FEATURE
HOW DO SUBSEA CABLES IN FROZEN REGIONS WORK? BY RACHEL JUSTIS
S
ubsea cables have been around for over 150 years as a technological means of communication across the globe. In their initial form, they were used for sending telegrams. Nowadays, they serve as connective transmitters for telecommunications. They are noted as crucial components for the modern economic market, because they are more reliable, have more capacity than satellites, and are responsible for transmitting 95% of all international data across continents. Because they are often found thousands of meters deep into the water, one might wonder how they are placed and remain operational in frozen regions. We break that down here:
THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND SUBSEA CABLES
Subsea cables work using fiber optic technology, which supports a higher bandwidth. In terms of data transmission, this means that subsea cables have less delay and can transfer terabytes of data at a time frame that satellites would only transfer megabytes. Developing technology has helped increase the efficiency of data transmission across new and future sea cables, thanks to innovations like optical amplifiers. These are complex components developed with 3D parts in a footprint library, which allows engineers to solve difficult design challenges when it comes to inaccurate data JULY 2021 | ISSUE 119
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