How The Internet Travels Across Oceans
How The Internet Travels Across Oceans
99% of all internet traffic – from this video to your Pokemon Go account to your family WhatsApp group – runs on a hidden network of undersea cables. Why should you care? Because modern life is increasingly dependent on those slinky subaquatic wires. And they get attacked by sharks from time to time.
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How The Internet Travels Across Oceans
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0.08 -> 99 of all internet traffic from this
video to your pokemon go account to
4.72 -> your family whatsapp group runs on a hidden
network of undersea cables why should you
9.12 -> care because modern life is increasingly
dependent on those slinky subaquatic wires
13.6 -> and they get attacked by sharks from time to
time how do they work what's the future for them
17.6 -> join us today as we plunge the depths and
ask how the internet travels across oceans
23.6 -> according to the authoritative submarine cable
map website there are currently 493 active or
29.44 -> actively under construction sub-sea internet
cables criss-crossing the globe these range from
33.92 -> the relatively modest 300 kilometer azerbaijan
to turkmenistan wire running under the black sea
39.28 -> to the absolutely gargantuan 6600 kilometer
maria cable linking virginia beach in the us
45.52 -> with bill bow in northern spain maria weighs
the same as 24 blue whales apparently the
49.92 -> firm's laying down this serpentine superhighway
worldwide there's now 1.5 million kilometers of
55.6 -> undersea data wires arcadey about how much it
all costs but professional estimates indicate
60.48 -> a typical transoceanic cable should set you
back between three and four hundred millions of
65.2 -> dollars which seems like a lot because they're not
especially thick typically around the girth of a
69.84 -> garden hose and that includes layers of protective
thixotropic jelly around the all-important fiber
75.12 -> optic core plus multiple plastic sheaths and
copper wiring to power the thing but even so
79.76 -> on average they can ferry an awesome 100
gigabytes per second in data with newer and
84.4 -> forthcoming cables able to transmit 400 gigabytes
per second so how does so much data fit down such
90.16 -> slim channels part of the answer is an extremely
sophisticated data wrangling technique known as
95.28 -> dense wavelength division multiplexing put simply
dense wavelength division multiplexing lets data
100.8 -> providers use more than one wavelength of light
to convey information fibre optically instead
106 -> several wavelengths are employed simultaneously
and stacked creating astonishing data speeds this
111.04 -> happens at buzzing data center-like landing sites
at either end of the cable are the cables just
115.84 -> straight forward long wires not quite every 70
to 100 kilometers or so along the seabed cables
121.36 -> are punctuated with so-called repeaters these
essentially serve as amplifiers keeping the signal
126.48 -> strength up to par over long distances that's
why the cables incorporate copper conductors
131.2 -> by the way carrying up to 10 000 volts of dc
to power the repeaters how are the cables late
136.24 -> they're first coiled into vast cylindrical drums
on specialized cable laying ships as much as a
141.12 -> year's planning and charting will go into plotting
the perfect trans-oceanic route bad locations
145.84 -> for undersea cables include anywhere volcanic or
anywhere especially earthquake or mudslide prone
150.96 -> or anywhere heavily trolled by fishermen the
cable is spooled out the back of the ship at a
154.88 -> sedate pace of around 10 kilometers an hour if the
ship encounters bad weather the captain can decide
159.84 -> whether to break off the cord tie it to a boy and
retreat to karma waters when the storm passes the
164.88 -> ship returns to the boy and picks up where it left
off accidents and outages on the cables can and do
170 -> occur in 2012 hurricane sandy in the u.s knocked
out several key transatlantic cables disrupting
175.92 -> networks for hours in 2011 the fukushima
earthquake in japan caused similar online
181.04 -> the vast majority of such disruptions however
are the result of human carelessness typically
185.84 -> trawler nets or wayward ships anchors cables
situated close to the shore are significantly
190.48 -> more at risk from such disruption as such the
nearer to lander cable is the more likely it'll
195.12 -> be carefully armor-plated many are even dug
into the seabed in long dedicated trenches
199.92 -> carved out using ship-drawn plows awesomely sharks
have been spotted nibbling on one of google's
204.8 -> subsea cables get your teeth into this 2014 clip
more sinister even than that the us government
210.48 -> has consistently warned of interference in the
cables from hostile foreign powers like russia
215.28 -> or china the us government should know all about
that whistleblower edward snowden revealed in 2013
220.64 -> how the nsa had no qualms eavesdropping on fiber
optic communications the geopolitical implications
226.32 -> of undersea cables are also fascinating last year
the australian government intervened to prevent
231.36 -> chinese technology giant huawei from installing
a cable connecting australia with the solomon
236.32 -> islands the fear is that china could use the link
to gain access to australia's sensitive internal
240.96 -> networks so who actually owns these cables that's
an interesting question it's an expensive business
246.64 -> so historically nations or quasi national telecom
providers have picked up the bill the world's
251.44 -> biggest owner of cables remains america's a t with
a stake in some 230 000 kilometers of undersea
257.76 -> cable the second biggest owner is china telecom
frequently cables are owned by groups or consortia
262.96 -> of up to 50 separate owners including tech firms
local government agencies and other businesses
268 -> and while this model helps spread the initial
cost it's less helpful when something goes wrong
272.56 -> and nobody can agree who has to put on a wetsuit
and do something about it increasingly big tech
277.52 -> is recognizing its scope for growth is limited
by the undersea cable network so over the past
282.48 -> few years the overwhelming majority of investment
in undersea cable infrastructure has come from
287.28 -> companies like facebook which currently owns
nearly 100 000 kilometers of cables google owns
292.4 -> roughly the same amount amazon has its own massive
private network hooking up the online giant's
297.52 -> mighty aws data centers through cables traversing
the atlantic pacific and indian oceans plus the
303.2 -> mediterranean and the red sea and the south
china sea the tech giants like to frame these
308.32 -> vast environmentally disruptive infrastructure
projects a civilization enhancing largesse on
313.44 -> their part but they're also shareholder companies
remember who know perfectly well that increasing
317.76 -> the number of human beings online is the only way
they can continue to grow hang on a second you're
322.56 -> probably thinking what about starlink isn't
our old mate elon about to make the internet
326.88 -> wireless any day now for now cable is by
far the cheapest and most efficient means
331.44 -> of eating vast packets of data over incredibly
long distances fast even normally bullish musk
337.2 -> says starlink is only aimed at people who don't
presently enjoy access to high speed fiber but
341.68 -> who knows how that'll pan out in a decade or two
for now the future is very much undersea cables
346.64 -> only this summer google and facebook announced
a joint initiative to build an undersea cable
350.88 -> named apricot apricot will link up singapore
japan guam the philippines taiwan and indonesia
357.12 -> by the year 2024. the longest subaquatic cable
ever a 45 000 kilometer billion dollar monster
363.6 -> called to africa that will link up 33 nations was
just bankrolled by a facebook-led consortium what
368.8 -> do you think will mankind's ingenious submarine
network one day look as obsolete as the telegraph
373.84 -> let us know in the comments and don't forget to
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd1JhZzoS6A