FEATURE
NORTH SEA PATHWAYS: Digital Oilfields to Ultra-Secure Data Centers
BY BRIAN LAVALLÉE
T
ampnet is a Norwegian based global operator of oil field telecommunications, wholesale capacity, and mobile LTE services. Tampnet operates the largest offshore multi-terabit, low latency optical network in the North Sea, which reliably serves over 240 offshore assets such mobile rigs, Oil&Gas Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) platforms, and exploration rigs. Reliable, high-speed, low latency network services are the primary goals of their network, which includes 2,500km of subsea fiber-optic links, multiple strategically located 4G LTE base stations, as well as a multitude of traditional point-to-point radio links. The state-of-the-art optical network employs an all-optical Colorless-Directionless-Contentionless (CDC) design that achieves the lowest latency possible with a Layer 0 Control Plane that’s both OTN and mesh capable for sub-100G services rates.
BACKDROP: THE DIGITAL OFFSHORE OILFIELD
Big data analytics, remote exploration and internet of things are market trends set to impact a wide array of industries. For the oil and gas industry, these new advances are reality today. Fiber optic networks, and the digital
resources that they interconnect, are facilitating this technological transformation by allowing the entire offshore energy ecosystem to more efficiently manage resources (ex. oil drilling platforms). Offshore energy corporations leverage submarine networks, like Tampnet’s, to connect offshore assets to onshore assets to realize a variety of operational benefits to help differentiate via operational efficiency. Some of the important benefits that interconnected offshore digital oilfields offer are listed below. • Constant access to onshore experts located anywhere in the world via connections to the global internet allowing faster and improved decision making • Significantly improved efficiency of offshore operations, coupled with vastly reduced downtimes • Improved operational safety/security for offshore personnel and assets via continuous communications • Ongoing communications between onshore and offshore personnel to expedite critical decisions • Near real-time visibility, control, and oversight to best manage exploration activities and drilling assets SEPTEMBER 2018 | ISSUE 102
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