FEATURE RISE OF HYPERSCALERS PLACES GREATER IMPORTANCE OF TESTING SUBSEA OPTICAL CABLES BY SHU ZHUANG
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t last count, there are an estimated 436 submarine cables stretching more than 1.3 million kilometers around the globe, according to TeleGeography. Those cable are essential to how we all communicate and gather information, as they transmit between 97% 99% of the world’s data. To ensure their proper deployment and operation – and to efficiently locate and repair any faults – advanced testing solutions and processes must be incorporated. Maintaining transmissions through subsea cables has a profound impact on more than just how people live their lives. It has a major financial impact. The global submarine cable system market is expected to grow from $14.40 billion in 2021 to $16.15 billion by the end of this year. Growth will continue – reaching $22.7 billion by 2026, according to Research and Markets. There are two main factors contributing to this growth: COVID-19 – The global pandemic has changed the way in which people live. Remote working environments are expected to continue for the foreseeable future, creating more demand for video conferencing and other streaming technologies.
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
Hyperscalers – Perhaps a bigger reason for the growing deployment of subsea optical cables is the influx of hyperscale data centers. Such facilities are used by global technology corporations to deliver key services worldwide. A hyperscale data center is defined as one that has more than 5,000 servers, occupies 10,000 square feet, and has a flexible architecture for a homogenous scale-out of greenfield applications. Figure 2 provides the growth projection of hyperscale data centers, according to Synergy Research Group. Hyperscale data centers are the reason, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are prominent players in the submarine cable market. Each is making considerable investments into new subsea cables. In fact, the capacity deployed by private network operators like hyperscalers is outpacing traditional Internet backbone operators. By 2024, the group is expected to own more than 40 long-distance cables connecting every continent with the exception of Antarctica.
UNDERSTANDING SUBMARINE CABLES
With such investment comes equally high expectations. Submarine cables integrate various elements (figure 3) that