to the scene.
If the optical cable is located in shallow water, it can be repaired. Send a robot into the water to drag the optical cable to the water surface.
If it is a deep sea area of more than 6,500 feet (approximately 1,980 meters), the maintenance ship will use a specially made grapple to grab the optical cable and then lift it to the surface. Repair.
Sometimes, the grapple will cut off the damaged cable, and the repair ship will lift both ends out of the water to repair it.
10. The life of submarine cables ends at 25 years. In 2014, the number of submarine communication optical cables reached 285, of which 22 are no longer in use and are called "black optical cables"
The lifespan of submarine optical cables is 25 years.
