SubTel Forum Magazine #121 - Data Centers and New Technology

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

FORUM ISSUE 121 | NOVEMBER 2021

DATA CENTERS

AND NEW TECHNOLOGY

EXORDIUM FROM THE PUBLISHER WELCOME TO ISSUE 121, OUR DATACENTERS & NEW TECHNOLOGY AND 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION!

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021 has turned into a year of perseverance for our world in the face of the pandemic, yet in our small, unique industry, we are still doing what we do best – designing, constructing, and maintaining cable systems around the world.

The general pace of things has not slowed, and we have found workarounds for keeping factories open, and people and ships at sea. As a result, few systems have been irrevocably delayed due to COVID-19.

As an industry we have much to be proud of.

The year has also turned into a year of personal growth, and in our corporate family we have had the chance to welcome two new souls to the fold.

Banks was born to Kelsey and Matt in October and will be surfing the Florida shores in no time.

Thomas, my new grandson, and son to Kristian and Kacy was born one week later, and his tweeted picture will no doubt out trend everything else we have had this year!

2021 has been an awesome year…

Magazine as inspiration, as well as including personal video commentaries from multiple industry representatives from around the world. The goal is for the Industry Report to be read online or downloaded for browsing elsewhere. As such we have attempted to make a significant, encompassing view of the submarine fiber industry available to you – our readers.

INDUSTRY REPORT

In October, SubTel Forum published our 10th edition of the annual Submarine Telecoms Industry Report (https://subtelforum.com/products/ Banks submarine-telecoms-industry-report/), which was authored by our analysts without whom this report would not be possible. We continually strive for our annual Industry Report to serve as an analytical resource within the trio of SubTel Forum products of Submarine Cable Map published every January, Submarine Cable Almanac published quarterly, and online Submarine Cables of the World Interactive Map. The presentation of the annual Industry Report has been updated once again, drawing upon the highly successful formatting of our Submarine Telecoms Forum

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Thomas

SUBTEL FORUM 20TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

When Ted Breeze and I established our little magazine in 2001, our hope was to get enough interest to keep it going for a while. We were building on our previous successes of “Soundings” and “Real Time” from BT Marine and SAIC, respectively, and we realized that the industry that had sustained us was headed into a dark time; it would need a place to express itself like never before.

So, we kicked around a few ideas, talked with a few trusted industry friends, and took a BIG chance. And in November

Ted Breeze

A Publication of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com ISSN No. 1948-3031

2001, just after 9/11 and the start of our largest industry downturn, and with a budget consisting of the balance of a severance package from me and some “borrowed” software and pics from him, we published our first issue, which consisted of eight articles and seven complimentary advertisements.

In our now 20th year, we’ve upped our game in ways never originally imagined, tried novel approaches to businesses new to us, even recreated our mission statement as a part of our drive toward providing continuing education: “To provide a freely accessible forum for the illumination and education of professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fiber technologies and techniques.”

We continue to publish SubTel Forum with two key founding principles always in mind, which annually I reaffirm to you, our readers: • That we will provide a wide range of ideas and issues; • That we will seek to incite, entertain, and provoke in a positive manner.

Thank you to the more than 100+ Sponsors and 650+ Authors who have contributed to SubTel Forum over the last 20 years! Thanks also for their support to this issue’s advertisers: APTelecom, BDA, Ellalink, PTC, Southern Cross, and Telecom Egypt. Of course, our ever popular “where in the world are all those pesky cableships” is included as well.

So, here’s to you, our readers, and supporters, thank you as always for honoring us with your interest, stay well and see you at PTC in January. STF Good reading and stay well,

Wayne Nielsen, Publisher

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER: Wayne Nielsen | wnielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-2527 VICE PRESIDENT: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845 SALES: Teri Jones | tjones@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 471-4902 PROJECT MANAGER: Rebecca Spence | rspence@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 268-9285 EDITOR: Stephen Nielsen | snielsen@subtelforum.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Weswen Design | wendy@weswendesign.com

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

DEPARTMENT WRITERS: Buddy Rizer, Philip Pilgrim, Rebecca Spence, Terri Jones, and Wayne Nielsen

FORUM ISSUE 122 | JANUARY 2022

FEATURE WRITERS: Andy Palmer-Felgate, Bill Burns, Elaine Stafford, Gary Kennedy, Greg Otto, Kristian Nielsen, Leigh Frame, Matthew Mitchell, Mohamed Eldahshory, Ola Khaled, Peter Banister, Stephen Grubb, Herve Fevrier, Stewart Ash, Svante Jurnell, and Wayne Pelouch

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

NEXT ISSUE: JANUARY 2022 Global Outlook AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INDEX: www.subtelforum.com/onlineindex Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/corporate-information BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Margaret Nielsen, Wayne Nielsen and Kristian Nielsen SubTel Forum Continuing Education, Division of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/education CONTINUING EDUCATION DIRECTOR: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845

Contributions are welcomed and should be forwarded to: pressroom@subtelforum.com.

Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine is published bimonthly by Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc., and is an independent commercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fiber technologies and techniques. Submarine Telecoms Forum may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publishers.

Liability: While every care is taken in preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held

VOI CE

OF T HE

responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions, and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication.

New Subscriptions, Enquiries and Changes of Address: 21495 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 201, Sterling, Virginia 20166, USA, or call [+1] (703) 444-0845, fax [+1] (703) 349-5562, or visit www.subtelforum.com.

Copyright © 2021 Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.

I NDUSTRY

IN THIS FORUM ISSUE

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

ISSUE 121 | NOVEMBER 2021

features

14

6 QUESTIONS WITH BUDDY RIZER

16

THE GLOBAL INTERNET HAS CHANGED FOREVER AND REQUIRES EXPANDED INFRASTRUCTURE

24

SEE YOU IN HAWAII!

By Elaine Stafford

28

TELECOM EGYPT’S INFRASTRUCTURE

By Mohamed Eldahshory and Ola Khaled

By Stephen Grubb, Herve Fevrier, Andy Palmer-Felgate and Matthew Mitchell

20

32

By Wayne Pelouch and Leigh Frame

By Bill Burns & Stewart Ash

20 ONE HOP BEYOND:

4 SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

OPERATION PLUTO, PART 2

42 Henri Michon de Vougy (18077-91)

AN APPRECIATION

By Subtel Forum Staff

54

DELIVERING SUCCESSFUL CABLE PROJECTS

By Greg Otto

47

62

THE CONSULTANT’S SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT ROLE IN SYSTEM COMMISSIONING

IS YOUR CLOUD BEING TAPPED?

By Svante Jurnell

By Kristian Nielsen

50

FEPL GOES BEYOND

By Peter Bannister and Gary Kennedy

departments EXORDIUM..................................................................................................2 SUBTELFORUM.COM....................................................................................6 STF ANALYTICS............................................................................................8 CABLE MAP UPDATE.................................................................................. 10 WHERE IN THE WORLD.............................................................................. 12 BACK REFLECTION.....................................................................................68 ON THE MOVE............................................................................................74 SUBMARINE CABLE NEWS NOW.................................................................75 ADVERTISER CORNER................................................................................76

SubTelForum.com

VisitSubTelForum.com SubTelForum.com to to find find links resources Visit linkstotothe thefollowing following resources

FREERESOURCES RESOURCESFOR FORALL ALLOUR OUR SUBTELFORUM.COM SUBTELFORUM.COM READERS FREE READERS The most popular articles, Q&As of 2021.

TOP OFyou 2019 FindSTORIES out what missed!

The most popular articles, Q&As of 2019. Find out what you NEWSmissed!

NOW RSS FEED Keep on top of our world of coverage with our free News NEWSdaily NOW industry RSS FEEDupdate. News Now is a daily RSS feed Now Keep on top of our world of coverage with our freehighNews of news applicable to the submarine cable industry, Now daily industry update.

News Now is a daily RSS&feed lighting Cable Faults & Maintenance, Conferences As-of news applicable to the submarine industry, highlighting sociations, Current Systems, Datacable Centers, Future Systems, Cable Faults & Maintenance, Associations, Offshore Energy, State of the Conferences Industry and&Technology & Current Systems, Data Centers, Future Systems, Offshore Upgrades.

Energy, State of the Industry and Technology & Upgrades.

PUBLICATIONS PUBLICATIONS Submarine Cable Almanac is a free quarterly publica-

Submarine Cablethrough Almanacdiligent is a freedata quarterly publication made available gathering and tion madeefforts available through diligent data gathering and mapping by the analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics,

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum. This reference mapping analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics, tool givesefforts detailsby onthe cable systems including a system map, a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum.

This reference landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other tool givesdata. details on cable systems including a system map, valuable landing points,Telecoms system capacity, and free other Submarine Industrylength, ReportRFS is anyear annual valuable data. publication with analysis of data collected by the analysts of Submarine Report is an annualanalyfree SubTel ForumTelecoms Analytics,Industry including system capacity publication of data collected by the of analysts of sis, as well aswith the analysis actual productivity and outlook current SubTel Forum Analytics, including system capacity and planned systems and the companies that serviceanalythem. sis, as well as the actual productivity and outlook of current and planned CABLE MAP systems and the companies that service them.

The online SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry CABLE MAP standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel The online SubTel Cable Map is built withthe theprogress industryof Forum Submarine Cable Database.

It tracks standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel some 300+ current and planned cable systems, more than Forum Submarine Database. tracks46 thecable progress 800 landing points,Cable over 1,700 data It centers, shipsof

as well as mobile subscriptions and internet accessibility data for 254 countries. Systems are also linked to SubTel Forum's News Now Feed, allowing viewing of current and archived news details.

The printed Cable Map is an annual publication showcasing the world's submarine fiber systems beautifully drawn on a large format map and mailed to SubTel Forum Readership and/or distributed during Pacific Telecommunications Conference in January each year.

VIDEO STREAMING AND TUTORIALS

SubTel Forum tutorials teach how to use the ever growing SubTel Cable Map, including various map layers for data centers, cable ships, etc.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

SubTel Forum designs educational courses and master classes that can then appear at industry conferences around the world. Classes are presented on a variety of topics dealing with key industry technical, business, or commercial issues.

See what classes SubTel Forum is accrediting in support of the next generation of leaders in our industry.

AUTHORS INDEX

The Authors Index is a reference source to help readers locate magazine articles and authors on various subjects.

EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION FOR SUBSCRIBERS OF MARKET SECTOR REPORTS SUBTEL FORUM ANALYTICS MARKET SECTOR REPORTS

SubTel Forum Subscribers have exclusive access to SubTel Forum online MSRs updated quarterly: DATA CENTER & OTT PROVIDERS: Details the increasingly shrinking divide between the cable landing station and the backhaul to interconnection services in order to maximize network efficiency throughout, bringing once disparate infrastructure into a single facility.

If you're interested in the world of Data Centers and its impact on Submarine Cables, this MSR is for you.

GLOBAL CAPACITY PRICING: historic and current capacity pricing for regional routes (Transatlantic, Transpacific, Americas, Intra-Asia and EMEA), delivering a comprehensive look at the global capacity pricing status of the submarine fiber industry.

Capacity pricing trends and forecasting simplified.

GLOBAL OUTLOOK: dive into the health and wellness of the global submarine telecoms market, with regional analysis and forecasting. This MSR gives an overview of planned systems, CIF and project completion rates, state of supplier activity and potential disruptive factors facing the market.

OFFSHORE ENERGY: provides a detailed overview o the offshore oil & gas sector of the submarine fiber industry and covers system owners, system suppliers and various market trends. This MSR details how the industry is focusing on trends and new technologies to increase efficiency and automation as a key strategy to reduce cost and maintain margins, and its impact on the demand for new offshore fiber systems.

REGIONAL SYSTEMS: drill down into the Regional Systems market, including focused analysis on the Transatlantic, Transpacific, EMEA, AustralAsia, Indian Ocean Pan-East Asian and Arctic regions. This MSR details the impact of increasing capacity demands on regional routes and contrasts potential overbuild concerns with the rapid pace of system development and the factors driving development demand.

SUBMARINE CABLE DATASET: details 400+ fiber optic cable systems. Including physical aspects, cost, owners, suppliers, landings, financiers, component manufacturers, marine contractors, etc. STF

ANALYTICS

BY REBECCA SPENCE

Reprinted from Submarine Telecoms Industry Report – 2021/2022 Edition

D

ata center providers have become an increasingly integral part of the submarine telecommunications ecosystem over the last several years. As a result, one of the biggest dynamic changes has been to place data center and colocation facilities closer to cable landing stations in order to maximize interconnection and network services.

Building these facilities next to – or even as part of – the cable landing station reduces network latency and streamlines infrastructure.

This type of configuration is especially attractive for cable landing stations that house multiple cable systems as they provide access to a much wider away of customers and interconnection opportunities. For instance, the cable landing facilities in Marseille, France, house thirteen international submarine cables and provide access to dozens of potential customers needing both interconnection and onward backhaul connectivity. (SubTel Forum Analytics Division of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc., 2020)

CLOUD ADOPTION

Cloud adoption is at an all-time high as companies continue to shift towards both cloud storage and cloud computing to drive their business.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure lead the way in enterprise adoption with no sign of slowing down. (Figure 81) These cloud services are global in nature and inevita-

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

Figure 1: Enterprise Public Cloud Provider Usage, 2021 (Flexera, 2021)

In January 2020, Flexera surveyed 750 enterprise technical professionals about their cloud computing adoption. Of these respondents, 94 percent have adopted the use of cloud computing in some fashion with organizations leveraging five different cloud services on average. bly their traffic will end up traveling over submarine telecommunications cables. As a result, data center providers have become more involved with the submarine fiber industry, especially around cable landing stations where they can capitalize on interconnection and colocation opportunities – especially in those areas where multiple cables come ashore to

a single location.

In January 2020, Flexera surveyed 750 enterprise technical professionals about their cloud computing adoption. Of these respondents, 94 percent have adopted the use of cloud computing in some fashion with organizations leveraging five different cloud services on average. Spending on enterprise cloud is growing sig-

nificantly with companies planning to spend 47 percent more on public cloud in 2021 vs 2020. In all, 36 percent of respondents spend more than $12 million on public cloud services on an annual basis while 83 percent spend more than $1.2 million annually. (Flexera, 2021) These numbers show that the cloud computing market continues to accelerate overall. As this market grows, so will data center providers and the need to provide robust telecommunications networks that allow enterprise customers to efficiently manage their traffic anywhere in the world. A key part of this will be the integration of data centers with cable landing stations to efficiently provide more backhaul and interconnection opportunities on international telecommunications routes.

DATA CENTER MARKET EXPANSION AND INTEGRATION

The cost for implementing a new data center can be steep. Depending on overall size and location, building a new data center can cost anywhere from $6.5 to $10 million per megawatt (MW ). (Diaz, 2019) In 2019 alone, data center provider Equinix planned to spend nearly $2 billion to open 12 new International Business Exchange (IBX) and expand 23 existing IBX facilities. (Lima, 2019) Non-Hyperscaler data centers, Equinix, Digital Realty Trust and Interxion, will continue to benefit from submarine cable construction activity as proximity to a cable landing station can provide nu-

Figure 2: Enterprise Public Cloud Provider Adoption Rate, 2020-2021 (Flexera, 2021)

merous interconnection opportunities that can help make the high cost of a new data center build worth it.

While non-Hyperscaler data centers do benefit from submarine cable infrastructure, they are not driving new builds and are strictly interested in the interconnection opportunities that being involved with cable landing stations provides. For Equinix and other carrier-neutral providers, locations with only a single cable system are not attractive growth options.

In the future, expect data center providers to continue integrating more closely with submarine cables. Bridging the gap between terrestrial and submarine traffic is one of the most critical components of international connectivity. Traditionally, submarine fiber systems would come ashore at a

cable landing station, negotiate deals for backhaul connectivity to a data center – which was not always close by – and from there negotiate interconnection services to other carriers and providers. This would add network latency and complexity – both of which are greatly reduced when data center and cable landing station facilities are integrated more closely. As new ideas and technologies are developed towards this effort, network efficiency and reliability will increase.STF REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum. Rebecca possessed more than 10 years’ experience as an analyst and database manager, including for the small business division of prominent fovernment contractor, General Dynamics IT. She is a regular contributor to SubTel Forum Magainze and is based out of Hillsborough, North Carolina USA.!

NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE SubTel Cable Map Updates

T

he SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database. It tracks the progress of over 500 current and planned cable systems, 45+ cable ships and over 1,400 landing points.

Systems are also linked to SubTel Forum’s News Now Feed, allowing viewing of current and archived news details.

This interactive map is a continual work and progress and regularly updated with pertinent data captured by analysts at SubTel Forum and feedback from our users. Our goal is to make easily available not only data from the Submarine Cable Almanac, but also more and more new layers of system information.

The SubTel Cable Map makes use of the ArcGIS Dashboards platform. This interactive map is a continual work and progress and regularly updated with pertinent data captured by analysts at SubTel Forum and feedback from our users.

The item lists have been streamlined, removing visual and organizational clutter while the search feature in the top right corner of the map allows users to directly search for cable systems and landings by name. Additionally, be sure to check out the slide over panel on the left-hand side of the map to filter data based on Region, System Supplier, System Installer, System Owner or whether or not a system is Unrepeatered.

For those who still want the analytical data provided in the previous version of the map, this can be found just below the map on the same page. Want to know how much capacity is available along Transpacific routes

or

This interactive map is a continual work and progress and regularly updated with pertinent data captured by analysts at SubTel Forum and feedback from our users.

how many kilometers of cable a supplier has produced over the last five years? Now all it takes is couple simple clicks to see your data!

Finally, we have created an initial version of the Submarine Cable Industry Timeline Map. This map shows users the timeline of systems added to the global network from the year 2000 all the way to those planned through 2025. See just how far this industry has come and get an idea of where it is

SUBTELFORUM.COM/CABLEMAP 10

SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

going with a single click of a button. Check out the Industry Timeline Map here: https://subtelforum.com/industrytimeline We hope you continue to make use of the SubTel Cable Map to learn more about the industry yourself and educate others on the importance of submarine cable systems.

Please feel free to reach out to our Project Manager, Rebecca Spence, should you have any comments, questions, or updates at rspence@ subtelforum.com. STF

THE FULL LIST OF ADDED/UPDATED SYSTEMS AS OF NOVEMBER 2021 IS AS FOLLOWS: Systems Added Apricot UK-Channel Islands 7 UK-Channel Islands 8 Cabribbean Express Labuan Bajo-Raja Converge ICT Domestic Zeus

NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE PESKY CABLESHIPS?

BY REBECCA SPENCE

C

an the end of 2021 be here already? With the amount of cable laying activity that has been happening in recent weeks, it is no wonder the last few quarter of the year is already flying by. Several systems have completed the wet lay portions of their project and in the final stages of installation as of the beginning of November; among these projects are HAVSIL, Amitié, CrossChannel Fibre, and Converge ICT Domestic Submarine Cable.

For CrossChannel Fibre, the first telecommunications fiber to cross the English Channel in 20 years, the IT Intrepid spent some time at the Hexatronic Factory in Hudiksvall, Sweden, seen in Figure 1.

Figure 3 breaks down the movement status of the 45 cables SubTel Forum tracks. Of which, 13 percent were enroute to their destination at the time the AIS data was reviewed for this month’s article. Most vessels in that 13 percent were expected to arrive at their destinations within

the following week, only one expecting to take more than a week. Four of the 87 percent of vessels that had reportedly arrived at their destinations have remained in one location for over a month. The Dependable, Telepaatti, Limin Venture, and Antonio Meucci. The Limin Venture can be seen in Figure 2’s

Figure 2: Limin Venture near Batam during the wet plant of BaSICS in the last week of October

g CrossChannel Figure 1: IT Intrepid loadin l, Sweden Fiber cable in Hudiksval

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

beautiful sunset picture from the crew’s Offshore Manager, Peter Shearer.

The regions of activity chart, Figure 4, has evolved a bit from previous iterations.

The hierarchy used below now divides the chart into various regions based on their proximity to each other in the world. Each shade is then subdivided based on the number of instances a vessel reports that region as their location. South East Asia, the Coast of China, and East Asia, still maintain some of the busiest individual regions globally, but EMEA saw the most vessel activity as a whole through September and October. This should come as no surprise as this is where vessels for systems like Grace Hopper and Equiano have spent a large portion of the last several months.

With the end of the calendar year quickly approaches I am excited to see what systems race to the finish. Thank you to all my readers for your continued interest and I hope you have a good holiday season and happy new year. As always, feel free to tag myself or SubTel Forum on our social media pages if your vessel highlighted in the next issue! Salud! STF REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum. Rebecca possessed more than 10 years’ experience as an analyst and database manager, including for the small business division of prominent fovernment contractor, General Dynamics IT. She is a regular contributor to SubTel Forum Magainze and is based out of Hillsborough, North Carolina USA.!

13% 87%

ARRIVED AT DESTINATION EN ROUTE

Figure 3:Vessel Movement Status

SEPTEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 120

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FEATURE

6 QUESTIONS WITH BUDDY RIZER

1.

WHAT IS LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’S MISSION?

Our mission statement is to provide excellent customer-focused economic development services to attract, grow and retain targeted businesses, and to promote entrepreneurism, in order to diversify and strengthen Loudoun’s economy.

How do we translate these high-level aspirations into reality? It really starts with putting people first. Even in the rather technical world of fiber and subsea telecom, there are people at either ends of the line that are communicating at the speed of life. There are thousands of jobs that are supported by those cables, including many in Loudoun County, a land-locked region 100+ miles from the coast.

Since 2017, Loudoun County, home to Ashburn and Data Center Alley, has been the world’s foremost leader in data center capacity and development. Data centers provide nearly 40% of the county’s tax base, and the people that work in and around data centers number in the tens of thousands. Looking ahead, we see the data economy extending beyond the secure walls of data centers, and being a major attraction for businesses in the data analytics, machine learning, mixed reality, biohealth and cybersecurity industries.

2:

HOW DOES LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTICIPATE IN THE SUBMARINE CABLE MARKET?

Data that supports critical infrastructure and operations around the world is hosted on servers in Loudoun County and is accessible in less than the blink of an eye. This type of global service is only possible in the last few

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

years, as subsea cables have been laid between Virginia Beach and Europe, Africa, South America, and other East Coast locations.

Fiber that used to run 300 miles overland to New Jersey now runs a fraction of that to the coast before making its Transatlantic journey.

Thanks to the extensive fiber connectivity through Virginia Beach, Loudoun remains an ideal business location, along with Henrico County and elsewhere in Virginia that were previously known for coal and tobacco production. Because of the subsea connectivity, those locations are not just viable, but also desirable for cloud investment. We salute the subsea visionaries that made this happen.

Looking ahead, Loudoun will continue to work with our data center community in pursuit of shared workforce development goals, renewable energy, educational inclusivity and digital equity. Data centers have the ability to transform a community through investment, but it all comes back to connectivity. As we like to say, connection makes this all #LoudounPossible.

3: 4:

IS LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CURRENTLY INVOLVED WITH ANY NEW SUBMARINE CABLE PROJECTS?

That’s classified

WHAT MAKES LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UNIQUE IN THE SUBMARINE SYSTEM MARKET?

Located just outside of Washington, D.C., Loudoun County has a long history of serving as a

connection point for the federal government. What makes Loudoun unique in the subsea cable business is our relative distance from the sea, as well as our growth without that direct access to transatlantic fiber. As many will remember TAT-8 was the first transatlantic fiber line in 1988, a joint venture among AT&T, Télécom, and British Telecom. It connected points in France and England to Tuckerton, N.J., and overland fiber then connected Ashburn to the world. That connectivity was greatly enhanced by the dot com giants like AOL, UUNet, MCI, Worldcom and more, laying the infrastructure for what would later become Data Center Alley.

It wasn’t until 2018 that Virginia first got direct connectivity to the world, first to Brazil with BRUSA, then Spain with MAREA, Denmark via Midgardsormen in 2019, and France through Dunant in 2021. Each of these major subsea projects through Virginia Beach serves to further connect Loudoun County to the world’s largest tech hubs, increasing speed, redundancy and resilience.

5:

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’S SUCCESS?

In October 2021, Loudoun Economic Development was awarded the highest honors by the International Economic Development Council: the Gold Award for Economic Development Organization of the Year. Over the last decade-and-a-half, Loudoun has attracted tens of billions of dollars in new commercial investment, reduced the personal property tax rate by 32 cents, and increased services for all Loudoun residents.

Our commitment to #LoudounPossible success starts with the stewardship of our Board of Supervisors, the leadership of our County Administration and the collaboration among each of our county departments. It is this commitment that guides everything we do.

Since early March 2020, the dominant global storylines have been the health and economic crises caused

by COVID-19 and the important discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion. Few states weathered the storms as well as Virginia, which was named “America’s Top State for Business” for 2021 by CNBC. Zoom in further, and it’s clear that Virginia’s story is best exemplified by Loudoun County, including: Workforce: Companies located in Loudoun draw from a labor pool where more than 60% have at least a bachelor’s degree. Located within four hours of hundreds of top universities, Loudoun also has a strong talent pipeline for the future.

Life: Loudoun is consistently named the safest county for crime in Northern Virginia, and FEMA recently named

Loudoun County the safest county in the U.S. from natural disasters. It’s no wonder that SmartAsset has also ranked Virginia as its Happiest Large County in the U.S. for several years running.

Inclusion: Loudoun County is home to Dulles International Airport, and has strong international ties to southern Asia, South America and Europe. In fact, one-in-four Loudoun residents was born internationally, and more than 150 languages are spoken at home. On the county level, Loudoun has one of the highest percentages of Indian populations in the U.S. Health: Loudoun is the fourth-healthiest county in America, according to new rankings from the U.S. News and World Report. This includes a smoking rate that is half of the national average, and a life expectancy that’s seven years longer than the national average.

6:

WHAT IS NEXT FOR LOUDOUN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?

With the largest density of fiber in the world, a blossoming data economy and the impending arrival of Metro’s Silver Line in 2022, Loudoun’s future has never looked brighter. While many of the large parcels for hyperscale data center development are already spoken for, Loudoun will continue to be a leader innovation, including multistory development, renewable energy and digital equity.

Outside of the data economy, Loudoun will also look to build on its foundations in the agriculture, highly specialized manufacturing and tourism industries, while providing support for entrepreneurs, government contractors and international firms looking for a soft landing in the U.S. market. STF BUDDY RIZER serves as the Executive Director for economic development in Loudoun County, Virginia, which was named the 2021 Economic Development Organization of the Year by the International Economic Development Council.

He leads the agency responsible for encouraging growth and developing relationships with Loudoun’s business community in both the commercial and agricultural-based business sectors. During his tenure, Rizer and his team have attracted more than $35 billion in new investment and tens of thousands of new jobs.

In 2007, Mr. Rizer joined Loudoun County and helped build “Data Center Alley” into the largest concentration of data centers in the world. He also has extensive international business development experience in China, France, Germany, Russia, Ireland, United Kingdom, Finland, Taiwan, Japan, India, Korea and United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Rizer has been named a Tech Titan 5 times by Washingtonian Magazine, has been named one of the 50 most influential Virginians 4 times

by Virginia Business Magazine, and was named to the Washington Business Journal’s Power 100 as one of the most influential business people in Washington, DC in 2019.

Mr. Rizer serves as the Chair of the Northern Virginia Community College Foundation Board and is the Secretary of the Go Virginia Region 7 Council. He is on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Technology Council and is a founding member of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance.

Mr. Rizer is a certified economic developer and a graduate of Virginia Tech’s Local Government Management Graduate Certificate Program.

NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

15

FEATURE

THE GLOBAL INTERNET HAS CHANGED FOREVER AND REQUIRES EXPANDED INFRASTRUCTURE

BY STEPHEN GRUBB, HERVE FEVRIER, ANDY PALMER-FELGATE AND MATTHEW MITCHELL

T

he global pandemic has changed all of our lives forever, particularly how we use and depend on reliable internet services. The internet was originally architected as a network based purely on best effort practices.

However, the internet has now become an essential element in all aspects of our lives. We now rely on it for working at home, online education, connecting to friends and family, telehealth, and online shopping, especially for small businesses, whose livelihood has been threatened during the pandemic. In supporting our 3.51 Billion Facebook monthly users, we have seen our network grow by 50-80%, depending on the specific global region, in 2020. Personal connections to family, friends and community have become more important than ever during these times. Certain Facebook features such as 3-way or greater calling increased by 700% in some countries during the peak of the pandemic. Facebook groups provide a platform for connection with the community and those users with shared interests. In a survey of 15,000 Facebook users in 15 countries, over half belong to 5 or more Facebook groups.

Of the survey respondents, 98% feel a sense of belonging and inclusion in these groups. Small businesses have been particularly reliant on online services as their traditional business channels and models have been disrupted. Facebook supports 200 million small businesses globally, has provided training for 100 Million businesses, and is sup-

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porting more than 1 million active Facebook shops.

But it’s much more than just about increases in network traffic and submarine network capacity. As people rely more and more on the internet for essential services, it also becomes about resilience and reliability of the network and increasing global network reach. Our global network needs to be highly resilient and reliable, and we address this with the combination of a highly meshed optical network and a parallelized 8 plane IP design. We rely on our global submarine cable network for connecting to our 18 data centers, as shown in Figure 2, and expanding the reach to our end users. During the pandemic we have announced

Figure 1: Reliable Internet Services are now essential in all aspects of our lives.

our 5 largest submarine cable systems to date: 2Africa, Echo, Bifrost, Apricot and a new 500 Tb/s, 24 fiber pair trans-Atlantic system [1].

2Africa, at 45,000 km, is now the longest submarine fiber cable system ever constructed. With the addition of the Pearls system, it now extends into the Arabian gulf, India and Pakistan. It connects 3 continents, having 46 landings in 33 countries, as shown in figure 2. 2Africa will provide nearly 3X the capacity of all the existing submarine cables to Africa. It potentially connects up to 3 Billion people, 36% of the global population [2]. Several studies have shown a positive correlation between the increase of the GDP of nations when they are connected to new submarine fiber cable bandwidth. Echo and Bifrost are two new very long submarine cable projects, on the order of 15,000 km each, that will connect North America to the Asia Pacific region, as shown in Figure 3. These new cable routes provide route diversity through the Java Sea, important for a resilient APAC submarine network.

These submarine cables also provide connectivity to our new APAC data center, which is under construction in Singapore. Upon completion of these two new submarine cable systems, the overall trans-Pacific submarine cable capacity will be increased by 70% [3].

Facebook has also been driving important innovations in the submarine fiber cable industry in order to improve key metrics: increased capacity and availability while continuously driving the cost per bit and cost per fiber pair lower. The first innovation is Spatial Division Multiplexing, or SDM. We worked on the first techno-economic analysis of SDM and demonstrated that this would lead to both higher capacity systems (1 Petabit and beyond), but also continuously lower cost per bit to 48 fiber pairs and beyond.[4] 2Africa, Echo and Bifrost are all first generation SDM systems which make use of higher fiber counts leading to higher total capacity and lower cost

Figure 2: Facebook’s 18 Worldwide Data Centers.

Figure 3: The 2Africa Submarine Cable System with the Pearls extension.

Figure 4: The Echo and Bifrost diverse trans-Pacific Submarine Cable Systems.

per bit while increasing resiliency due to pump sharing. The increased fiber capacity also leads to significantly lowered operational costs per fiber pair. The new 24 fiber pair trans-Atlantic system just announced is a 500 Tb/s second generation SDM system. This system is the largest fiber NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE count and capacity submarine cable system announced to date and will provide 200 times more trans-Atlantic capacity than submarine cable systems of the early 2000s. A second innovation we have driven is the substitution of Al for Cu as the conductor in submarine cable systems. The use of Aluminum makes the cable less expensive, lighter, and can potentially lead to lower resistivity submarine fiber cables which will be important in continuing to scale SDM cables of the future. Facebook has also developed Atlantis, a novel, predictive submarine modeling system that determines the lowest cost per bit submarine cable design while optimizing for the most reliable route between given endpoints. Lastly, Facebook is driving innovations for alternative power sources for future submarine cables, a critical investigative area for our continued scaling of power limited submarine networks.

This includes consideration of ocean power buoys using a combination of wave power converters and solar panels, as shown in Figure 5. We are working with GEPS Techno, a cleantech pioneer in the Blue Economy, to develop and sea trial these new power sources, and the application to submarine systems. These mid ocean power sources could supplement the current land-based power sources in future large scale SDM submarine fiber cable systems, which can scale to several Pbit/s.

Our reliance and use of the internet in all aspects of our lives has fundamentally been changed forever by the global pandemic. We have realized the need for increasing the global network infrastructure. The rapid rise of the technologies of the Metaverse, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), will also require increasing amounts of bandwidth in our network. We have announced 5 new, large submarine cable projects during the global pandemic which are record setting in capacity, diversity, and resiliency, and increase our global reach with a focus on underserved regions. The metrics of the submarine cable industry, primarily capacity and cost per bit of transport, need to be continually improved to drive continued increases in submarine cable infrastructure. To this end we have contributed several innovations within the industry and will continue to lead and drive towards these key metric improvements. STF

DR. STEVE GRUBB is currently a Global Optical Architect at Meta, working on the build of several new open submarine cable systems and investigating new optical technologies for Meta’s global network. Prior to Meta, he was a Fellow at Infinera where for 14 years he directed work on next generation Photonic Integrated optical and network technologies. He was also responsible for the first commercial introduction of Raman amplifiers in fiber networks. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Dr. Grubb has over 100 published papers and conference contributions and over 75 issued US Patents.

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Figure 5: Ocean Wave power converter being developed for application to submarine fiber cable systems (Source GEPS Techno).

DR. HERVE FEVRIER has been working for the past 5 years as a Global Optical Architect in the Meta (Facebook) Subsea Engineering team. He is the Technical Working Group lead for 4 EMEA cable systems including 2Africa. He has also the mission to push innovation in the industry regarding wet plant equipment. Previously, Herve has been with Alcatel and Xtera Communications.

ANDY PALMER-FELGATE is responsible for marine engineering and route planning of submarine cable systems at Meta and serves on the Executive Committee of the International Submarine Cable Protection Committee. Prior to joining Meta (Facebook) in 2016 Andy spent a decade with Verizon and working on submarine cable construction, operations, and maintenance primarily in the Asia-Pac region. Earlier in his career Andy was part of the Marine Operations team at Alcatel Submarine Networks. Andy holds a MSc in Hydrographic Surveying from University College London, a BSc in Ocean Science from the University of Wales, and a Diploma in Law of the Sea from the Rhodes Academy.

MATTHEW MITCHELL currently serves as Director of Optical Network Engineering at Meta Platforms responsible for optical backbone infrastructure covering the metro, long haul, and subsea spaces. Prior to joining Meta, he served as VP of Optical Systems Architecture at Infinera Corporation, and held positions at Corvis Corporation, and Lucent Bell Laboratories. He earned his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He has co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications and holds 28 patents in the area of optical transmission and nonlinear optics.

REFERENCES: 1. https://tech.fb.com/inside-the-lab-connectivity/ 2. https://engineering.fb.com/2021/09/28/connectivity/2africa-pearls/ 3. https://engineering.fb.com/2021/03/28/connectivity/echo-bifrost/ 4. R. Dars, et. al., Journal of Lightwave Technology, 36(18) p.3855 (2018).

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FEATURE

ONE HOP BEYOND:

Creating Regional Connections From Data Centers Through Fiber Selection and High-Powered Amplifiers

INTRODUCTION

I

n recent times the way subsea cables interconnect the worldwide data network has changed. Historically submarine systems were terminated in cable landing stations sited as close to population centers and to the landing locations as possible. This reflected the origins of the data flows which were – if we go back far enough – circuits connecting users, and then more recently, user or enterprise-originated data paths, possibly to a data center or another user or enterprise. If you had been able to drill down and interrogate the majority of data flows, they would have been a transaction recognizable to a human, perhaps a phone call, perhaps a demand for information or streaming data in real time. But then, sometime in our recent lifetime, the world changed…

It is only 20 years since Google built its first data center (DC), roughly coinciding with the founding of Equinix out of Digital Equipment Corporation. It is roughly 10 years since Facebook’s first DC, and only 15 years since the first iPhone.

That is a complete data revolution in 20 years. The consequence is that what fills the pipes now is mostly machine-generated data flows based on algorithms. Recent data suggests that between 50 and 65% of all internet traffic is ‘bots’. Good bots would be aggregator crawlers, search engine crawlers, social network bots, shop bots and monitoring bots, while the best known bad-bot would be a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) botnet. Unfortunately, research suggests that those bad bots account for perhaps 50% more traffic than the good

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BY WAYNE PELOUCH AND LEIGH FRAME

guys. These patterns of data traffic have led to industry and market revolutions – compare the customer base and funding sources for subsea cable systems today to twenty years ago, and to an imperative for technology to keep up!

When subsea cables connected people, the signals arrived at the cable landing station and from here the signal was regenerated and transmitted terrestrially inland towards PoPs and then DCs based in cities and hubs. Now that machines spend much of their time and energy (literally) exchanging with each other systems are primarily designed to connect Data Centers to Data Centers, directly facilitating an end-to-end network that as far as possible resembles one pane of glass. Those Data Centers are also in locations

Fig 1: Crossover cost point for repeatered vs unrepeatered links as distance increases, for 100Tb/s and 20Tb/s capacities.

Fig 2: Schematic of UR system with ROPAs.

where proximity to people is almost secondary, compared to energy cost, green considerations, land cost, legal and physical security and other factors, which may dominate.

As the number of new trans-oceanic systems accumulates, they increasingly connect seemingly random places optimized around machines, geo-politics and perhaps the environment; regional connectivity needs to be added and improved to support onward transmission of critical data, both in-country and to Data Centers in neighboring countries.

Decommissioning of existing multi-landing trans-oceanic systems, such as TAT-14 or CANTAT-3 results in a reduction of local links extending from regional hubs. Similarly, a number of existing unrepeatered links are approaching their end of life and can be replaced by much higher fiber count unrepeatered or SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) systems, utilizing modern higher quality fiber.

High optical performance and transmission capacity are achieved subsea because the newly deployed subsea fibers are low attenuation and often high effective area, and the amplifier spacing is at regular and relatively short intervals.

However, this is typically not the case in terrestrial fiber links and in unrepeatered subsea links (~ 200 to 500 km) that do not have electrically powered subsea amplifiers. Links that fall within these categories are often more challenging and result in a bottleneck of transmission capacity. There is also a trend to extend the higher performance subsea links through these lower performance sections to avoid regeneration costs at a subsea cable landing station. Methods to improve the performance of these bottleneck sections are discussed below.

CHALLENGING SCENARIOS

Long unrepeatered (UR) spans are the most difficult and performance-limiting case, as you move beyond around 300km. Although the technology exists to receive

data more than 500km away on an unrepeatered link, and although in theory an unrepeatered cable can contain many multiples of fibers compared to a repeatered cable, the number of wavelengths that can be transmitted and the data rate of each wavelength means that beyond 400 to 450 kilometers, it is usually more cost-effective (measured as cost/bit) to switch to repeatered technology, notwithstanding the inherent limitations on number of fiber pairs and the cost of the additional subsea and dry plant.

The science behind making difficult UR spans work For UR spans that approach this pivot point, it is well known that utilizing forward- and backward-pumped Raman significantly improves the Optical Signal-to-Noise Ratio (OSNR).[1][2] The Raman modules can produce both significant gain within the line fiber and pump a Remote Optically-Pumped Amplifier (ROPA). In standard core area fibers (G.654.C) the maximum gain that can be used is about 25 dB before multi-path interference (fed by Rayleigh scattering) within the fiber starts becoming an issue.[2] Xtera has a Raman module with this gain that can additionally act as a ROPA pump using the residual Raman power after about 100 km or more of distributed Raman amplification.

However, newer UR deployments are making use of lower attenuation and larger core area fibers (G.654.D).

The lower attenuation reduces the overall span loss and generally results in lower Rayleigh scattering and MPI penalties. For example, 0.02 dB/km lower fiber attenuation over 400 km reduces the span loss and increases the OSNR by 8 dB, a significant improvement. The larger core area allows a higher channel power in the fiber before nonlinear effects become dominant. Unfortunately, the larger core area also results in a negative effect, by reducing the Raman gain. The Raman gain scales inversely with the core effective area (Aeff ) so that a 112 µm2 fiber has only ~ 70% of NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE

Terrestrial deployment for TIM Brasil using multiple Raman + ROPA spans over the Amazon jungle[3]

the gain in dB compared to 80 µm2 fiber. In other words, 25 dB gain in 80 µm2 fiber becomes < 18 dB gain in 112 µm2 fiber resulting in a loss of ~ 14 dB Raman gain with forward and backward Raman pumping. In many cases, the UR performance in standard Aeff fiber is better than higher Aeff fiber due to this gain limitation. To compensate for this lower Raman gain, specific high-power Raman modules have been developed for larger Aeff fiber to maximize the optical performance in these newer fibers.

Terrestrial fiber spans are typically longer than subsea spans and quite often use existing G.652.A fiber with standard 0.20 dB/km attenuation. A shorter terrestrial fiber section can have a much larger impact on performance than a much longer subsea section. For example, terrestrial fiber spans of 100 km @ 0.2 dB/km (20 dB) have more than 10x lower OSNR versus subsea 60 km spans @ 0.16 dB/km (9.6 dB). Thus, 10 terrestrial spans result in a lower ONSR than 100 subsea spans in this case, not even considering the lower nonlinear penalties in larger Aeff subsea fiber. This is another case where deploying a lower gain (10 to 13 dB) Raman module on the longer terrestrial spans can significantly improve performance by about 4.5 dB per span.[2] In some cases, terrestrial fiber links contain one or more very long spans in the middle, possibly over a difficult access geography point (like the Amazon jungle or subsea section).

Similar to the discussion above regarding unrepeatered links, a span with +10 dB loss (~ 50 km longer) relative to other spans has the equivalent OSNR as 10 shorter spans with the same amplifier equipment. This bottleneck can be solved in the same way as the single UR span, noting that the optical power in the line fiber needs to be optimized differently for a multiple-span link compared to a single-span.

We have even deployed ROPAs in multiple spans of a long terrestrial network to optimize capacity.[3]

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WHAT COMES NEXT?

A recent trend in optical communications is to develop a disaggregated equipment model such that different parts of the system can accommodate different equipment vendors and interoperate through a unified management system. We are developing disaggregated Raman modules using the latest pump technology and incorporating upgrades based on decades of experience. For example, one such upgrade is an integrated fiber cut and repair detection mechanism that can work over extremely high loss spans of 80 dB or more and through unpumped ROPAs (which are normally opaque without pumping). Fiber cuts on long spans have always been a difficult operational issue and there has been no simple way of detecting when a repair has been completed since the Raman pumps are turned off for safety reasons. Having a continuously operating monitoring system (that complies with laser safety regulations) allows autonomous restart after a repair has been completed.

Another upgrade is a gain control mechanism of a forward Raman module which is normally blind to the gain that occurs in the line fiber ahead of it. This is particularly helpful as the forward Raman module can adjust the pumps based on varying channel capacity. Equipment variants of medium gain C-band, high gain C+L-band (with ROPA pumping) and high-power C+L-band (for large Aeff fiber with ROPA pumping) will all share a common mechanical platform and interface. This will allow any network to operate the best-in-class Raman solution for these cases where it is needed to overcome performance limitations.

CONCLUSIONS

The last decade has seen a huge emphasis on SDM technology from Xtera and the major players in the repeatered subsea space, partly for the capacity gains, and partly for the inherent cost reduction that accompanies this shift in technol-

ogy. SDM technology has been one of the key facilitators that allows the world map of Data Centers to look the way it does.

The next decade is likely to see a shift in focus, from a network perspective, to provide the capillary connectivity from these hyper scale data hubs that will distribute the data regionally, inter-data-center, and to some less well served destinations.

The technologies discussed above will take their turn as the facilitators of this next generation of network build out. STF WAYNE PELOUCH is Vice President of Photonics at Xtera.

Wayne Pelouch received his B.A. degree in Physics (Honors) and B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1987, and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 1992. His thesis covered ultrafast lasers and nonlinear optical processes with applications in semiconductor physics.

After graduation he joined the University of New Mexico / Air Force Research Labs in Albuquerque, NM and then worked for the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia as a Laser Physicist.

Subsequently, he joined Coherent Technologies (Lafayette, CO) where he was Principal Investigator on a number of SBIR programs related to waveguide laser and amplifier technology. Dr. Pelouch joined Xtera Communications in 2001 and is currently the Vice President of Photonics at Xtera Inc. (Allen, TX) where he leads all Photonics activities including research, product development, and system network design. He has authored numerous publications and patents related to fiber optics and amplifier technology.

LEIGH FRAME is Chief Operating & Sales Officer at Xtera. Leigh joined Xtera in early 2018 and serves as the Chief Operating Officer and key architect of the company’s strategy. Leigh brings with him a wealth of senior level and hands-on experience, backed up by a network of strong industry relationships at all levels in the customer, supplier and finance communities.

Previously Leigh had an extensive career with Alcatel Submarine Networks, which includes positions as COO, VP Projects and Customer Support, and Director Marketing and Business Development. In addition, he served as an active Board member of the Apollo Submarine Cable System for ten years. His broad experience in the subsea industry over three decades covers corporate strategy, a track record of sales success, marketing, M&A work, operations management, and high risk/high value turnkey project delivery. Leigh holds a Degree in Economics from Leeds University.

REFERENCES H. Fevrier, B. Clesca, P. Perrier, D. Chang and W. Pelouch, “Unrepeatered Transmission,” in Undersea Fiber Communication Systems, José Chesnoy, Ed. Oxford: Academic Press, 2016, pp.

261-300.

Wayne Pelouch, “Raman Amplification: an Enabling Technology for Long-Haul, Coherent Transmission Systems”, J. Lightwave Tech., vol. 34, no. 4, 2016.

TIM Brasil Case Study: A 2000 km Backbone Network Deployment on a Power Grid with Ultra-Long Spans in the Amazon Region

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FEATURE

SEE YOU IN HAWAII!

BY ELAINE STAFFORD

H

undreds of people have already registered to return to Honolulu for PTC’22: Reunite. Rethink. Renew. and we hope you do, too!

Many of us submarine cable aficionados and enthusiasts from around the globe are looking forward to reuniting for PTC’s annual Submarine Cable Workshops after a long, two-year respite. The event will be held on Sunday, 16 January at the Hilton Hawaiian Village® Waikiki Beach Resort. Learn more at PTC.ORG/PTC22.

Sticking with the PTC’22 theme: “Reunite. Rethink. Renew.,” we’ve planned what we believe will be an extraordinarily interesting program, featuring some of the most renowned critical thinkers in our industry.

The Sunday Workshop will start with our traditional around the world update, providing insights on new cables and challenges in each ocean across the globe. There’s a lot to catch up on.

Since COVID-19 began, the industry has already managed to install several cables across the

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Atlantic, and many others are underway. We’ll not only focus on the traditional routes that are always important to global communications – but this year, we’re also adding a session on the Arctic region, where more and more projects are being realized, and both small and large projects are being planned despite the challenges of cold weather, ice, and politics. We’ve invited Peder Naerbo, head of BULK (in Norway), to lead that discussion.

The speaker roundup for the other regions includes Funke Opeke, Erick Contag, Mike Constable, Mike Rieger, Paul McCann, and Philippe Dumont. Tony Mosley of OSI will be back chairing the session. The market is stronger than it has been for many years and there’s a lot to catch up on since the last face-to-face at PTC’20.

The workshop would not be complete without a global update on regulatory issues from Kent Bressie. He’ll bring us updates on some of the challenges he’s helping to navigate as cable owners seek approval to land and operate

cables in the U.S. given today’s geopolitical challenges and recent decisions. Despite the increasing connectivity of the world and greater diversity of data centers, the U.S. remains a primary destination for many of the world’s most capable cables. Kent will also share what ICPC is doing to productively influence cable-related policies (especially planning and environmental) across the globe. No doubt – this is one of the most critical issues our industry faces today.

The day would not be complete without an exciting, provocative, and thoughtful exchange on the timely topics in the subsea industry between industry executives. This year, I (Elaine Stafford) will continue the discussion started at the October PTC Webinar Series: Frictionless Business – Current Trends in Submarine Cable, by moderating a panel featuring Marc Halbfinger, Nigel Bayliff, Ricardo Orcero, Virginie Frouin, and Paul Gabla, where these executives will share their thought-provoking ideas on transformative trends in our industry. Conversation at that October webinar, which had the highest turnout of viewers of the webinar series, only had time to touch the tip of the iceberg on this subject. Today’s global communications backbone continues to expand at a rate faster than we’ve seen in the last 20 years, while at the same time it faces enormous geopolitical, regulatory, and environmental approval challenges that are changing the landscape as these cables reach various national shorelines. To many of us, the challenges seem to be bubbling during a time when we’d privately hoped that the challenges would lessen now that the criticality of connectivity is undeniable. Yet it is exactly this importance that has made it critical to governments and regulators to make sure the networks are planned, owned, and operated in ways which they approve of. Thus, it is harder today than ever to realize a cable in a timely way, even though on the owner side – there are fewer decision-makers as ownership is increasingly concentrated. At the same time, there are more interested investors than ever before, with infrastructure funds buying cables, investing in new routes, etc. All this interest in our industry, yet we’ve not yet solved some of the nagging critical issues that have challenged us for years – bringing new talent to the industry, establishing a paradigm that secures a sustainable and reliable maintenance support for the cables, adequately serving the smaller and geographically remote areas of the world, and doing all of this with an ever-improving even lower carbon footprint. We’ll touch upon all of these things during the panel.

SubOptic, who will sponsor the PTC’22 Sunday Submarine Cable Workshops again this year, will also release the first of its Crew Tube. You might ask, “What

the bloody heck is ‘The Crew Tube’?” To put it simply, it is a program launched just recently to encourage individuals throughout our industry to self-record short video vignettes which share personal glimpses into their experiences, insights, stories, and more about the subsea cable industry. The vignettes, which are starting to grow in number, will be accessible coincident with PTC’22 and beyond, on the SubOptic website. ICPC will also support this initiative, and together, SubOptic and ICPC’s aim is to collect a library of informative and interesting personal perspectives on the submarine cable industry. We’re expecting videos from installers, surveyors, executives, testers, planners, project managers, operators, etc. SubOptic truly welcomes input from anyone who has something important to share.

(No commercials or political ads allowed, please.) If you’re interested in contributing, please visit suboptic.org for more information.

Wrapping up Sunday, TeleGeography will answer questions on what’s changing in the world of international communications today. What’s driving data center development, and how will that affect networks? Where have bandwidth prices fallen faster than expected, and where have they stabilized? And, is there finally an end in sight to rapid submarine cable buildout? Tim Stronge, Brianna Boudreau, and Jon Hjembo will all be back to give us their expert view.

PTC’22 is being planned as a hybrid event – so that those who are comfortable traveling and supported by their company can attend in person. Those who are unable to attend in person will be able to access the program activities through an online event platform. The Submarine Cable Workshops will be entirely pre-recorded, as some of our speakers are not yet sure they’ll be in a position to travel.

For those who can make it in person in January, they will be on stage at the Workshop to provide you their insights.

All of us planning this annual event hope you’ll be able to join us one way or another. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to share, and a lot of old friends to see. STF Elaine Stafford is Managing Partner of DRG Undersea Consulting. Ms. Stafford advises to clients across the globe who invest in and build submarine cable networks, providing them technical, commercial, project management support, plus market insight/analysis. Before DRG, Elaine was an engineer, manager and executive at AT&T, where she held various roles in R&D, engineering, implementation and sales of submarine networks- leading the design, planning and construction of projects dating back to the world’s first undersea fiber optic networks. Elaine holds engineering degrees from Union College and Stanford University. She is active in many submarine cable community activities which focus on supporting the industry as a whole, including serving on the SubOptic Executive Committee and SubOptic Foundation Board.

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FEATURE

TELECOM EGYPT’S INFRASTRUCTURE: The Heart of the Digital World

BY MOHAMED ELDAHSHORY AND OLA KHALED

T

elecom Egypt has a history of over 165 years serving its customers in Egypt, the region, and beyond using state-of-the-art technology, reliable infrastructure solutions, and a wide network of submarine cables. Capitalizing on Egypt’s location at the heart of the world, the company provides advanced telecom solutions to the market and offers unmatched value propositions to simplify people’s lives. Egypt has, and always will, serve as a critical international hub for global communication networks that connect Africa, Asia, and Europe, as its network serves as the shortest and most reliable path between the continents, making it the ideal pathway for data to reach global destinations.

With the rise of the 4th industrial revolution and the introduction of new, capacity hungry technologies, an exploding amount of data is being exchanged between continents, necessitating the establishment of additional transport channels and newer local data storage means. In that regard, Telecom Egypt continuously develops its local and international network infrastructure to offer worldclass solutions and contribute to complete national digitization, aiming to position Egypt as a regional digital hub, in line with the Egyptian government’s digital transformation initiative.

TELECOM EGYPT: THE DIGITAL HUB

The company is the key enabler and provider of international connectivity in Egypt. It is also evolving to become a leading ICT provider that offers a complete range of digital solutions as it gradually moves on from the connectivity layer of its digital pyra-

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mid to the data center layer. Through its progress in the data center business, Telecom Egypt aims to provide a variety of solutions to customers and ultimately ascend to the application layer, contributing to the future of Egypt and the region.

Telecom Egypt builds its data centers by capitalizing on five main pillars: • Egypt’s strategic geographical location • Telecom Egypt’s extensive connectivity and access • Certified personnel • International data center standards • The data center’s client mix Currently, Telecom Egypt owns and operates seven commercial data center facilities located within Greater Cairo and Alexandria and will continue to expand this business by building facilities across the country. The company’s international standard data centers, cloud platforms, and solutions are designed to enable swifter decision-making processes, faster communication, enhanced security, smooth operations, and sustained profitability.

TELECOM EGYPT’S NEW DATA CENTER FACILITY

Telecom Egypt has completed the first phase of Egypt’s largest international data center facility. It will be the first in the country to obtain all three of the Uptime Institute’s certifications in the Design, Constructed Facility, and Operational Sustainability categories. Earlier in August, the data center was granted the Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility while in 2020, it was granted the Tier III

Certification of Design from the Uptime Institute after a rigorous assessment of all aspects of the faci lity and its operations, unaffected by expected delays from the pandemic. The facility features international standard management and technical support, redundant telecommunication infrastructure, and international connectivity to global subsea systems.

Located at the heart of Cairo’s Business Center, Smart Village, the facility has access to all the global submarine cable systems that land in Egypt.

Telecom Egypt’s new data center is connected to all 10 of the Mediterranean and Red sea submarine landing stations over the company’s mesh network, giving it access to more than 60 countries around the globe.

The new data center is an open access facility characterized by an enhanced colocation service and higher levels of redundancy, with the ability to expand to accommodate growing colocation needs. This will further contribute to the development of sustainability features that mitigate rising energy costs and are closely aligned with international standards. The facility’s capabilities target organizations that value premium data center services and consider risk management and lower latency as benchmarks when it comes to selecting data centers.

This project demonstrates Telecom Egypt’s clear focus and commitment to contribute to Egypt’s transformation into a global digital hub and its plans to expedite the development of the country’s ICT infrastruc-

ture. The new data center is strategically located in proximity to many local and international companies, governmental entities, financial authorities, educational institutions, and research & development centers to serve a variety of customers.

CONNECTIVITY AND ACCESS

The connectivity and access services provided by Telecom Egypt are the key success pillars of its data center facilities. By investing in new cables individually or through consortiums, Telecom Egypt has been able to extend its international network to reach new horizons and stay ahead of the growing demand for international data services and hosting facilities.

The company currently attracts global content players and facilitates the provision of cloud computing services by continuously progressing its infrastructure and connectivity, offering more resiliency, diversity, and protection. Telecom Egypt currently connects 11 subsea cable systems from the East to 13 from the West and is continuously investing in new cables. It now owns and operates 10 subsea landing stations in Egypt located in Alexandria, Abu Talat 1 and 2, Suez, Hod al Dars, Zaafarana 1 and 2, Sidi Krir, Port Said, and Ras Gharib, in addition to an 11th abroad in Mazara del Vallo, Italy. All landing stations are connected over Egypt’s 10 diversified terrestrial crossing routes, with more to come.

In addition, Telecom Egypt owns and operates two cables, the first being the TE North NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE subsea cable that links Egypt, Marseille, Cyprus, and Algeria and the second being the MENA subsea cable that runs from Italy to India, crossing three continents and four seas. On the regional level, the company has extended its trans-border network to connect to neighboring countries such as Sudan, Libya, and Jordan. Telecom Egypt also plans to expand its portfolio to reach a total number of +16 landing stations, +14 diversified crossing routes, and +18 submarine cable systems by 2025.

Finally, the company is currently launching a new project to extend its reach into the African continent and connect both its East and West coasts to Europe via Hybrid African Ring Path (HARP), a submarine system that circles the African continent and forms the shape of a harp, contributing to continental digitalization. The system will not only connect African coastal countries, but also landlocked ones with an option to branch out to multiple potential landing points and connect them to data centers in Egypt. With the establishment of this very reliable and robust system, data traffic to and from Africa can be rerouted between the East and West coasts, making HARP a highly secure solution. The company is now enacting its current and planned projects to offer end-to-end connectivity solutions through HARP. This hybrid system will enable Telecom Egypt’s plans to establish open points of presence in various locations in Africa and Europe to serve its enterprise and wholesale customers, support the digital transformation

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efforts exerted throughout African nations, and expand the company’s international footprint. STF MOHAMED ELDAHSHORY is a director at Telecom Egypt for Global Projects and Submarine Cable Development, capitalizing on his 18 years of experience in the telecommunication industry and vendor-carrier relations, His career in Telecom Egypt’s International Sector kicked off in 2008, as a Business Planning Manager for international and submarine cable projects, and then pursued his career as head of Sales and Business Development for Africa and Levant, and finally, he led the team of Product and Project Development.

Mohamed holds a MSc in Optics and Photonic Communications from Cairo University in 2007, besides, an MBA in International Business from the Arab Academy AASTMT in 2015. He received his BSc in Electronics and Communications Engineering, class of 2001, from Ain shams University.

OLA KHALED is Telecom Egypt’s International Business Development Senior Manager. She has over 16 years’ experience in the areas of international customers’ relations and business development.

She holds both an eMBA degree from Nile University in collaboration with IESE business school (class of 2011) and a BSc in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (class of 2001). She is currently pursuing studies on Professional Masters in Telecommunications at Cairo University.

Ola has presented a paper, during the ITS MENA regional conference in February 2019, in Aswan, which is an overview on the subsea industry and its importance to the world’s economy. She was again a speaker during the SubOptic 2019, in New Orleans (USA), and the lead author of the paper entitled “Egypt’s Commitment for Colossal Infrastructure and Regulations Refurbishment” which tackles Egypt’s pivotal role in the international telecom evolution, as well as Telecom Egypt commitments to the international community and its new firm plans being developed catering for the new wave of subsea infrastructure crossing the country.

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FEATURE

Conun Trial

OPERATION PLUTO

(PIPELINE UNDER THE OCEAN): PART 2: THE HAMEL PIPE, THE BLITZ & IMPLEMENTATION

I

n the last issue we described the development of the 2” (inches) H.A.I.S. Cable, but before we continue with its story it should be noted that, early in its development, an alternative approach to its role in Operation PLUTO was introduced and worked on in parallel.

On behalf of the Petroleum Division, Bernard J Ellis, Chief Engineer of the Burmah Oil Co, was dealing with the H.A.I.S. Cable programme, and when he saw that the cable was extremely stiff in short lengths but flexible and easily manageable in long lengths, he suggested that a steel pipe could also be used for PLUTO, as he had seen samples of small diameter pipes that were also flexible when handled in long lengths in the oilfields. He would later team up with Harry A Hammick, Chief Engineer of the Iraq Petroleum Co, to develop the project.

THE HAMEL PIPE

A prototype of Ellis’s pipe design was fabricated by J. & E. Hall of Dartford. The mild steel pipe, with a wall thickness of 0.212” (5.4mm) and an internal diameter of 3½” (89mm), was produced in 30ft (9.14m) lengths, and these were joined together by A J Welding Ltd. This prototype quickly proved that this pipe had sufficient wall thickness to handle the necessary pump pressure, it could be bent round a wheel of 30ft diameter and pulled off again, remaining relatively straight without kinking, and sections could be flash welded together to provide any required length. However, with this bending diameter it could not be handled like cable and stored in a cableship’s tanks. One reason for this was that the conventional coiling process results in a complete twist being introduced into each turn. Although this twist is removed while uncoiling during laying, the steel pipe would not tolerate this treat-

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BY BILL BURNS & STEWART ASH ment. Ellis, therefore, suggested that a large wheel mounted on trunnions on the deck of a Hopper Barge, with its lower portion protruding into the sea through the hopper doors, could be utilised to deploy the pipe. An alternative approach, also adopted, was a huge floating drum like a gigantic cotton reel, capable of carrying any quantity of pipe likely to be required.

Model tests of the floating drum concept were carried out at the National Physical Laboratory’s tank at Froude in Worcester. These tests confirmed that such a vessel could be towed at sufficient speed without yawing. In a witty play on words, this floating drum (vessel) was given the name HMS Conundrum, or ‘Conun’ as it became known.

Preliminary work confirmed that the pipe could be laid up on the drum and pulled off without kinking. The sections could be welded together with absolute reliability; so long lengths could be carried and laid by either the wheel and barge or the Conun system. Although there was no previous experience as to how a bare mild steel pipe would lie and behave on the seabed, it was calculated that it would have at least a six-week operational life. As the H.A.I.S. Cable was as yet unproven, and there was significant concern as to whether there would be sufficient supplies of lead available to complete the H.A.I.S. programme and meet the operational targets, having a complementary method, even if it was short-lived, was considered desirable, and so it was decided to proceed with this approach in parallel. This pipe was given the codename ‘Hamel’ after Hammick and Ellis, although after the war Ellis successful asserted his claim that he was the sole inventor. Two factories were set up at Tilbury to manufacture, store and then wind the Hamel Pipe onto drums. A Hopper Barge, later called HMS Persephone, was converted to carry the drum, and a Conun was

HMS Persephone

also constructed.

The contract for pipe manufacture was awarded to Stewart & Lloyd, and this company also undertook to act as agents of the Petroleum Division to oversee the design and construction of the pipe. Subsequently the company took on the management of the Tilbury factories. At the same time, the Director of Naval Construction took responsibility for fitting out HMS Persephone, the design of the Conun, and the supervision of its construction

by Messrs Orthostyle.

The two adjacent factories were constructed at Tilbury to manufacture 40ft (12.2m) lengths of 3½” diameter mild steel pipe and then weld them into 4,000ft (1,219m) lengths. While being welded, the pipe was pushed down 4,000ft conveyor channels then thrown off on to a storage rack. Pending completion of the Tilbury factories, a few miles of 3½” steel pipe was hand-welded in Portsmouth Dockyard and wound on to Persephone’s drum for preliminary trials. These were entirely successful, and the work was completed by April 1943, so that both the H.A.I.S. Cable and Hamel Pipe had successfully completed their main trials programmes by the Spring of that year.

It was realised very early in the Hamel Pipe trials that it was not flexible enough be used at the shore ends. It could not be deployed quickly enough, especially at the French end, where the operation would be under heavy enemy fire. For the Hamel Pipe to be used, the shore ends would have to be H.A.I.S. Cable. However, this would reduce the diameter of the pipe at both ends from 3½” to 2”, causing a significant reduction in throughput. A 3” diameter H.A.I.S. Cable was needed, at least in short lengths, if the Hamel Pipe was to deliver its maximum potential.

A Conun Loaded with Hamel Pipe

The Two Hamel Pipe Storage Racks

THE 3” H.A.I.S. CABLE

The success achieved by the Bristol Channel dress rehearsal had already led to the consideration of increasing the diameter of the core of the H.A.I.S. Cable to 3”. This dimensional change had been suggested as it would offer a significant increase in capacity that would reduce the number of cables needed to reach the required supply target. The requirement NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE for a 3” cable to provide the shore ends for Hamel Pipes added to reasons for progressing this design modification.

The design of the new cable was similar in most respects to the 2” cable, with the exception of the increased tube diameter, and the steel tapes were increased to 22mm in thickness to deal with the greater hoop stress that the cable would have to withstand.

The final overall diameter of this cable, after armouring, was about 4.5”. Work on the 3” tube design commenced at the Woolwich Works in September 1943 and in parallel, the coupling design was adapted. New designs were developed for the 3” cable, with a modified version to fit the ends of the 3½” Hamel Pipe.

3” H.A.I.S. Cable

A CHANGE OF COURSE

On 23 April 1943, full scale production of both solutions had been authorised by the Petroleum Division and the Chiefs of Combined Operations. They then handed responsibility of the operational stage of PLUTO to the Petroleum Warfare Department under its Director General, Major-General Sir Donald Banks (1881-1975), K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C., and Force PLUTO, specially organised by the Admiralty under the command of Captain John Fenwick Hutchings (1885-1968), C.B.E., D.S.O., Royal Navy. The Quartermaster General visited the Watermouth Bay station on 24 April to see the H.A.I.S. Cable system in operation, and on 29 April he visited the Hamel factories in Tilbury, then proceeded to Henley’s factory in Gravesend and the Siemens works at Woolwich to see production of the 2” H.A.I.S. Cable. At Woolwich, he also saw HMS Holdfast loading a length of 2” H.A.I.S Cable. From his observations he decided that no further lengths of 2” cable should be made, and that 3” cable, then undergoing Works tests, should be thoroughly trialled in order to maximise the opportunity of obtaining the advantage that the 3” cable would provide, almost trebling the throughput of the 2” cable.

During June and July 1943, recommendations were made by the Quartermaster General’s Petroleum Committee, and confirmed by the Chiefs of Staff Committee, that Operation PLUTO should be made a high priority. Up to this point the plan had only conceived a pipeline from Dungeness to Boulogne, but now a second line from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg was added. Plans were put in place for pumping stations of 3,500 and 3,000 tons per day to be built at Dungeness and Sandown on the Isle of Wight, respectively.

Unknown to the members of the Operation PLUTO teams, this was an indication that the D-Day landings were being planned for Normandy.

ISLE OF WIGHT TO CHERBOURG CROSSING

The decision to lay a pipeline from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg would require much larger quantities of cable

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and pipe, and so arrangements were made to increase British manufacture as much as possible, but also to obtain 140nm (260km) of cable from the USA. In addition, it was planned to duplicate the Tilbury factories for welding, storage, and winding Hamel Pipe in the USA. An American Army proposal had also been developed for laying cross-Channel lines, but when the progress made in the UK with the H.A.I.S. Cable and the Hamel Pipe was seen by ‘Ike’, General Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, he decided to abandon the American scheme and concentrate on helping the British programme by supplying cable to the UK design and providing additional pumping and auxiliary plant from the USA. The Isle of Wight to Cherbourg route involved a sea-crossing of about 70nm (130km), instead of the 26nm (48.4km) originally visualised. This made necessary the provision of larger cableships and the use of the Conun, which would be loaded till the axles were awash. Following a successful trial lay of the 3” H.A.I.S. Cable, Operation PLUTO obtained three more ships to be converted and fitted with cable gear by the Director of Naval Construction. HMS Algerian was to carry 30nm (56.7km) of 3” cable, and the other two, HMS Latimer and HMS Sancroft, were to carry 100nm (185km) of 3” cable, weighing about 6,400 tons. Six Thames barges were also converted and equipped to handle the shore ends. In addition, a large number of auxiliary vessels were added to the Operation PLUTO fleet.

Tests using a model Conun at the National Physical Laboratory showed that it could be handled when loaded with 70nm of Hamel Pipe, provided that two of the largest class of Ocean Rescue Tugs (the Bustler) were used ahead, and a smaller tug astern for steering. The production of five more Conuns was then put in hand. When fully loaded with 70nm of Hamel Pipe, each Conun weighed 1,600 tons, or the equivalent of a Royal Navy Destroyer.

ENEMY ACTION

The development and manufacture of the H.A.I.S. Cable and the Hamel Pipe, together with the conversion of vessels and the construction of Conuns, was completed in just over two years. This would have been an exceptional achievement in peacetime, but it was carried out in what appears to have been complete secrecy. Given the number of organisations that had to collaborate, it is impressive that the Germans did not get wind of Operation PLUTO or its objectives. However, there was a war going on, and as explained in the last issue, throughout the development programme and right up to the end of the war, London was the target of bombing raids. All the major Operation PLUTO manufacturing sites were on the River Thames at Gravesend, Tilbury and Woolwich, close to major docks, and thus obvious targets. The Luftwaffe’s general approach to bombing raids on London was to gather their planes in the North Sea off the Thames Estuary or in the Channel off Folkestone, then follow the river or the A20 main road respectively into London. In both cases the Siemens Brothers Works at Woolwich was directly in the firing line.

Although Siemens Brothers was predominantly a British company, at the start of the war its German counterpart still held a large equity stake, and there were still a few German-born employees. The two companies had continued to collaborate on development programmes right up to the outbreak of war, and thus the Nazis knew all about Siemens Brother and its products, so the Woolwich Works became a specific target. This can be confirmed because of a unique photograph discovered

by Allied troops when they liberated the Luftwaffe Headquarters in Belgium.

The image above shows as a thick red line that outlines the Works at Woolwich with great accuracy. The index at the bottom of the photograph gives descriptions of the various types of buildings and in some cases

Luftwaffe Aerial Photograph of the Siemens Woolwich Works

information of what they were used for. None of these footnotes refer to Operation PLUTO or the H.A.I.S. Cable. There is no doubt that the Nazis considered the Siemens Brothers Works an important target, and while all three sites had to deal with German air raids, the Siemens Works probably suffered more than the other two.

High Explosive Bomb Damage

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FEATURE When war was declared on 3 September 1939, the Siemens Brothers factory site covered some 35 acres (14 Hectares) and employed over 10,000 people. The first air raid on London took place on Saturday 7 September 1940 and commenced at 17:00 that evening. The following account is taken from Siemens Brothers’ official reports: Around 5,000 employees were working that Saturday afternoon. There was no indication of anything abnormal, and when the sirens sounded, an established routine was quietly followed. Air Raid Precautions (ARP) personnel reported to their stations, and all other employees evacuated to the shelters, as they had done on many previous occasions without any incidents. However, on this occasion the sirens were followed quickly by the roar of enemy bombers, and out of the blue evening sky flecked with fleecy white clouds, hundreds of enemy bombers supported by hundreds of fighters weaving around them came in a steady stream from the southeast, and almost immediately a rain of bombs commenced to fall on the Surrey Docks and Woolwich Arsenal. The crash of falling bombs was continuous, and within five minutes high columns of black smoke began to rise from that district, which appeared to be blazing over its whole area. No fewer than sixteen high-explosive bombs fell inside the boundaries of the Siemens Works and caused very great damage.

This was the start of what became known as the ‘Blitz,’ a bombing campaign that continued with decreasing intensity until the end of the war. In October 1945, a plan of the Works was marked up with the number of High Explosive (HE) missiles of various types that landed on the site, and their locations. In addition, the incendiary bombs that were dropped on the premises were scattered in such large numbers that it was impossible, after the first thousand, to keep accurate records of their location, but their general distribution was indicated on the plan. Although a great number of land mines were dropped in the Woolwich area, only one landed on houses, in Hardens Manorway, 50 yds (45m) to the west of the Works, shown in the plan with a parachute attached.

In addition to the bombs recorded within the Works, in the later stages of the war three V1 rockets, known as ‘Doodlebugs’, exploded in the River Thames north of the Works, and two V2 rockets later exploded in mid-air above the Works.

During the war, the Woolwich site was hit on no less than twenty-two occasions, and the research department in Blackheath was also damaged by HE and incendiary bombs. After 7 September 1940, the bombing of London continued with great intensity for a continuous period of 90 nights. Records show that these intense air raids by bombers only lasted for a period of six months, but occasional heavy raids persisted throughout

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1945 Site Plan showing the Locations of Dropped Bombs

1941. Once the Battle of Britain was won, the daylight raids ended, and although night raids followed into 1942, they grew gradually weaker and proved far less accurate, so very few HE bombs were dropped within the Works. The night raids continued spasmodically until the start of the V1 flying bomb attacks, which commenced on 13 June 1944. They continued day and night until they were replaced by V2 rockets, the first of which hit London on Friday 8 September 1944, and the V2 attacks continued until the launch sites in mainland Europe were final overrun by Allied troops at the end of March 1945.

There were, of course, many bombs, flying bombs and rockets that landed in close proximity to the boundaries of the Siemens Works, and although these caused only limited blast damage to the Works, they did cause serious stoppages in production by interfering with utility services such as gas, water, electricity and telephone. Apart from the incidents that occurred in and around the factory, production was also adversely affected when there were attacks on the district as a whole, or when enemy planes were over the Works, as many thousands of man-hours were lost through the employees having to take cover in the Works air raid shelters.

A further disruptor was injuries to employees and damage to their houses in the local area. Remarkably, the Siemens Works got though the war with only three fatalities and one serious injury, which required the amputation of a leg.

Despite all this enemy action, the H.A.I.S Cable development and manufacture was successfully completed in time to meet the finally required milestone of Operation PLUTO.

PUMPING STATIONS, STORAGE TANKS & CAMOUFLAGE

Diesel-driven reciprocating pumps, each capable of handling about 180 tons per day, had been ordered in large

numbers for the pumping stations. However, with the increase in capacity required by the longer crossing, it was decided that centrifugal pumps with a capacity of 1,100 tons per day, powered from the electrical grid, should also be installed, in order to reduce the number of operating and maintenance staff required.

Anglo-Iranian undertook the supervision of the construction of the pumping stations and storage tanks. This involved civilian contractors, the RE, RASC, and the Pioneers Corp. The RASC was effectively a Bulk Petroleum Company specially trained for the operation. The Petroleum Board constructed the land lines and Force PLUTO laid a large number of H.A.I.S Cables and Hamel Pipes across the Solent to provide redundant lines to the main pumping station on the Isle of Wight. These installations were an ideal opportunity to train the personnel of the large force that was being assembled as well as to develop and trial the ships and their equipment. During these operations, it was established that the cable and pipe could withstand all reasonable end tensile pulls, but that

The Complete PLUTO Pipeline

both would be severely kinked and damaged if allowed to hang vertically from the laying vessel, or if they were run back upon.

Although APTelecom is recognized for our subsea cable sales expertise, we also provide the support services needed to make calculated business calcul decisions.

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FEATURE Unlike many war secrets, Operation PLUTO could have been given away very easily. If the Germans had got hold of such information as ‘A petrol pipe like a hollow submarine cable across the Channel,’ the project might well have foundered.

Clearly, the pumping stations and storage tanks might easily be identified by air reconnaissance, so much effort was put into camouflage techniques to reduce the risk of discovery and attack, so the pumping station construction was put under the supervision of a Camouflage Officer. Any plant which might be seen from the air was moved into position under the cover of darkness, and existing buildings such as an old fort, bungalows, garages and one that was disguised as an ice cream shop, were all used as pump houses. Control photographs were taken at regular intervals by the RAF to reduce the risk of discovery.

These precautions were often expensive and time-consuming but were successful, which was proven by the absence of any known attempts by the enemy to interfere with the pumping process during the entire period that PLUTO was operational.

THE INSTALLATION OF THE PLUTO NETWORK

Full-scale trials were made with the Conun in the River Thames in February 1944, and in Bournemouth Bay in April 1944, during which the technique for towing the Conun at up to 7 knots was perfected, and the decision was taken to moor the drum at the beginning of her run and haul in the H.A.I.S. Cable shore end length by means of a warp pulled in by a plough traction engine. The far-end H.A.I.S. Cable would then be laid out parallel to the shoreline and subsequently pulled in from the beach. However, both these methods proved difficult to accomplish and an alternative approach would later be adopted.

As is well known, the D-Day landings, codenamed ‘Operation Neptune,’ took place on three beaches (Gold, Juno & Sword) in Normandy on 6 June 1944. The original plan was to capture Cherbourg by D-Day + 8, but due to stout German resistance this was not achieved until 27 June. Because of the extensive damage in capturing Cherbourg and the need to clear the harbour of mines, the start of Operation PLUTO was delayed. The code name for the route from the Isle of Wight was ‘Bambi,’ and the first H.A.I.S. Cable was laid by HMS Latimer from Shanklin Chine on the Isle of Wight to the tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula in just 10 hours on 12 August. However, the cable failed when an escorting destroyer caught it with its anchor and damaged it beyond repair. A second effort was made by HMS Sancroft two days later. This too failed when the pipe became wrapped around the propeller of the support ship, HMS Algerian. An attempt to lay Hamel pipe instead failed on 27 August when it was discovered that barnacles had attached

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35nm Section of 3” H.A.I.S. Cable Being Coiled in the Tank House

themselves to the bottom of HMS Conundrum 1, in such large quantities that it was prevented from rotating. The barnacles were scraped off, and another attempt was made a few days later, but the pipeline broke about 29nm (54 km) out from Shanklin Chine. Eventually overcoming these problems, a H.A.I.S. Cable was successfully installed on 22 September, which was quickly followed by a Hamel Pipeline, on 29 September They were followed in the next few weeks by another H.A.I.S Cable and Hamel Pipeline. Two 3” H.A.I.S. Cables and two Hamel Pipelines with H.A.I.S Cable shore ends were laid on this route. Each of them was 70nm (129.87km) in length and the average time taken to lay each of the H.A.I.S Cables was around 10 hours. Petrol was pumped through these pipelines to support the Allied advance along the Channel Coast to Boulogne and Calais.

The advance of the Allied Armies into Belgium and Holland was so fast that it became essential to shorten the lines of supply, and so further pipelines were run across the Channel on the original planned route from Dungeness to Boulogne. This route was codenamed ‘Dumbo,’ and the lines from Dungeness were run to a beach inside the outer harbour at Boulogne. This saved vital time by obviating the need to clear the heavily mined beach at Ambleteuse that had previously been chosen as the landing point. This change to the route involved a longer run, 23nm (42,6km) with a more difficult approach, but a technique of laying the main lengths of H.A.I.S. Cable over the stern and dropping the ends onto the seabed was devised. These ends were to be picked up later by the shore-end barges and coupled to the shore end cables at a suitable state of a later tide, and then the shore ends were landed. Once this had been perfected, lines were laid and commissioned without incident. The first H.A.I.S Cable on this route was laid by HMS Sancroft on 26 October and pumping

began the same day. The average time of laying the H.A.I.S Cables on this route was only five hours. By December 1944, four 3” and two 2” H.A.I.S. Cables had been laid on this route, plus nine 3⅛” and two 2” Hamel Pipes, with H.A.I.S. Cable shore-ends, had also been laid.

As explained earlier, the method of pulling in the Hamel Pipe shore ends from the Conun had proved difficult, if not impossible, both in trials and on the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg lines. This issue was resolved by winding onto the Conun short lengths of H.A.I.S. Cable coupled to the beginning and end of each length of Hamel Pipe. These tails were led and followed respectively by a special floating wire. The Conun could then be handled like the cableship laying each tail on the seabed for the barges to recover the floating wires. They could then couple the pipes’ cable tails to the shore-end cables and deploy

1945 Site Plan of the H.A.I.S Cable

them with the same method that was used to complete the H.A.I.S. Cable lines.

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FEATURE Force PLUTO was responsible for the installation of the line to above the low-water mark on each shore, and the RE and RASC then connected the ends with steel pipe to the valves and filters provided on the pump delivery lines in the UK and, at the far end, to valve manifolds. Main and group control rooms were set up, with telephone communication between themselves and the pump houses, and to the opposite receiving terminals. These locations were provided with diagrams on their walls on which the control officers could use coloured discs on hooks to indicate the direction of flow of oil, the pumps and lines in use, etc., at any time.

As explained in the September issue, the couplers contained bursting discs to contain water under pressure in the H.A.I.S. Cables during the laying operation and until the sections were connected together. When a H.A.I.S. Cable line was ready for commissioning, a pump was started at the UK end and the rate of rise of pressure was monitored and recorded. The rate of rise was slow at first, but when it reached 400psi (27.6 bar) the first disc was broken, and the pressure was seen to fall. It then began to slowly rise again until the next disc burst. This process was repeated at each disc until the liquid began to flow at the far end and this was then confirmed to the pump house, via a direct telephone line from the receiving terminal.

Once the Boulogne station had been established Bambi was shut down on 5 October 1944. Each of the 3” lines run from Dungeness were capable of delivering about 400 tons a day, or 120,000 gallons. These lines were supplied and installed sufficiently quickly to keep ahead of the capacity required to be pumped from Boulogne into the French interior. The total length of the pipelines laid on the Boulogne route was 500nm (928km), which provided a total capacity of more than 4,500 tons, or 1,350,000 gallons, per day, and 1,000,000 gallons a day were pumped across the Channel for some weeks.

There was a valve manifold system on the beach at Boulogne, with a tank at beach level, that provided facilities for test purposes, but the flow was usually taken direct through three lines of 6” Victaulic jointed pipe up to tanks of 1,200 tons capacity on the cliffs north of Boulogne.

As the Allied Armies advanced, the lines were extended inland through 6” Victaulic pipelines. Eventually, petrol could be pumped from Boulogne to Calais, Ghent, Antwerp, and Eindhoven, then across the Rhine at Emmerich. From Cherbourg the route was extended to Alençon and Chartres, then south of Paris to Chalons-Sur-Marne, into Luxembourg, crossing the Rhine at Mainz, and part way to Frankfurt. The pipeline’s terrestrial extensions were constructed under the control of the Quartermaster General to the Allied Forces, General Sir Thomas Sheridan Riddle-Webster (1886-1974).

The final joint was completed on 10 April 1945.

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The Siemens Brothers Work Site 2021

Dumbo continued to operate until it was finally shut down on 7 August 1945. In total, over 172 million gallons were delivered over PLUTO and its extensions by the end of the Second World War!

SIEMENS’ FINAL CONTRIBUTION

Production of the 3” H.A.I.S. Cable continued at the Woolwich Works until September 1944. By then, Siemens had completed the manufacture of a number of operational lengths of the 2” & 3” H.A.I.S Cable. One of the longest sections of 3” cable was 35nm (85km) and weighed over 2,200 tons when the core was filled with water. The factory coil for this was 10ft (3m) high and 65ft (19.8m) in diameter. The space required for coiling such long lengths necessitated the erection of a special building, with extra-strong cable sheaves and hauling equipment located in the roof.

A long, counterpoised steel arm was designed and fitted to facilitate the handling of this extremely heavy cable.

Altogether, Siemens manufactured and delivered over 200nm (371km) of 2” & 3” H A I S. Cable to the Petroleum Warfare Department. Some 280 couplings were supplied, and with each set of two couplings a complete equipment set of special tools was provided, together with numbered spare parts, to facilitate the rapid trimming of the cable ends and fitting of the couplings.

The part of the Works secured for the manufacture of the H.A.I.S Cable was in the northwest part of the site on the River Thames. In peace time, this was the power cable production area and ideally suited for the manufacture of the H.A.I.S. New facilities were built in 1943, in which to house the large coils of cable and the secure area had its own air-raid shelters, shown in Red on the plan below,

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that Operation PLUTO, as a whole, was pivotal to the liberation of Northern Europe by the Allied Armies in 1944-45. Together with superior manpower and the hard-won control of the skies, PLUTO was the third key pillar in the Allied victory. Without adequate fuel supplies, no matter how successful the military campaign, the Allied forces would have quickly reached the limits of their logistical supply chain, and would have been forced to dig in. Had Operation PLUTO not happened, the advances inland after D-Day would have bogged down in a new ‘Western Front’ much closer to the beachheads, and this would have bought the Germans vital time to prolong the war.

German military strategists understood that the enormous, highly mechanised Allied armies would have a voracious appetite for fuel. They assumed that this demand could not be met unless major Channel ports were captured in which bulk tankers could be docked to supply the forces.

This is why the German garrisons at Channel ports such as Cherbourg were instructed to hold out until the bitter end, and why, towards the end of the war, Antwerp became the focus of V1 and V2 rocket attacks. Without timely intelligence of the project, which was never forthcoming, the German High Command could not have anticipated the massive quantities of piped fuel that PLUTO delivered.

Therefore, alongside its incredible engineering achievements, the measures taken to keep Operation PLUTO secret were vital to its success.

The contribution made by the employees of Siemens Brothers to Operation PLUTO, in such difficult and dangerous circumstances, was a major contributory factor to its success, and their courage and skill should never be forgotten.

The Siemens Brothers factory was shut down in 1968, making over 8,000 employees redundant. The secure area of the Works, where the H.A.I.S Cable was manufacture, was demolished to make way for the construction of the Thames Barrier, and since 1982 the Barrier Control Building has stood in the centre of this area. Since 1968, some of the site has been redeveloped but the vast majority has lain idle; however, the owners of part of the site, Royal London, are working with property developer, U + I plc, to regenerate the 5 acres to the northwest of the remaining site, between Faraday Way and Bowater Road, in a project called The Faraday Works. This is adjacent to the area where the H.A.I.S Cable was manufactured, and U + I has undertaken to commemorate this import historical event in the redesign of this area. STF

BILL BURNS is an English electronics engineer who worked for the BBC in London after graduation before moving to New York in 1971. There he spent a number of years in the high-end audio industry, during which time he wrote many audio, video, and computer equipment reviews, along with magazine articles on subjects as diverse as electronic music instruments and the history of computing. His research for these articles led to a general interest in early technology, and in the 1980s he began collecting instruments and artifacts from the fields of electricity and communications. In 1994 a chance find of a section of the 1857 Atlantic cable inspired a special interest in undersea cable history, and soon after he set up the first version of the Atlantic Cable website <https://atlantic-cable. com>, which now has over a thousand pages on all aspect of undersea communications from 1850 until the present.

Bill’s interest in cable history has taken him to all of the surviving telegraph cable stations around the world, and to archives and museums in North America and Europe. He has presented papers on subsea cable history at a number of conferences, and in 2008 he instigated and helped organize the 150th Anniversary Celebration for the 1858 Atlantic cable at the New-York Historical Society. Most recently, in 2016 he was involved with the celebrations in London, Ireland and Newfoundland to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1866 Atlantic cable.

Since graduating in 1970, STEWART ASH has spent his entire career in the submarine cable industry. He joined STC Submarine Systems as a development engineer, working on coaxial transmission equipment and submarine repeater design. He then transferred onto field engineering, installing coaxial submarine cable systems around the world, attaining the role of Shipboard Installation Manager. In 1986, he set up a new installation division to install fibre optic submarine systems. In 1993, he joined Cable & Wireless Marine, as a business development manager and then move to an account director role responsible for, among others the parent company, C&W. When Cable & Wireless Marine became Global Marine Systems Ltd in 1999, he became General Manager of the engineering division, responsible for system testing, jointing technology and ROV operation. As part of this role, he was chairman of the UJ Consortium. He left Global Marine in 2005 to become an independent consultant, assisting system purchasers and owners in all aspects of system procurement, operations, maintenance and repair.

Stewart’s interest in the history of submarine cables began in 2000, when he project managed a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the submarine cable industry. As part of this project, he co-authored and edited From Elektron to ‘e’ Commerce. Since then, he has written and lectured extensively on the history of the submarine cable industry. From March 2009 to November 2015, he wrote Back Reflection articles for SubTel Forum. In 2013 he was invited to contribute the opening chapter to Submarine Cables: The Handbook of Law and Policy, which covered the early development of the submarine cable industry. To support the campaign to save Enderby House—a Grade II listed building—from demolition, in 2015 he wrote two books about the history of the Telcon site at Enderby Wharf on the Greenwich Peninsula in London. The first was The Story of Subsea Telecommunications and its Association with Enderby House, and the second was The Eponymous Enderby’s of Greenwich. His biography of Sir John Pender GCMG The Cable King was published by Amazon in April 2018.

REFERENCES Siemens’ Part in the Design of the HAIS Cable and Coupling, Siemens Brothers, 26 June 1945 Official Record of Damage By Enemy Action to Woolwich Works, Siemens Brothers, October 1945 Operation Pluto: A paper read to the Royal Society of Arts, A C Hartley, 14 November 1945 Development of the HAIS Cable, Siemens Brothers Engineering Bulletin No.224, January 1946 Siemens Brother 1858 – 1958, J. D, Scott, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 7 Cork St. London W1, 1958 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Anthony Chapman and Linda Richardson for giving them access to the documents listed in ‘References’, and for permission to reproduce the images used in these articles. We would also like to thank Clive Jefferys for his advice on the strategic benefits of Operation PLUTO and the German bombing campaigns during the Second World War.

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AN APPRECIATION

Henri Michon de Vougy (18077-91)

THANKS TO ALL OUR OUTSTANDING AUTHORS Since our first issue in November 2001 more than 625 subject matter experts from around the world have provided timely insight into the health and ever-changing technology of our very special submarine cable industry. SubTel Forum’s vision has always been to be the “Voice of the Industry” and with their help we have done so.

Thanks to all the outstanding Authors who have contributed to SubTel Forum over the last 20 years!

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Andrew Ljung Andrew Lloyd Andrzej Borowiec Andy Bax Andy Cole Andy Lumsden Andy Palmer-Felgate Andy Riga Andy Shaw Anne LeBoutillier Antoine Lécroart António Nunes Anup Changaroth Arnaud Leroy Arunachalam Kandasamy Ashutosh Bhargava Asubam Weyori Barbara Dean Ph.D. Basil Demeroutis Ben Basson Benoit Kowalski Bernard Logan Bertrand Clesca Bill Barney Bill Burns Bill Carter Bill Glover Bill Kolb Bill Redpath Bob Fredrickson Bran Herlihy Brett Ferenchak Brett O’Riley Brett Worrall

SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

Brian Crawford Brian Lavallée Bruce Neilson-Watts Bruce Rein Byron Clatterbuck Captain Nick Parker Caroline Elliott Cate Stubbings Catherine Creese Catherine Dixon Catherine Kuersten Cengiz Oztelcan Charles Laperle Charles Foreman Charlotte Winter Chris Barnes Chris Bayly Chris Benjamin Chris Butler Chris de Josselin Chris Ellis Chris van Zinnicq Bergmann Chris Wood Christian Annoque Christian Keogh Christian Keogh Christian von der Ropp Christine Cabau Woehrel Christopher Noyes Christopher Wood Chuck Kaplan Cliff Scapellati Clifford Holliday Clive McNamara

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Derek Webster Devin Sappington Dmitri Foursa Domingos Coelho Don Klikna Donald Hussong Doug Madory Doug Ranahan Doug Stroud Douglas Burnett Edward Saade Edwin Danson Edwin Muth Elaine Stafford Emma Martin Emmanual Delanoque Emmanual Desurvire Ening Philip Eric Handa Erick Contag Erlend Anderson Eyal Lichtman Fan Xiaoyan Fiona Beck Francis Audet Francis Charpentier Frank Cuccio Frank DiMaria Frank Donaghy Ph.D. Fredrik Hane Funke Opeke Gabriel Ruhan Gareth Parry Gary Gibbs

Gary Kennedy Gavin Rea Gavin Tully Genius Wong Geoff Ball Geoff Bennett Geoffrey Thornton Georg Mohs George H Baker George Krebs George M Foote George Miller George Samisoni George Tronsrue Georges Krebs Gerald Soloway Gil Santaliz Glenn Gerstell Glenn Wellbrock Global Maritime Initiative Gordon Duzevich Graham White Graham Cooper Graham Evans Greg Berlocher Greg Kunkle Greg Otto Greg Stoner Greg Twitt Greg Varisco Gregor McPherson Guillaume Huchet Gunnar Berthelsen Guy Arnos Hans Christian Nilsen Hardeep Sidhu Harold Bock Hector Hernandez Heiner Ottersberg Helen Veverka Henry Lancaster Henry Lancaster Hermann Kugeler Herve Fevrier Ph.D. Hicham Maalouf

Himmat Singh Sandhu Horst Etzkorn Houlin Zhao Howard Kidorf Hubert Souise Hugh Thomson Hunter Newby Ian Davis Ian Douglas Ian Fletcher Ian Gaitch Ian Watson Igor Czajkowski Ilissa Miller Inge Vintermyr International SOS Ioannia Konstantinidis Iris Hong Isaac Kofi Nti Italo Godoy Jacie Matsukawa Jack Richards Jack Runfola James Barton James Case James Cowie James Halliday James Herron James Neville Jan Kristoffer Brenne Jas Dhooper Jason O’Rourke Jaynie Cutaia Jean Devos Jean-Francois Baget Jean-François Bilodeau Jean-Marie Fontaine Jean-Marie Vilain Jed Duvall Jeff Gardner Ph.D. Jeffrey Hill Jeffrey Hoel Jeffrey Snider Jennifer Gibbons Jeremiah Mendez

Jerry Brown Ph.D. Jim Baumann Jim Bishop Jim Byous Jim Lemberg Jing Ning Jiping Wen Joanna El Khoury Joe Capasso Joel Ogren Joel Whitman Joerg Schwartz Ph.D. John Golding John Hedgpeth John Hibbard John Hill John Horne John Kasden John Manock John Melick John Pockett John Tibbles John Walker John Weisbruch Jon Seip Jonathan Liss Jordan Kearns Jorge Orlando Garcia Lozano Jorn Jespersen Jorn Wardeburg Jose Andres Ph.D. José Chesnoy Jose Duarte Jose Sousa Barros Joshua Henson Judi Clark Jukka-Pekka Joensuu Jules BenBenek Julian Rawle Kaori Shikinaka KarenBoman Karl Jeffery Kate Panayotou Katherine Edwards Katsuyoshi Kawaguchi

Keith Russel Shaw Keith Schofield Ken du Vall Ken Weiner Kent Bressie Kevin Summers Kieran Clark Kjetil Korslund Kristian Nielsen Kristian Ohleth Kurt Ruderman Kylie Wansink Lara Garrett Larry Schwartz Laure Duvernay Laurent Campagne Laurie Miller Leigh Frame Leo Foulger Liam Talbot Linda Evans Lindsay McDonald Ling Zhao Lionel Carter Luca Possidente Lucia Bibolini Lynsey Thomas Madeleine Findley Mai Abou-Shaban Manuel Costa Cabral Marc Fullenbaum Marc-Richard Fortin Maria Garcia Alvarez Marianne Murfett Mark Davidson Mark Enright Mark Hukill Mark Wickham Marsha Spalding Martin Foster Mattais Fridström Matthew Milstead Mattias Fridström Maui Sanford Maurizio Pizzi

Maxim Bolshitysnsky Meredith Cleveland Merete Caubert Merrion Edwards Ph.D. Michael Reimer Michael Craigs Michael Jones Michaël Marie Michael Nedbal Ph.D. Michael Ruddy Michael Schneider Michael s Carter Michel Chbat Ph.D. Michel Martin Mick Greenham Mike Conradi Mike Daniel Mike Hynes Mike Last Mikinori Niino Mohamed Ahmed Mojeed Aluko Molilaauifogaa Seanoa-Lamua Morgan Heim Motoyashi Tokioka Muhammad Rashid Shafi Murray Eldridge Nancy Poirier Natasha Kahn Neal Bergano Neil Lambert Neil Tagare Nguyen Vu Nicholas Kazaz Nicole Starosielski Nigel Bayliff Nigel Shaw Nikos Nikolopoulos Ning Jing Norma Spruce Olav Harald Nordgard Olivier Courtois Olivier Plomteux Olivier Tremblay-Lavoie Omar Jassim Bin Kalban

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Owusu Nyarko-Boateng Pamela Barnett Panagiota Bosdogianni Pascal Pecci Patricio Boric Patrick Faidherbe Paul Abfalter Paul Budde Paul Davidson Ph.D. Paul Deslandes Paul Eastaugh Paul Gabla Paul Gagnier Paul Grant Paul Hibbard Paul Kravis Paul McCann Paul Polishuk Ph.D. Paul Rudde Paul Savill Paul St. Clair Paul Szajowski Paul Treglia Paula Dobbyn Per Handsen Per Ingeberg Pete LeHardy Peter Bannister Peter Evans Peter Ford Peter Lange Peter Liu Peter Phibbs Peter Worthington Phil Footnman-Williams Philip Roche Philippe Dumont Phillip Pilgrim Pierre Tremblay Priyanth Mehta Puja Borries Rachel Justis Ragnhild Katteland Raj Mishra Rannveig Bergerød Aase

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AN APPRECIATION Rannveig Li Raul Magallenes Ray Chrisner Ray Drabble Rebecca Spence Remi Galasso Rendong Xu René d’Avezac de Moran Renzo Ravaglia Rex Ramsden Rich Potter Richard Faint Richard Kram Richard Nickelson Richard Blann Richard Buchanan Richard Elliott Richard Romagnino Rita Rukosueva Rob Eastwood Rob Hudome Rob Munier Robert Bannon Robert Lingle Jr. Robert Mazer Robert McCabe Robert Mecarini Robert Stuart Robert Thomas Robert van de Poll Robin Russell Rogan Hollis Roger Carver Roland Lim Rolf Boe Ron Crean Ross Buntrock Ross Pfeffer Ross Slutsky Rubayet Choudhury Russ Doig Rusty O’Connor Ryan Wopschall Sally Sheedy Salon Ma

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Steven Shamburek Steven Wells Stewart Ash Stuart Barnes Ph.D. Subtel Forum Research Team Sverre Myren Tayo Adelaja Ted Clem Ph.D. Teijiro Kitamura Theresa Hyatte Thomas Popik Thomas Soja Tiejun Xia Tim Janaitis Tim Pugh Toby Bailey Todd Borkey Tom Davis Tom McMahon Tom Stronge Tong Liu Tony Frisch Travis Kassay Troy Tanner Trygve Hagevik TSA Newsfeed Tsunekazu Matsudaira Ulises Pin Ulrik Stridbæk Vegard Briggar Larsen Venkata Jasti Ph.D. Vicky Liang Vinay Nagpal Vinay Rathore Vince Nacewski Vincent Gatineau Virginia Hoffman Vivian Hua Wang Jingwei Wang Ke Wang Yanpu Wayne Nielsen Wendy Wang Wesley Wright Wildred Kwan

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FEATURE

IS YOUR CLOUD BEING TAPPED? The Security Case For Dark Fiber Between The World’s Data Centers

T

oday’s world runs on data that is being stored and processed in data centers around the world that were for the most part not even conceived of when the world’s current international fiber backbones were built. The need for bandwidth between these data centers is enormous, pushing the capacity of existing backbones to their limits and calling for ever more fiber to be deployed and lit.

However, the explosion in traffic volumes is not the only factor driving the need for more fiber. In this article, I’m going to discuss one of the drivers behind the need for more long-haul dark fiber between data centers which is not about the growing traffic volumes per se, but about the separate, equally pressing, need for enhanced security and integrity of the world’s networks.

In other words, I would like to shift our attention away from bandwidth for a moment, and instead present some of the ways that the growing awareness, and well-founded concerns, about security-related issues are fueling demand for a greater volume of physical fiber strands on long-haul stretches than what can be accounted for by the sheer increase in traffic. I will also present some of the ways that my own company, Eastern Light, is thinking about these issues and how we are working with them in practice.

EASTERN LIGHT’S FOCUS ON SECURE LONG-HAUL DARK FIBER LINKS

Eastern Light is a Swedish independent company that builds, owns, and operates its own long-haul dark fiber

BY SVANTE JURNELL

infrastructure in northern Europe, for the express purpose of providing dark fiber connections end-to-end between major data centers in the region. Our speciality is to deliver fully-spliced fiber links all the way from a customer’s equipment in one data center in one country the most efficient way to the customer’s, or a cloud provider’s, equipment in another data center in another country. Our customers are mostly operators and hyperscalers, who install and operate their own active equipment on top of the dark fiber they purchase from us, but increasingly they are also other kinds of organizations with exceptional demands on their data networks. Most of our customers have massive capacity needs, and their reasons for demanding their own dedicated dark fiber, rather than lit capacity, are related to quality, performance, and cost-efficiency. However, we are seeing that the security aspect of controlling one’s own fiber is increasingly coming to the forefront, and this aspect is significant for a much wider array of companies and organizations than those with the largest capacity needs.

THREE SECURITY ARGUMENTS FOR DARK FIBER

Most fundamentally, having your own dark fiber onto which you install your own active equipment of your own choosing allows you to have full control and insight into every piece of equipment that your traffic travels through.

Aside from the benefits of quality and performance as well as commercial and operational independence, this is crucial in terms of cybersecurity, since it’s the only way to ensure NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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FEATURE that your traffic doesn’t pass through equipment that contains backdoors or that is compromised in any other way.

Secondly, modern state-of-the art encryption technologies – such as optical-layer encryption, which provides both the most secure, most practicable and most cost-efficient encryption solutions of today, as well as tomorrow’s quantum encryption – require that one is in control of the physical transmission medium. In other words, one must have one’s own dedicated dark fiber all the way between the end points.

A third reason to want to have one’s own dark fiber on a certain stretch, rather than lit capacity, is that it gives you insight – in more or less detail, depending on who you’re purchasing your fiber from – into the actual geographical position of the physical cable that carries your traffic. This is important in order to ensure full physical separation from other cables for redundancy reasons, but also in order to be able to identify instances where the cable may be vulnerable to unauthorized outside tampering, which I will expand upon in a moment.

THREE WAYS FOR A CABLE OWNER TO PROTECT YOUR FIBER’S INTEGRITY

For someone who wants to attach a tapping device to a fiber, it’s easiest to do it in conjunction with an existing connector.

Even as purchasers of dedicated dark fiber take full control of all of their own active equipment, it’s still the job of the cable owner to minimize the risk for outside interference at the optical level, i.e., the risk of unauthorized tapping of the actual light somewhere along the length of the fiber. In this respect, all dark fiber links are not created equal, and at Eastern Light we have worked to address these issues in several different ways. Here I will briefly describe three of our approaches to managing this type of security risk, two of which serve to prevent tapping in the first place, and one which deals with how to detect tapping that is already ongoing or underway.

Firstly, Eastern Light owns and controls – and has exclusive access to – all physical cables as well as all canalization in its network. In other words, when Eastern Light provides a dark fiber link between two locations, the fiber is, along its entire length, located inside Eastern Light’s own cables deployed inside Eastern Light’s own ducts. Furthermore, the ILA sites which the cable passes through along the way are also fully owned by Eastern Light, and no one – neither customer nor supplier – is ever granted access to these spaces unescorted, but all work is required to be done in the constant presence of Eastern Light’s own staff. Together, these rules and routines make it exceedingly difficult

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for an unauthorized party to gain the sort of physical access to a fiber that would be necessary for deploying an optical tapping device.

Secondly, another security-enhancing factor to Eastern Light’s dark fiber links is that there are no connectors or traditional ODFs anywhere. All our fibers are fully spliced end-to-end all the way to the customer’s equipment. The original reason for this was to maximize performance and eliminate risk for undesired reflections from connectors which can damage transmission equipment but having as few connectors as possible is also crucial from a security perspective. For someone who wants to attach a tapping device to a fiber, it’s easiest to do it in conjunction with an existing connector.

Our third approach concerns how to find out whether optical tapping has already occurred or is underway. If someone, despite prevention efforts, succeeds in placing an optical tapping device along a fiber stretch, this may be very difficult to detect. It is certainly true that any device that taps light from a fiber will, by definition, cause an additional light loss which will have an effect on the measurement results of regular OTDR testing, but such loss may very well be small enough to appear as nothing but a normal splice within the acceptable limits, and therefore not give any reason for suspicion.

That is, unless there›s a way to compare such measurement results side by side with historical measurements of the very same link, all the way back to when the cable was first deployed. In that case, any discrepancy in the data between different measurements made at different points in time (such as the sudden appearance of a splice that did not use to be there), can, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation (such as time-stamped documentation of the work that would have produced such a splice), be an indication that there may have been an instance of unauthorized interference with the fiber, and that there is a cause for further inspection.

DEMAND A “FIBER INTEGRITY AUDIT TRAIL”

For this reason, Eastern Light has developed the concept “Fiber Integrity Audit Trail”. This means that we do regular fiber measurements to measure technical performance as usual, but in addition we also provide side-by-side comparisons with historical measurement data for the same stretch, along with any relevant documentation of the work that has

been done on the link over time, in order assure our customers and ourselves of each link’s sustained integrity.

CONCLUSION

The increasing need for long-haul dark fiber links, for reasons of security and control, means that the world’s backbones need to be upgraded with cables with much higher fiber counts than today, irrespective of how much traffic can be squeezed through each fiber.

For the data centers of the world, the increasing demand for customer-specific end-to-end dark fiber links all the way between different data centers, means that they will need to take a closer interest in how the world’s backbones are built. It will not be sufficient to note that one has a large number of operators present in one’s data center providing great connectivity on the lit capacity layer, but one will need to ensure that there are enough physical dark fiber pairs available all the way between one’s various data centers across the globe, in order to be able to satisfy one’s customers’ need for unbroken fiber all the way from their

own equipment in one data center to their own equipment in another data center in a different country.

The challenge to get this in place is significant, but what is at stake is nothing less than the security and integrity of the networks that make up the central nervous system of our modern world, and Eastern Light is committed to continuing its untiring work in contributing to this important development. STF SVANTE JURNELL is the co-founder and CEO of Eastern Light and is a pioneer within fiber optic infrastructure in the Nordic region. In 1995, he co-founded the telecom and internet operator Utfors which built the first large-scale private fiber network in Scandinavia, and in 1999 he co-founded fiber infrastructure company IP-Only, for which he was the CEO for ten years. He now heads Eastern Light, which operates its own independent sea cable system in the Baltic Sea and builds entirely new and independent long-haul fiber infrastructure across northern Europe for the purpose of providing end-to-end dark fiber connections between major data centers in the region.

SubTel_Ad_Nov2021_v2wBleeds.pdf 1 15/11/2021 5:35:52 PM

POWERING THE CLOUD, FROM UNDER THE SEA

Low latency, resilient connectivity to Data-Centres across Sydney, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Seattle.

How critical is your data?

NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121 49 fast. direct. secure

FEATURE FEATURE

FEPL GOES BEYOND

Developing Asia Connectivity to US and Europe Via a Global Consortia Model

BY PETER BANNISTER AND GARY KENNEDY OUR VISION

F

ibre Expressway Pty Ltd (FEPL) is developing a US$1.5B technology ecosystem to make Australia a leader in global digital hubs and create hundreds of local jobs. Project Koete will include three Tier IV Data Centres paired to a dedicated-design subsea cable system to provide global and domestic connectivity in the region.

‘Koete’ is Japanese that means ‘to go beyond’ and Project Koete will provide vital data and internet connectivity domestically between Perth and Darwin, while directly connecting the cities and territories to international business hubs in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and beyond in Asia Pacific and worldwide. It will be a major drawcard for attracting multinational businesses to the region and will boost digital investment, particularly from the natural resources, finance, and cloud computing industries.

Project Koete’s vision includes: • ENVIRONMENT: Koete aims to deliver 100% renewable energy targeting 30+ year scalability assuredness so customers have a growth plan for decades, not short to medium term.

• SOCIAL: Koete’s Indigenous engagement is key to Western Australia / Northern Territories and continues to seek interactive discussion regarding jobs and social & economic benefits and e-Health and e-Learning.

• GOVERNACE: Koete adopts a global Consortia Out-

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source model to reduce project risk, promote success and ensure the project will be delivered under world leading governance Subsea Cables carry 95% of global demand driven by increased bandwidth for Cloud, Mobile and the ever-increasing demands of COVID for remote working, video conferencing, online education, entertainment, and social networking. Content providers such as YouTube and Netflix, and Internet providers are all actively investing in subsea cables with Google and Facebook able to fund networks. Global colocation and interconnect trends will attract more users to leverage subsea cables. Current growth rate of data running over subsea cables is 40%, reaching 6,000 Kilo Terabytes per month by 2022. Subsea cable capacity has gone from 6 to 24 fibre pairs with each pair supporting a capacity of 60 Tbps. Subsea cables will remain the principal way digital workloads will be transferred globally.

Project Koete will support the future of domestic industry and serve the growing requirement for secure, strategically positioned data hubs from global multinational-corporations, as well as be a gateway from Australia to Southeast Asia and beyond with an estimated ready for service date of 2025. The project design will be SMART (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecoms) cable enabled. The project is being primarily funded by US1.5B in senior debt and equity, both of which are in progress and open for new investors.

DATA CENTRES

The pre Covid-19 demand market size for Asia Pacific Data Centres was US$28B by 2024, 20% higher than the US$23.4B size of North America. Subsequently, the Singaporean government recently imposed a three-year moratorium on new Data Centres.

Data Centres are physical facilities used to house critical applications and data. Data Centre design is based on a network of computing and storage which enables delivery and sharing of data. Content providers seek carrier-neutral Data Centre facilities near customers and business opportunity. The Data Centre segment performed well above average over the past 18 months due to COVID and a 47% surge in global Internet traffic in 2020. This translated to a spike in Data Centre storage demand.

Total Data Centre measurements in Asia Pacific Tier I markets (Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong) were 322 MW in 2020, which was double that of 2019.

Project Koete includes three greenfield Tier IV Data Centres in Perth, Darwin and Dampier initially providing a combined 60-Megawatt capacity with 10,000 Kms secure, carrier neutral, high speed, low latency cable linking Perth to Darwin and Perth to Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore over sixteen fibre pairs providing 5G capability and unprecedented reliability.

The Data Centres will be critical to facilitating connectivity in Project Koete and will be built to the Tier IV Uptime Institute standard and the highest levels of security and efficiency. The initial capacity for each will be 20MW – the equivalent of power for 13,000 homes – with ample pre-built capacity and room to grow. The cable landing station (CLS) will be the primary connection point from Perth and Darwin to the subsea cable.

CUSTOMER LOCATION

Perth is the most isolated capital city globally and the operational base for Project Koete and it sits ‘right next door’ to Asia Pacific, home to 4.1B people, or some two thirds of global population. Western Australia and Northwest Territories are a safe back up hub for global Multinational Corporations (MNC) with Data Centres in Asia Pacific and Europe/USA, accentuating the need by recent political tensions in the South China Sea. Perth is closer

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FEATURE

to Asia Pacific than Sydney or Melbourne and as such offers far lower latency (faster) connectivity to Asia Pac. Thus, new location opportunities can be offered for global Financial Services and Digital Trading companies’ personnel to operate and live resulting in numerous new prospects for Offshore and Onshore Construction and Development Projects and the Real Estate sector.

Project Koete will provide global connectivity from Perth via Indonesia, Singapore, and Darwin (NT) and onward to the West Coast of America. Its domestic network will connect Perth to Darwin with ‘onshore’ connections at Geraldton, Carnarvon, Exmouth, Dampier, Port Hedland, and Broome, which will for the first time truly facilitate contestable bandwidth north of Perth, a traditionally monopolistic service via ‘government bred Telcos.’ Project Koete will be flexible regarding finalizing locations to accommodate developing Western Australian and Northwest Territorial projects.

SYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY

In 2021, the West Australian businessman Dr Andrew Forrest, nicknamed Twiggy and best known as the former CEO of Fortescue Metals Group, as well as having other interests in the mining and cattle stations, gave his commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2030 and created Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a developer, financier, and operator of a global portfolio of renewable energy resources with the goal of producing green energy at scale.

This is great news for FEPL and Australia and the global push for such measures.

FEPL is partnering with wind, solar and, in the longer term, ocean and clean hydrogen providers to satisfy the

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need for 100% renewable energy access over time. As such, we are targeting thirty plus years scalability assuredness, enabling customers to plan for decades, not just years. By collaborating with our global partner network, we are confident Project Koete will be delivered under world-leading governance and rule-of-law standards and will be the most significant technological investment Western Australia and the Northern Territories have ever seen.

As the economy increasingly digitises, this investment signals to Australia, Asia Pacific, and the rest of the world that this region is ready to become a digital hub. The ecosystem will support the region’s most significant developments, including the enhanced digitisation of oil fields supporting next-generation digital infrastructure including IoT, artificial intelligence, and even support the monitoring of underwater seismic activity to help predict tsunamis, maritime activity and its impact on global warming, and water temperature and level.

SMART CHOICE

FEPL is an active member of a Joint Task Force ( JTF) led by three UN agencies (ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC) that is working to bring this initiative to fruition by exploring the ocean science and early warning improvements available from SMART cable data, and the social, technological and financial elements of realising such a global network. Our ocean is key to understanding social threats including climate change, sea level rise, ocean warming, tsunamis and earthquakes. Because the ocean is difficult and costly to monitor, we lack vital data needed to adequately model, understand, and address these threats.

One solution is to integrate sensors into future undersea telecommunications cables. This is the mission of the SMART cable initiative. SMART sensors would “piggyback” on the power and communications infrastructure of a million kilometres of undersea fibre optic cable and thousands of repeaters, creating the potential for seafloor-based global ocean observing at a modest incremental cost. Initial sensors would measure temperature, pressure and seismic acceleration. Resulting data would address two critical scientific and social issues: the long-term need for sustained climate-quality data from the under-sampled ocean (e.g., deep ocean temperature, sea level, and circulation), and the near-term need for improvements to global tsunami warning networks.

Simulations show that deep ocean temperature and pressure measurements can improve estimates of ocean circulation and heat content, and cable-based pressure and seismic-acceleration sensors can improve tsunami warning times and earthquake parameters. The technology of integrating these sensors into fibre optic cables is discussed, addressing sea and land-based elements plus delivery of real-time open data products to end users. The science and business case for SMART cables is evaluated. SMART cables have been endorsed by major ocean science organizations, and the JTF is working with cable suppliers and sponsors, multilateral development banks and end users to incorporate SMART capabilities into future cable projects.

Project Koete would be the first such cable in the Asia Pacific and a major boost for Western Australia and Northern Territories on the global stage whilst also protecting ocean environment and industries. By investing now, we can build a global ocean network of SMART cable sensors, creating a transformative addition to the Global Ocean Observing System.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

This ecosystem will facilitate onshore connectivity for remote indigenous communities and mining industries and provide mobile operators a solution to challenge the monopolistic services that exist North of Perth. Koete is expected to bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the region, while offering unparalleled connectivity to the Oil & Gas fields off north-western Australia.

Project Koete will offer less than half of the latency in connection to Asia compared with a Sydney-to-Singapore connection, and there will be huge environmental benefits from the project, as the rollout links to several renewable energy projects across the region.

Western Australia benefits by being a safe back up

for global MNCs with Data Centres in Asia Pacific and Europe/USA and with the Singapore Government recently imposing a 3-year moratorium on Data Centres. It is a major opportunity / benefit for WA to provide: • New Jobs in construction (3,000 over 3 years) and operate (1,000 per annum for operations) • High speed, low latency connections between Perth and regional locations, including indigenous communities • Strategically servicing MNC’s based in Western Australia with modern and competitive links to Southeast Asia and beyond • Provision of global remote operations and control services to offshore Oil & Gas companies • Introduction of new global business opportunities to Western Australia • Storage and connectivity for global industries to generate new business, jobs and revenues including Content Providers, AI, IoT, Big Data, Connected Transport, Wearables, Financial Services, Education, and other emerging technologies

CONCLUSION

Project Koete will combine the benefits of greater interconnectivity between north and western Australia and the world, encouraging greater investment in the region, and improving data security and sovereignty. As well as being a key driver for construction, engineering, and other jobs as well as huge investment in the region, Project Koete will provide benefits to Indigenous communities by way of jobs and eHealth and eLearning.

Project Koete will provide capacity for multinational cloud giants and global financial services companies to diversify beyond traditional data centre hubs such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Singapore. It will also provide valuable infrastructure on which telcos can build new services. STF PETER BANNISTER is the Founder of FEPL currently based in Perth, WA. Over 35 years’ experience in design, build, operation of global telecoms. Experienced in start-up, development and ongoing operations of global telecoms entities and well versed in managing the challenges of large geographically dispersed projects involving multi-national/ cultural internal teams and external vendors with contracts budgets worth more than US$5B. Previous experience with BP UK and Asia Pacific whose projects portfolio included subsea cable installations in the UK North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Strong Asia Pacific and global experience.

GARY KENNEDY is CEO of FEPL and has over 30 years’ experience in Finance and Commerce. Born and bred in Western Australia, he brings a unique understanding of domestic and international capital markets and logistics of commercial ventures.

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FEATURE

DELIVERING SUCCESSFUL CABLE PROJECTS

BY GREG OTTO INTERDEPENDENT PROJECT WORKSTREAMS

Delivery of successful submarine cable projects requires diligence across a multitude of skills as there are numerous sub projects within even the simplest of submarine projects.

Aside from delivering the “System Supply Contract” which typically delivers beach manhole to beach manhole along with transmission gear, other critical portions of the project include: • Governance – Informing key stakeholders so they can make critical decisions; • Supply Contracts – going to market for all portions of system delivery and resources; • System Definition - defining end to end functional and non-functional requirements; • Land Acquisition – securing land rights for all onshore infrastructure and routes; • Onshore Construction – engineering and constructing outside plant and cable sites; • Permitting – obtaining permits and licenses for system construction and operations; • Commercial Agreements – obtaining customer and end user financial commitments; • Operational Readiness – Having contracts and skilled resources to operate post RFS; and • Terrestrial Interface – Constructing interface to terrestrial telecommunication services.

As is further understood through deeper analysis, the above workstreams are highly interdependent and require an overarching project delivery methodology to be in place and referenced by project teams.

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Examples of interdependencies are: • Procurement process requires significant completion of the System Definition in order to properly and completely detail scope for potential suppliers.

• Land acquisition is required to confirm System Definition and specifically route and shore end construction along with completing onshore permitting.

• Operational readiness is needed to be in place once RFS is achieved if not prior so that the system can immediately be put into service and generate revenue and value for customers and stakeholders.

• Onshore facilities and routes need to be in place prior to cable landing so that final splices and testing can immediately be completed to order timely repairs as necessary.

THE DELIVERY FRAMEWORK

While it would be ideal to close each issue prior to moving on to the next issue, this could result in projects taking twice as long and losing significant front-end value.

To consolidate this schedule, a certain level of risk has to be carried and managed through the project. This is where the project delivery methodology establishes its role. It provides a framework under which the project operates and provides guidance and direction to the project team. At a minimum, the project delivery methodology should document the following six items: 1. Documenting critical workstreams and their critical interdependencies; 2. Defining criteria and methods to achieve acceptable levels of confidence for interdependencies; 3. Risk management plan using a model that identifies

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FEATURE risks with prevention and contingencies actions; 4. Organization and resource plan including internal and external resources; 5. Procurement strategy including how work stream are aligned to supply contracts; and 6. Governance model including criteria for decisions and information requiring notification and approval from governance.

Establishment of the project delivery methodology starts day one with the project during the earlier project development phases. It will be common for there to be open items in the early versions of the methodology and how and when these are to be resolved. For example, the first approved version will focus on procurement strategy and may have some decisions such as an open item on the approach for onshore construction which will be resolved based on the responses received. However, the strategy will explain this and indicate how the go to market will be structured to deliver on this decision such as RFP requests to multiple types of companies such as terrestrial and marine providers.

The methodology is refined throughout the project with several work-in-progress versions through the time when the project goes into full execution mode. At this point, the methodology should be generally complete and accepted.

In addition, it should be written in alignment with the outcomes to date so as to be relevant. Ideally, the stakeholders as part of governance will approve this methodology as part of the approval package including the supply contracts, system definition, project plan and budget.

A TAILORED APPROACH

While project delivery methodologies will be similar across many projects, it is imperative they be tailored to each project based on the specifics of the project such as complexity, locations involved, desired project schedule, projects risks and issues and so forth. One project might have pre-existing landing sites while another project will be establishing landings in a brand new location that have never seen a submarine cable. In the first case, the risks are lower, and the process is better defined allowing for a more efficient and later start to the work as the risk is highly mitigated (prevented) on the front end.

Whereas in the second case, the risks have no inherent mitigations and must be fully managed and influenced the by the system owner. Therefore, the work needs to start early, as soon as the preferred landing sites are identified so that investigation, engagement, and negotiation can

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take place in order to get into the formal acquisition and permitting process. The last thing a project wants is a boat hanging out for weeks or months 100 km offshore waiting to make a shore ending to an unknown place – and yes it happens at the system owner’s expense. In a similar way, if a brand new operational team is to be utilized, staffing, and training the team will take much longer and benefit from higher levels of involvement with the project especially during the latter construction and commissioning days prior to RFS. These types of interdependencies and timing should be documented in the delivery methodology and project plan.

A FOCUS ON PROJECT LIFECYCLE

Starting with the early days of the project and all the way through completion of the system and movement into operations, strong project management skills with a common project manager is critical. While it is enjoyable and appropriate to highlight and celebrate successes and on track progress, Project Management needs to focus on: 1. Having a viable and achievable project plan; 2. Tracking, updating and actively mitigating risks; 3. Understanding, prioritizing, and developing plans to resolve open issues; 4. Monitoring and adjusting address project team efficiencies and conflicts; 5. Tracking and forecasting of financial and other benchmarks; 6. Quality assurance and reviews to ensure work meets specifications including field reports; 7. Tracking and managing parties’ compliance with supply contracts including payments; and; 8. Raising and managing issues with stakeholders.

The above activities mean that in reality, most project managers will focus on what is not quite right and figuring out how to deal with it and get it back as close as possible to the desired outcome. As projects become larger and span wider geographies, the project team demands will grow with virtual international teams and access to a multitude of skillsets including technical, financial, legal, procurement project management, documentation, and communications.

Smaller projects might be able to use multi-disciplined individuals as the work is limited in depth and breadth.

Certain projects may dictate the need for highly skilled with local knowledge dedicated resources for specific topics such as permitting and licensing related. Each project will have to truthfully evaluate those needs. Another example would be if the project interfaces with any specific indus-

STAY CURRENT

play for offshore wind.

Climate Change

While the telecom industry has been operating for quite some time and has made significant advances in our knowledge of benthic marine environments, climate change is one issue that we will have to face in conjunction with all offshore maritime industries and the wider world. The push for projects concerning environmental monitoring and communications is spreading throughout the industry, with a current focus on issues relating to marine megafauna and fisheries targets. Initiatives such as SMART cables and similar monitoring systems in offshore wind will go a long way towards narrowing existing knowledge gaps and ensuring that we have lengthy and reliable data records as our seas undergo this period of immense change.

As mentioned previously, interdisciplinary initiatives such as ROSA will be integral in encouraging data sharing and data tracking as some common fisheries and conservation target species exhibit spatial and temporal distribution shifts. By working together, industry and local stakeholders can broaden our collective knowledge of how the oceans around us will be impacted by climate change related phenomena. As such, we can hope to mitigate issues to the best of our abilities and focus on nurturing sustainable growth of both telecom and offshore wind industries, keeping the world connected and providing reliable sources of clean, renewable wind energy. Similarly, collective knowledge on natural system faults, both for subsea cables and offshore wind infrastructure, will contribute to our understanding of how best to shift future engineering and operation innovations to cope with an increase in strength and frequency of inclement weather events and other climatic factors.

Summary

those of public perceptions, will help to pave the way for community buy-in and long term success of these installations.

In the past century and a half, humans have come to understand a significant amount about our oceans and how they function. Through the course of hundreds of subsea cable installations, the telecom industry has been at the forefront of uncovering benthic knowledge. Our understanding of seafloor hydrology, shifting sediments, ecological interactions, and even earthquakes and tsunamis has greatly increased. By taking what we have learned and applying it to the burgeoning offshore wind industry, we can best position ourselves to reap the rewards of an extensive renewables network while mitigating social, environmental, and ecological impacts. We have extensive local fisheries and communities networks, professional guard vessels and crews, broad knowledge of the marine environmental and applicable requirements and legislation, and, above all, we have a vision for long-term, sustainable success in harnessing our renewable natural resources for clean energy. To our partners in the offshore wind industry— we are ready and willing to help you reach your goals.

Emma Martin is the Marine Systems Associate at Seagard. She has her BA in Biology from Boston University, USA and her MSc in Marine Systems and Policies from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

She has performed marine field work around the world and looks forward to continuing to support maritime infrastructure developments.

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Throughout both industries, a common theme is the importance of early and continued stakeholder engagement. “We stand by the idea that stakeholder engagement and outreach with other maritime users and operators is incredibly important,” Ryan Wopschall, ICPC GM states, “Raising awareness of subsea cables within the offshore renewable energy sector and encouraging developers and stakeholders to contact us in regard to new and ongoing projects will further facilitate safe and efficient use of marine resources and long-term protection of seabed infrastructure.” All marine users must be considered throughout project development, and these considerations, alongside

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FEATURE tries such as offshore energy such as oil and gas platforms which require a whole other set of engineering and project management skills to integrate technically and coordinate with the facilities.

This also means that project resources will vary throughout the project as work proceeds, risks and issues are closed, new workstream ramp up and so forth. The project manager and delivery methodology will have to capture and manage these changes.

ASSESSING REALISTIC PROJECT COSTS

In discussing the project methodology, it should become apparent there is a significant amount of additional cost a project will incur during the life of the project. Good project teams will acknowledge this early and ensure that an estimated 5-10% of the total costs is related the internal project management (including use of third-party consultants and representatives) is included in project financial plans.

These costs not only cover personnel but also their travel, documentation, and other related costs.

As previously mentioned, project team resources may and most likely should include external experts.

External experts although appearing more expensive (hourly rate) provide significant advantages which can lower overall project costs especially benefits such as: • Already trained and ready to deliver – reduces training time; • Used as adjunct staffing – no longterm commitments required or expected; • Familiarity with suppliers – able to clearly communicate and represent project needs and expectations; • Existing methods to manage and address issues – high level of confidence in positive outcomes; and • Dedicated effort – reduced impact to other system owner initiatives and needs.

stead ensure all critical contracts receive proper attention throughout the project lifecycle as to ensure they meet project needs and properly interface with other contracts.

Each item, service and individual to be hired by the project needs to have an underlying contract. Some of these may be as simple as using a standing master services agreement while several may require a formal RFP process including issuance, response, adjudication, negotiation, and award such as those related to: • Desktop Study; • Marine Survey; • Wet Plant; • Dry Plant; • Marine Installation; • Onshore Construction; • Industry Unique Work (e.g., oil and gas riser); • Project Management Team; and • Operational services.

Projects should be careful to avoid thinking of just the “System Supply Contract” and instead ensure all critical contracts receive proper attention throughout the project lifecycle as to ensure they meet project needs and properly interface with other contracts.

DEVELOPING PROCUREMENT STRATEGY

In developing the procurement strategy, it is always a balance between several factors to decide how many supply contracts to execute. Projects should be careful to avoid thinking of just the “System Supply Contract” and in-

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Often, the above will be packaged into fewer contracts though they can be done as individual contracts. The decision on how many contracts to issue will balance between: 1. Scope and capability of internal resources to manage multiple contracts; 2. Model best able to manage project risks such as specific/unique project risks; 3. L ocal concerns including perceived constraints and limitations; 4. Financial analysis and overhead costs versus internal overheads.

Where multiple contracts are issued, then the system owner becomes responsible to identify and capture the interdependencies between the different contracts. The most critical of these should be captured in the project delivery methodology – procurement strategy. These interdependencies often take the form of: • Timing – Supplier A needs to complete Item A by Date X so Supplier B can do Item B (e.g., Supplier A must complete CLS by a specific date so Supplier B can install SLTE) • Technical Interface – Supplier A must provide Supplier B information on Item X by Date Z (e.g., Supplier A must supply requirements for BMH to

Supplier B by a specific date) • Scope Demarcation – Supplier A will do XYZ, and Supplier B will do MNO e.g., Supplier A will provide the BMH installed, and Supplier B will install cables and complete splice) The more contracts there are, the more points of interface that have to become documented. Otherwise, the system owner will attempt to put a lot of risk back on the suppliers which they will return in the form of increase project cost thereby reducing the financial benefit of a piecemeal contract. The ability to manage this will be most directly related to the skills and level of resourcing including external resources.

As a general rule, though work that is specific to an industry should typically be left to those industry experts such as engineering a new riser for an offshore deep-water platform. This work will be governed by facility owner standards and processes which will be rigorous and time consuming with significant overhead. Direct management of this work will most likely be the most time and cost efficient as some suppliers will either underestimate and under deliver or heavily overestimate their risk and highly elevate cost position.

OPERATIONAL READINESS

Before closing out, it is sensible to say a few words on operational readiness. A $200M investment in a submarine cable system can only realize an ROI if the system operates reliably for decades to come. The wet plant or marine maintenance program is vital as repairs will take weeks to complete and minimize the mobilization time, ensuring a repair response is available and is critical.

Proper evaluation of repair options including using consortium approaches or other private and dedicated solution needs to be determined in the first quarter of the project so that allowances can be made in the procurement process, including extended service and warranty features from suppliers. Actual implementation may be delayed into the last quarter of the project.

In addition to the marine, reality is that most issues on a submarine network will occur onshore at the CLS or Data Center, such as: • Power systems – loss of utility power, failure of generators, battery failure; • Environmental systems – failure of HVAC and dehumidifiers; • Grounds maintenance – maintaining safe, secure, and aesthetically pleasing; and • Equipment failure – failure of SLTE, PFE and similar.

To deal with these issues, NOC facilities, monitoring systems, remote management tools (element management systems) and underlying networks need to be implemented. Furthermore, trained resources at the NOC and for field repairs need to be brought on board and trained with general and system specific knowledge. The recruiting, training, and onboarding process will take several months and should start during early phases of detailed engineering. This also allows for requirements from equipment suppliers to be addressed early. All of this operational work will be captured in an operational strategy which will be a deliverable by the project in the early days, ideally prior to system approval, though some details will be forthcoming. Capturing a high-level schedule for operational readiness in the delivery methodology will help to ensure focus on this work is not lost during the engineering and construction. Often a dedicated team will focus on this work.

CONCLUSION

The development of a submarine cable system and movement into operations requires work across many different workstreams. The best way to capture these so all project members can understand the project is through the creation of a project delivery methodology. Without documenting the less obvious projects so progress can be managed, the immediate and most pressing issues as well as the ones individuals are most comfortable with will take all the attention. This leads to last minute and less than ideal outcomes for the project as a whole.

Developing and then executing a fit for purpose project delivery methodology using skilled, experienced, available, and capable resources with strong project management is the best tool in a system owners’ arsenal to deliver a successful submarine cable project. STF GREG OTTO is the Technical Director for WFN Strategies and holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He has worked with multiple Oil & Gas companies during his career. Besides working for Shell Oil and BP, Greg was a co-founder of a consulting company and is currently working as an independent consultant. Greg was the program leader on technical and commercial matters on BP’s fiber in Gulf of Mexico Fiber and has supported similar projects in multiple countries. In addition, Otto is the President/CEO and firefighter/medic for a nonprofit company where he furthers the use his entrepreneurial skills and capabilities to help others.

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Celebrating 20 years of expert client representation and consulting

WFN Strategies is an industry-leading consultancy specializing in the planning, procurement, and implementation of submarine cable systems

We possess an ISO 9001: 2015 accredited management system and ISO 27001:2013 InfoSec program for the implementation of submarine fiber cable systems for commercial, governmental and offshore energy companies throughout the world. We have served the industry for 20 years and received the ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013 certified designer and for Exports.

President’s “E” Award implementer of submarine fiber cable systems for commercial, governmental and oil & gas companies.

FEATURE

THE CONSULTANT’S SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT ROLE IN SYSTEM COMMISSIONING

BY KRISTIAN NIELSEN

T

here’s no shortage of industry secrets in this tight lipped industry. Even today the world at large is only now beginning to take notice of the niche of submarine fiber telecoms. In an effort to shed light on the importance of every aspect of system development, this article outlines the process of developers working with Subject Matter Expert (SME) consultants for the commissioning and acceptance of a new system build.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The SME will travel to and witness network system tests, validating the installation, and provide a “findings” report to include performance verification and any resulting discrepancies requiring Supplier rectification. They will provide a System Acceptance Report for the system, identifying

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close-out issues accomplished by Supplier to the satisfaction of Client. If desired by Client, The SME will accomplish a Follow-Up System Report approximately six months after the system has been turned over to Operations.

REVIEW SYSTEM TEST PLANS AND PROCEDURES

The purpose of the Commissioning System Test Plans and Procedures Report Review is to identify any deficiencies discovered by the SME within the system commissioning and acceptance plans and procedures, and system handbooks of the Client’s submarine fiber optic cable system.

The SME will attend a teleconference briefing meeting with Client. This meeting may be combined with the FAT briefing meeting. At this briefing meeting the detailed responsibilities of the SME and the schedule of his ac-

• Copy of completed Commissioning Test Report which demonstrates test results are within parameters specified

tivities will be agreed upon. All relevant documentation required by the SME to accomplish his responsibilities will be made available at this meeting. All test plans and procedures for the Final System Testing and Acceptance will be reviewed in a formal process to ensure that Client is satisfied that all appropriate parameters will be accurately tested in a manner to verify that the system, from Optical Distribution Frame (ODF) to ODF, or other fiber termination location if ODF to ODF facilities are not in place, meets all technical and commercial specifications.

The SME will also provide project oversight and technical support during the period in which deficiencies are rectified, documentation delivered, and all Supplier activities concluded (typically ninety-days after RFS). The SME will review the Final Monitor Acceptance Report detailing implementation issues and rectifications, which will be forwarded to Client.

ACCOMPLISH SYSTEM TESTING REPRESENTATION

ACCOMPLISH SEGMENT COMMISSIONING

The purpose of the Confidence Trial Test Report Review is to identify any deficiencies discovered by the SME within the system commissioning and acceptance operation of the Client’s submarine fiber optic cable system.

The SME will witness on Client’s behalf the Final System Testing and Acceptance of the system from one of the system Cable Landing Station.

The SME will travel to the appropriate Cable Landing Station designated by Client. The SME will arrive on site in time for the completion of the marine installation and will witness the optical testing conducted on the system, between ODF panels, by the System Supplier.

The SME will be responsible for the following: • Confirming the technical performance of the installed end-to-end system including the terrestrial sections, pursuant to Supply Contract requirements; • Verifying that the Final System Testing and Acceptance plan is conducted in accordance with Supplier Quality Plan and any ISO 9001 requirements; • Verifying that the Final System Testing and Acceptance plan is conducted in accordance with Supplier’s optical safety procedures; • Verifying that the test results are consistent with Final System Testing and Acceptance plan and are within the specified tolerances; • If necessary, signing off any Test Reports required under the Supply Contract.

The SME will leave the Cable Landing Station once the Final System Testing and Acceptance plan has been satisfactorily completed. He will attend a debrief meeting with Client.

The SME will validate the following: • Ready For Service (RFS) Report showing service within acceptable limits for the RFS trial period and that all requirements to put the service in to operation have been met

The SME will witness all segment commissioning activities, as detailed in the Daily Progress Report. Prior to testing, The SME will review and approve all test procedures and pass/fail criteria. The SME representatives will be present at all Cable Landing Station for completion of segment commissioning. The SME will review all test results and sign off all acceptance test certificates. The SME will identify any non-compliant results and make specific recommendations regarding remedial actions to be taken. The SME will liaise with Supplier to track any such non-conformances using Client Incident Reports or similar.

Particulars the SME will undertake and scrutinize while witnessing Final Testing and Acceptance include the following: 1. Check-in with the Central Office Foreman every day.

2. Check-in with the IT Test Engineer.

3. Wear the required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at all times while on site; even if others in the party are not wearing theirs, e.g., safety sunglasses.

4. Be sure to attend the daily “toolbox” meeting and review the daily job procedure. Be aware of any hazards!

5. Take lots of pictures, especially if something is wrong.

Get pictures of the BMH, OGB, duct bank, cable entrance, Cable Termination Unit, FO cable runs inside the Central Office, the ODF, ground bar, and test equipment setup.

6. Make sure the C-OTDR has a current calibration sticker (and the Megger if they do electrical testing).

7. Check to make sure the optical testing is appropriate for the segment length.

8. Identify the location of the spares, and get pictures, if possible.

9. Get names and positions of everyone on-site.

10. Make sure the test reports are dated and signed.

11. If something is wrong, point it out right away.

12. Send a daily report back to HQ so we know what you are doing.

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FEATURE 13. BE SAFE. BE SAFE. BE SAFE!

ACCOMPLISH TRANSMISSION EQUIPMENT COMMISSIONING

The SME will witness the transmission equipment commissioning activities. Prior to testing, The SME will review and approve all test procedures and pass/fail criteria. A SME will be provided at applicable Cable Landing Station, the number of which will be dependent on the Supplier’s test procedure; however, test results will be collected from all locations with the cooperation of Supplier. The SME will review all test results and sign off all acceptance test certificates. The SME will identify any non-compliant results and make specific recommendations regarding remedial actions to be taken. The SME will liaise with Supplier to track any such non-conformances using Client Incident Reports or similar.

The SME will determine what, if any, Client’s tests are required and ensure these tests are conducted. The SME will review the commissioning test results and make recommendations regarding the need for additional testing, Provisional Acceptance of the System, or some alternative arrangement. The SME will generate a draft provisional System Acceptance Test Certificate for Client review upon completion of the commissioning tests.

The SME will then upload the System Acceptance Test Certificate to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

PREPARE SYSTEM PUNCH LIST LOG

A System Punch List Log is accomplished by the SME detailing actions required for submarine cable system acceptance.

This effort is accomplished by the vendor’s in-field SME personnel. The SME will then upload the System Punch List Log to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

PREPARE ACTIONS REQUIRED FOR ACCEPTANCE

An Acceptance Checklist is accomplished by the SME detailing actions required for submarine cable system acceptance.

This effort is accomplished by the vendor’s in-field SME personnel. The SME will then upload the Acceptance Checklist to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

PREPARE BACKBONE TRUNK CABLE GAP REGISTER

The purpose of the Backbone Trunk Cable Gap Register

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is to identify any deficiencies discovered by the SME within the gap register of the submarine fibre optic cable system.

This effort is accomplished by the vendor’s in-field SME personnel. The SME will then upload the Backbone Trunk Cable Gap Register to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

REVIEW AS-LAID RPL AND CHARTING

The purpose of As-Laid RPL And Charting Review Report is to identify any deficiencies discovered by the SME within the marine installation and charting reports of the Client’s submarine fibre optic cable system.

The SME will review the as-laid RPL, including BU, Repeaters and Cable Termination Assembly/UJ location and details of achieved burial and cable protection within Client leases. They will then upload the As-Laid RPL And Charting Review Report to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

PREPARE SYSTEM COMMISSIONING AND ACCEPTANCE REPORT

The purpose of the System Commissioning and Acceptance Report is to identify any deficiencies discovered by Client Representative within the system commissioning and acceptance of the submarine fiber optic cable system.

The SME will then upload the System Commissioning and Acceptance Report to the file sharing system for the purpose of distribution, retrieval, and archiving.

CONCLUSION

Working with SMEs is paramount to accomplishing a highly successful submarine cable project. SME years of experience and expertise plus unbiassed appraisal of Supplier activities affords the Client owner effective system commissioning review and peace of mind. STF KRISTIAN NIELSEN is the Quality & Fulfilment Director at WFN Strategies. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP™) and ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013 auditor and possesses more than 13 years’ experience and knowledge in submarine cable systems, including Polar and offshore Oil & Gas submarine fiber systems. As Quality & Fulfilment Director, he reviews subcontracts and monitors the clients and vendors, and is the final check on all delivered WFN products. He is responsible for contract administration, as well as supports financial monitoring and in-field logistics. He has worked in-field, at-desk and everywhere in between.

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BACK REFLECTION

THE EXPLOSIVE BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE TELECOMS

BY PHILIP PILGRIM

I

’ll begin by giving a so-called “shout-out” to our friends at Submarine Telecoms Forum and SubCom as some of the following early submarine cable communication events happened on their doorsteps.

Hopefully, these obscure events will be brought back into the spotlight and given appropriate respect for their contribution to our industry.

The 1850 English Channel Submarine Cable was not the first.

Most laypeople, I included, consider the August 28th, 1850 cable across the English Channel to be the first submarine cable. It is captured in numerous paintings and drawings of the stout steam tug , Goliath, with a large spool of cable on board, happily chugging across the channel. It is also captured in folklore; the unarmoured cable (a single copper strand with a rubbery gutta percha exterior) was fictionally pulled up the next day by French fisherman who thought he discovered a marvelous new seaweed with gold interior.

However, history shows that the first cables were developed much earlier for more destructive purposes.

THE EARLY 1800’S & THE SCIENCE OF ELECTRICITY

To add further colour to these early days, one should realize that the first submarine telegraph cables followed immediately on

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1850 English Channel Cable Sample: Gutta Percha and Copper Conductor (Thanks to Bill Burns and Atlantic-Cable.com)

The Goliath Laying the 1850 English Channel Cable (Thanks to Bill Burns and Atlantic-Cable.com)

the heels of significant scientific milestones in electricity and electromagnetism. The scientists pioneering applications of electricity witnessed their telegraph peers exploit their discoveries,

and often these same scientists assisted and contributed.

Let’s look at the basic components needed in the 1830’s to get the telegraph ball rolling: 1. A low resistance copper wire for carrying a signal 2. An energy source for signaling 3. A means to insulate the copper wire from its watery environment 4. Copper, gold, and silver had been formed into wires for millennia, so this was readily available in the early 1800’s.

5. Leading up to the invention of the telegraph, nearly all experiments with electricity involved so-called static electricity. This energy was created from the friction of rubbing materials together and the energy was not able to be stored easily by humans (thunderclouds and kites excluded). It was not until the experiments of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta in the late 1790’s that lead to Volta’s chemical battery in 1800. This convenient device could store energy for long periods of time and the energy could be released in short bursts from a terminal to send a signal along a telegraph wire.

6. Early experiments with electrical signaling and water in the 1830’s revealed that coating wires with tar-soaked cloth enabled the “electric fluid” to travel along the wire and not “leak” into the surrounding water. Gutta percha, a natural plant latex was later introduced to England in

Aron Pavel L’vovich Schilling Von Canstadt

1842 and then exploited as a wire insulator in 1845.

It was Samuel Morse who is credited as the first to originate the telegraph in the “new world” in 1832 however, others were working on the

same challenge on the continent, and in Britain.

It was the work of Russia’s Pavel Schilling, in 1832 that found its way to Germany where Carl Friedrich Gauss, Wilhelm Eduard Weber, and later Carl August von Steinheil developed working telegraphs. Schillings work on using signals to remotely detonate explosives also found its way to Samuel Colt in the U.S.A.

PFE DIGRESSION

First Terrestrial Telegraph “Cable” London, 1837

We must pause to acknowledge Steinheil as he discovered the earth to be a universal conductor and a “free” return path for electrical circuits. His discovery allows our current day power feed equipment to work over one single copper NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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BACK REFLECTION

conductor and return via the ocean ground beds and Earth to complete the circuit.

HMS Royal George

THE FIRST TERRESTRIAL TELEGRAPHS

It was England’s William Fothergill Cooke, who first witnessed the Schilling telegraph in Heidelberg Germany in 1836, then brought the concept to England.

The first practical terrestrial telegraph system was commissioned in England in the summer of 1837 by William Fothergill Cooke & Charles Wheatstone. It was an experimental 5-wire affair that ran underground along a railway line in London connecting Euston to Camden Town (2km). It used wood as the insulator.

Meanwhile in the Americas, Morse was using electromagnet relays to regenerate the signal, and by 1837, was sending signals over 16 km on a test bed. He conducted his first public demonstration in Speedwell Village, Morristown, New Jersey on January 11, 1838 where he sent a signal over an unregenerated 3.2km testbed.

(SubCom’s headquarters was also in the same Morristown).

THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH APPLICATIONS

In England in 1839, just two years after the first terrestrial telegraph experiment in London, a submarine cable was first used to send a signal.

The HMS Royal George, a gun ship with 100 cannons, was once the largest ship in the British Navy. It was built in 1756 and fought in many battles, including in the American Revolution, but was accidentally sunk during repairs off Portsmouth, England in 1782. It became a

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Demolition of the Royal George

marine hazard. British Colonel Commandant Charles William Pasley, of the Corps of Royal Engineers, was tasked to remove the Royal George. Submerged explosives had been used in the past for demolition but he noted that wires and batteries were recently used to remotely detonate explosives in 1837 in Russia; so he sought the advice of leading British scientists experimenting with “wires and batteries”: Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday, and John Frederic Daniell. In August of that year, insulated copper wire was used to signal the underwater explosives and blow up the wreck. As dynamite or similar high explosives were not yet invented, oak barrels were filled with gunpowder and covered with lead. The detonator was a “hot wire” design. It was a resistance-heated platinum wire. A battery was used to send the signal. The signaling was obviously unidirectional and simply a long pulse but information was exchanged.

The insulation of the submarine cable would have been a water-

Samuel Colt

proofed cloth referred to as “tarred yarn”. John Frederic Daniell’s latest battery, the Daniel Cell Battery, was used.

This battery was invented in 1836 and was the most powerful available at the time.

Our friends in the oil & gas subsea sector should appreciate this feat as it was the first application of an umbilical cable.

Samuel Colt (of revolver handgun fame), was also de-

News Account of Colt’s NYC Demonstra tion, July 4th , 1842

Remote Destruction of the Styx, April 13, 1844

tion, News Account of Morse’s NYC Demonstra October 18th , 1842

NOVEMBER 2021 | ISSUE 121

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BACK REFLECTION Colt’s Trunk and Branch Design

Colt’s 4 Conductor Lead Armoured Cable Circa 1844

veloping remote detonation submerged technology. His concept was to lay a grid of submarine mines in a harbour.

When an enemy ship passed over a mine, an observer would cross-reference the grid location and remotely detonate a corresponding mine at that grid point.

Working with his friend, Samuel Morse, Colt’s first proof of concept demonstration was in New York Harbour on July 4th, 1842 where he used a 300m underwater cable to detonate explosives below an unmanned vessel towed over the mine. The charge was detonated from the deck of the gunship North Carolina.

On August 20th, 1842, Colt conducted his second demonstration on the Potomac River for the president of the United States, John Tyler, and his

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cabinet. A report gives 8,000 spectators and the magnificent destruction of another towed vessel.

Colt’s third demonstration was on October 18th, 1842 again in New York City before 40,000 spectators. He used copper wire wrapped with tar and cloth to send electric signals to an underwater charge from the deck of the revenue cutter Ewing. He blew up a ship aptly named the Volta. Samuel

Morse was again involved and shared his reels of insulated cable to assist Colt. Morse also gave a submarine telegraph demonstration on the same day to communicate between Manhattan Island and Governor’s Island two miles away however, his batteries were too weak. Morse then used Colt’s battery and was able to conduct unidirectional communications. Unfortunately, the first submarine cable fault in history occurred the next day on October 19th,

Colt’s Submarine Cable and Minefield Array (top view and profile view)

1842 when Morse’s submarine cable was accidentally hauled up by a merchantman ship getting underway.

Colt’s fourth and final demonstration was on April 13, 1844 on the Potomac River near the Washington Navy Yard.

The President, John Tyler, was again in attendance with thousands of spectators.

A ship, the Brunette, (rechristened Styx for the demonstration) was unmanned and set adrift into the mine field. Colt first detonated one mine in the distance for fanfare and then made his first attempt at hitting the ship. It was a miss but the explosion rocked the ship. A minute later the ship had drifted further, and his second attempt again missed.

Third time lucky, it was a hit and greatly damaged the ship but did not sink it. A naval crew promptly rowed to the stricken vessel, boarded it, and hoisted the US flag to symbolize its successful capture.

The clear purpose of Colt’s final demonstration was for warfare but, for us subsea telecom enthusiasts, there is much more of interest below the surface. Trivial components of Colt’s apparatus go unnoticed, but he singlehandedly made significant firsts in the history of subsea technology.

• Armoured Cable: Colt’s system had to withstand explosives, so his cables were lead wrapped.

• Branching Units: Colt’s system had a trunk with branches to anchored mines and a separate insulated conductor to each mine.

• Festoon Architecture: The design was also that of a trunk/branch festoon which we commonly use along seacoasts today.

• Detector Arrays: The basis of the design, a silent submarine cable array waiting on the bottom for a ship to

pass over, was later applied to detect submarines. (Be sure to check out Dr. Richard Walding’s excellent website on this topic: http://indicatorloops.com) Very little material is available on

hausted his attempts to convince the US Government to protect its harbours with his mine field invention, turned towards telecoms. He formed the New York and Offing Electric Telegraph Association and laid a submarine telegraph cable

Colt and Morse Telegraph and Ship Mine Presentation Circa 1842

the early submarine telegraph events in the USA. Here is one that shows the efforts of Morse and Colt to bring attention to their work in the early 1840’s before the first commercial terrestrial telegraph boom began in 1844.

These smaller demonstrations occurred indoors and were in addition to the larger ones detailed above where things “blowed-up real good”.

COMMERCIAL SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH TELECOMMUNICATIONS BEGAN IN THE USA IN 1845: In October 1845, Colt, having ex-

from Manhattan Island to Coney Island. (most likely stock from the Styx demonstration). He also laid a cable across the East River but, as with most early cables, it failed in its infancy. In 1846, he laid a second cable across the East River that succeeded and extended the line to Fire Island. Please refer to cable sample image shown above showing Colt’s lead covered, four conductor cable from 1844. STF PHILIP PILGRIM is the Subsea Business Development Leader for Nokia's North American Region.

2021 marks his is 30th year working in the subsea sector. His

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ON THE MOVE WFN Strategies has just announced the appointment of their new Construction and Marine Coordinator, GLENN HOVERMALE. An active member of the submarine cable industry for the last 15 years, Glenn will primarily handle the day-to-day project matters. Managing Director Wayne Nielsen states “WFN Strategies is thrilled to have Glenn joining us and I am looking forward to having such a strong asset on our team of experts.”

In early November Crosslake Fibre welcomed GERALD LEVENHAGEN as their new Senior Account Director based in the UK. Gerald brings a wealth of knowledge to the organization as a trusted provider of critical infrastructure solutions.

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

HAVE A NEW HIRE YOU WANT TO HIGHLIGHT IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF SUBTEL FORUM MAGAZINE? Feel free to send a direct message to Rebecca Spence on Linkedin or send the announcement to rspence@subtelforum.com.

SUBMARINE CABLE NEWS

NOW

CABLE FAULTS & MAINTENANCE

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

Vietnam Internet Cable Cable Broken Third Time In A Year

Prysmian Group Acquires the Swiss Omnisens S.A.

AAE-1 October 11, 2021 Fault Repaired

BT, Elisa, Telefónica and Verizon Sign Amazon Climate Pledge

AAE-1 Fault Repairs Not Anticipated Until November

SEACOM Completes Acquisition of Hirani Telecom Detyens to Overhaul US Navy Cable Laye

CONFERENCES & ASSOCIATIONS SubOptic 2022 Postponed

DATA CENTERS Digital Realty Selects Ciena to Drive Cloud Interconnectivity Equinix launches OS3 data center in Osaka, Japan NEXT DC To Build New Data Centre In Darwin PEACE and iColo Ink Deal To Increase Connectivity Vertiv Joins the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance

FUTURE SYSTEMS Epsilon Expands Bilateral Partnership With SEAX Hawaiki Announces New Trans-Pacific Cable System New Intra-Asia Express Cable Announced Converge Completes Submarine Cable Project

Eastlink Expands Network into NJFX CLS Campus GÉANT Selects Telxius For Connectivity Services Brazil’s UPIX Network Now Extends to NJFX Campus Djibouti Telecom Begins Construction of New CLS APTelecom Strengthens Its Team, Announcing New Hires WFN Strategies Adds Member To Their Growing Team

TECHNOLOGY AND UPGRADES stc Expands its Network Through Infinera Agreement DE-CIX Barcelona Goes Live Telstra Deploys Infinera’s 800G Solution On Subsea Cable First Trial Of Submarine Cable With Multicore Fiber Complete By NEC, OCC & Sumitomo HMN Tech Launches 32FP Petabit-Level Repeater Prototype FSMTC Completes Hantru-1 Cable System Upgrade Telxius Delivers 400Gb/s Ethernet Service Powered By Ciena and Infinera Globe Telecom Upgrades Network With Infinera Solution

Japanese Operators Team On Submarine Cable Labrador, Iqaluit To Benefit From Planned Subsea Cable PEACE Submarine Cable Lands In Marseille Bulk & WFN Strategies Announce Leif Erikson Cable NEC To Build A Transatlantic Cable NEC To Build A Transatlantic Cable Digicel Partners With Orange For Deep Blue One Cable Bulk Complete Construction of HAVSIL Cable System Chile Invites Uruguay To Be Part Of Humboldt Cable 2Africa Extended To The Arabian Gulf, Pakistan and India Orange Announces The Landing Of Amitie In France Southern Cross NEXT Cable System Lands In Tokelau

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ADVERTISER CORNER Greetings:

T

hank you for enjoying this 20th Anniversary Issue! We cannot close-out the year without a heartfelt thank you to this year’s product Sponsors.

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ADVERTISER CORNER SUBTEL FORUM INDUSTRY REPORT 560,000+ downloads per issue. Category lock-in available.

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We would love for you to join or continue with us as a 2022 Sponsor! For Rates and Benefits Recap (including website & social media), go to the SubTel Forum ONLINE STORE. Let’s keep the submarine telecoms industry strong, viable, and growing! STF Terri Jones, Sales Manager, SubTel Forum tjones@subtelforum.com

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