This report, perhaps uniquely, forecasts growth in traffic on US submarine cables by traffic source/sink areas (Europe, Asia, and Latin America.) Also uniquely, this report uses traffic growth forecasts, as well as market information about the major cable users (cloud computing and others,) to actually forecast specific future cable construction along with likely participants.
It is remarkable that a major and indispensable component of the network we call the Internet goes back over 150 years - actually before the Civil War! These old-timers are international submarine cables. The first true international and first trans-Atlantic cable was installed between Newfoundland and Ireland in 1858 (used of course, for telegraphy use as the telephone was decades away.)
This was actually before the basic engineering was understood for transmission lines, which grew out of transmission line work done by Maxwell, Kelvin and Heaviside between the 1850s and the 1880s. The lack of understanding this basic engineering led to the destruction of this first trans-Atlantic cable a few weeks after it was placed in service. One of the owners tried to increase its speed by upping the voltage. The higher voltage resulted in the cable shorting out to the water and thus destroyed it. Before this cable met its maker, it transmitted a historic message between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan. The message consisted of 98 words and took a mere 16.5 hours to transmit!
The new submarine cables are, of course, fiber optic based and handle up to nearly 200 Terabits per second! Theses cables connect all the continents (except Antarctica) and most major islands. They are a critical part of international communications, handling over 95% of all international traffic. They make international business possible as well as being key to many national defense efforts. Recently there has been a decided up-tick in submarine cable construction to meet the ever growing traffic demand. Of late, a major driver of this traffic has been the international clientele of the on-line powerhouses - Facebook, Google and others along with some of the major cloud computing companies such as Amazon.
“Submarine Cables” outlines US international activity in this area from humble beginnings in the 1850s to today. It describes the cables, the landing equipment and all major components. There is a detailed discussion of the participation of the cloud computing and social network companies as owners and operators of submarine cables. It also provides information on the major cables recently completed or shortly planned for completion. In addition, it provides sketches of major vendors for both cable and equipment.
Most importantly, this report provides detailed forecasts of expected international traffic; new, unannounced cables likely to be required and the routes; and suggestions as to who the owners/builders may be.
Table of Contents
1. The Lightwave Network Series of Reports
- The Lightwave Network
- The Lightwave Series of Reports
- General Reports on the Network
- General Market Reports
- Specific Systems Reports
2. Introduction
3. History and Background
4. Submarine Cable System Components
- Cable
- Repeaters
- Branching Unit
- Gain Equalizers
- Cable Types
- Cable Vulnerabilities
- Natural Disasters and Accidents
- War or Terror Attacks
- Eavesdropping
- List of Cable Providers
- Submarine Cable - Manufacturer / Supplier Directory
- Hengtong Marine Cable System
- AEI Cables
- Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent)
- Corning Cable Systems
- Ericsson
- Fulgor
- General Cable
- Hanhe Cable Company
- Hesfibel
- Jainson Cables India Pvt Ltd
- JDR
- J-Power Systems
- Kerite
- LS Cable & System
- NEC
- Nexans
- NKT Cables
- NSW
- OCC Corporation
- Okonite
- Parker Scanrope
- Prysmian
- TE Subcom
- Turkuaz Cable
- Viscas Corp.
- ZTT (Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology Co.,Ltd.)
- Landing Equipment
- Equipment Detail
- List of Equipment Providers
5. Submarine Cable Optical Equipment Company Directory
- Nokia
- Ciena
- Ekinops
- Fujitsu
- Glimmerglass
- Huawei Marine Networks
- Infinera
- Juniper Networks
- Metaswitch
- Mitsubishi Electric
- NEC
- TE Subcom
6. Current Situation
- Cables Planned or Pending
- List of Planned or Recent Submarine Cables
- Capacity of New Cables
- New Tech, New Possibilities
- More Submarine Cables, More Interconnection
- Cloud Computing Company Participation
- Cloud Computing
- Web-Scaled Datacenter
- Cloud Computing Data Center
- Cloud Computing Models
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
- Platform as a Service (PaaS):
- Software as a Service (SaaS):
- Impact of Cloud Computing on Submarine Network Requirements
7. Forecast for the Future
- US Total Traffic Forecast
- US International Traffic by Source
- Growth Areas
- Pacific Growth
- Submarine Cable Forecasts Summary
8. Appendix I, Traffic Statistics Relationships
- SONET/SDH Data Rates
Appendix II, Data Traffic Fundamentals
Appendix II, Data Traffic Fundamentals
- Internet Traffic Calculations
- Bits and Bytes
- Transfer Rate
- Busy Hour Traffic
- Protocol Efficiencies
- Peaking
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Lightwave Network
Figure 2: First Submarine Cable
Figure 3: Submarine Cables Today - A Map
Figure 4: Submarine Cable Components Layout
Figure 5: Submarine Cable System Expanded Main Components
Figure 6: Repeater Characteristics
Figure 7: Purpose of Branching Units
Figure 8: Branching Unit
Figure 9: Gain Equalizer
Figure 10: Cross Section of Typical Undersea Cable - Shallow Water
Figure 11: Submarine Cable Characteristics
Figure 12: Deep Water Submarine Cable
Figure 13: Types of Submarine Cables
Figure 14: Landing Equipment in a Branched System
Figure 15: Detail of Typical Landing Equipment
Figure 16: Different View of Terminating Equipment
Figure 17: Major Submarine Cables by Cloud Computing Companies
Figure 18: Google's Submarine Cable Investments
Figure 19: Hyperscale Datacenter Growth
Figure 20: Global Data Center IP Traffic Growth
Figure 21: All forms of US Traffic
Figure 22: US International Traffic by Source
Figure 23: Pacific Growth Area
Figure 24: Traffic/Speed Relationships
Figure 25: Example of Various Traffic Sizes
Figure 26: Multiples of Byte
Figure 27: Sonet/SDH Conversions
Figure 28: New Transfer Rate Forecast
Figure 29: Summary of Concepts
Companies Mentioned
- AEI Cables
- Amazon
- Ciena
- Corning Cable Systems
- Ekinops
- Ericsson
- Fujitsu
- Fulgor
- General Cable
- Glimmerglass
- Hanhe Cable Company
- Hengtong Marine Cable System
- Hesfibel
- Huawei Marine Networks
- Infinera
- J-Power Systems
- Jainson Cables India Pvt Ltd
- JDR
- Juniper Networks
- Kerite
- LS Cable & System
- Metaswitch
- Mitsubishi Electric
- NEC
- Nexans
- NKT Cables
- Nokia
- Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent)
- NSW
- OCC Corporation
- Okonite
- Parker Scanrope
- Prysmian
- Submarine Cable Optical Equipment Company Directory
- TE Subcom
- Turkuaz Cable
- Viscas Corp.
- ZTT (Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology Co.,Ltd.)
