FEATURE SUBMARINE CABLE HUBS AROUND THE WORLD BY PATRICK FAIDHERBE, LAURENT CAMPAGNE, GEORGES KREBS AND JEAN DEVOS WHAT IS A SUBMARINE CABLE HUB?
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submarine cable hub is essentially a point where submarine cables interconnect with each other. It is a location where submarine cables very often terminate or, at least, extend a branch. New York is a typical example of a submarine cable hub where all submarine cables landing there terminate and interconnect with other submarine cables and longhaul trans-USA terrestrial cables. South England and London is a mirror example on the other side of the Atlantic. Sydney is another example: all submarine cable systems landing in Sydney terminate in Sydney and interconnect with other submarine cable systems or long-haul trans-Australia terrestrial cables. Marseilles in the Mediterranean is another such case and there are many others.
CONFIGURATION OF THE WORLDWIDE SUBMARINE CABLE NETWORK.
To better understand what a submarine cable hub is, its relative strength and its location, one needs to consider the shape of the international submarine cable network. The backbone of the worldwide submarine cable network is a “fibre loop around the globe”, for which one can adopt the acronym “FLAG”, which was very appropriately used to name an old visionary cable system. It is to be noted that the FLAG includes the five following segments: • Trans-Atlantic (essentially London - New York), • Trans-USA (essentially New York - Los Angeles and
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
New York - Portland); this segment is by nature a terrestrial segment and the only terrestrial segment in the loop, • Trans-Pacific (essentially Los Angeles/Portland - Japan), • East-Asia backbone (essentially Japan - Singapore), • South East Asia - Middle East - Europe backbone (SEA-ME-WE as another old visionary system was called, followed by several others), essentially Singapore to Marseilles. The FLAG can be depicted in diagram 1. In addition to the FLAG and its 5 segments, there are 3 major southern submarine cable loops: • The Africa loop, • The South America loop, • The Oceania loop. One can also add two secondary submarine cable loops covering the Caribbean and the Arab - Persian Gulf. Diagrams 2 and 3 summarize the configuration of these loops and how they interconnect with the major cable loop around the globe (FLAG). Major types of submarine cable hubs and their location within the network. The analysis of the simplified worldwide submarine cable network configuration assists greatly in understanding the location and respective strengths of submarine cable hubs. One can identify about 30 major or important hubs around the world. However, they are not all the same size and importance. They also differ by their type of geographical position and function in the network.