Deep Sea Internet Cables Connect the World

i've ever wondered how a message can be sent around the world on the internet in a fraction of a second the answer lies deep within the ocean on this episode we'll take a look at deep sea internet cables this episode is also sponsored by Backblaze an automatic online backup service you want to check out a free trial head over to Backblaze comm slash TTP while many believe the global internet was made possible by satellites that simply isn't the case the Internet believe it or not is a physical network connected on land and under the ocean a solution needed to be found how we could connect everyone across the globe after the invention of fiber optics this technology soon spread across the world fiber optic lines are run from town to town and city to city on land but when it comes to crossing the ocean a special cable and ship was needed to pull it data is transferred on fibre optics or these strands of perfect glass with pulses of light when created the bi-directional fibers are color-coded with each color indicating a direction of data flow having a cable that lives in the ocean took some specific engineering first off the fiber optic strands are the width of a human hair and are coated with gel to keep them in place in this first layer of protection in a plastic tube around the plastic tube are steel wires that add needed strength and protection the next layer is made of copper which not only adds additional strength but transfers power to repeaters repeaters are these canister like devices that amplify the light every 50 miles or 80 kilometers so the signal will make it to the other side of the ocean the final layer is made of plastic which insulates the entire package this is the basic oceanic cable configuration the cables place near shallow areas close to shore or commercial fishing areas need more protection two additional layers of galvanized steel capped with nylon thread and tar will be added for these areas these cables are manufactured and spun in giant reels which go into pans this large facility when ships head out to sea they'll have around a hundred pans to finish the job when it's time to load the ship that will carry the cables out to see a series of conveyor belts called the cable highway pulls the cables into a large spool at the base of the ship's hull an entire crew working 12-hour shifts for a month is what it'll take to get this ship ready to pull a new internet cable the ship will make its way to its starting location and get as close as possible to the beach without becoming beached itself cable has floated out to shore and then buried in the sand as the ship starts to leave the coast a remote operated plough this device will burry the cable as the ship moves dense rigid sea floors only require the cable to be buried a small ways underneath if the floor is soft and gooey the plow will have to work much harder to embed the cable much lower plows like the ROV - six can form this work up to 6,500 feet or 2,000 meters below the surface of the ocean robotic arms and Jets help put the cable into the ground and treads allow it to traverse on the oceans floor these robots are controlled from the comfort of the ship with small-scale replicas these ships have designated routes already planned where the ocean floor is flat and smooth for easy placement when crossing places like the Atlantic Ocean the Atlantic Ridge is an underwater rocky mountain range which requires the cable to be reinforced within that region now you might be wondering do these cables have to be laid in one piece can they be repaired if damaged do sea life attack these cables but first off yes sharks have been known to bite and knot on them but don't typically get through the cables if they have been damaged they can be repaired when laying a new line of cable commonly there are two ships doing this job one from either side and they'll meet somewhere in the middle when they meet the cables will be fused together and this is the basics of how we have our internet today because of the network of cables being laid we now have the opportunity to have services like backways which is our sponsor first off I just want to say I contacted Backblaze and asked them if they'd like to sponsor this video because I want to work with products and services brands that I love and use myself Backblaze is a service that automatically backs up your hard drive data so you don't have to worry about it I sought them out over a year and a half ago when I first moved to the small town and I heard there's a lot of thieves and criminals in town and there's really no way to protect all my rare fruits and vegetables that I'd been growing and finding and filming and they're essential for my business so I found a solution which is back place that will automatically backup my hard drives when I sleep while I'm working just throughout the day how the system works is you just set it up you choose which files and folders do you want it to backup and then it'll just go through slowly about it takes about a month if you have a ton of data like I do and I'll just slowly back up these files over the next month and then as you change the files daily it sees the difference between your files and what's on their server and what's on your computer and it'll just update what has changed you don't want to be selective of which files you backup you can just set up their system and it'll automatically backup your computer it's an absolute dream for me being a youtuber but it's also perfect for anyone who has any sensitive data personal personal data you know wedding photos videos home videos anything like that you just get it backed up without having to think about it you don't have to have 12 hard drives sitting in your house and have to do a weekly monthly backup on them and then that's worthless if a criminal comes in and steals all your hard drives so that's what I was worried about I loved having back plays it just really took a lot of stress out of my life so if you want to support the channel check out our sponsor Backblaze there's a link in the description below well the invention of services like Backblaze are new because of this massive new fiber-optic bandwidth we have the act of pulling cables across the ocean isn't the first transatlantic Telegraph cable was laid on August 16th 1858 between Ireland and the province of Newfoundland in Canada the idea was proposed in 1840 with construction beginning in 1854 in completing four years later as cable must have seen like witchcraft in these days as the only way of transmitting a message across the Atlantic at the time was by boat which took ten days after the first transatlantic cable was laid it only took a matter of minutes to communicate with Canada signalling the project was a big success but that success didn't last long the signal quality started to fade quickly which had the chief electrician of the transatlantic Telegraph apply excessive voltage in efforts to increase transmission speed this end up frying the cable making it unusable new cables were laid in 1857 and 58 but was until 1865 when a new design of cable allowed for prolonged use the invention of repeaters used to amplify the signal along the cable were first introduced in 1956 two cables were laid between Scotland and Newfoundland one for each direction of a ssin each table was capable of 35 simultaneous phone calls at once mazing to see where we've gone since then when it comes to underwater data cables companies with deep pockets like Google Microsoft and Facebook will each get two threads per ship one thread for each direction of data transfer in 2016 there were 250 active cables new cables are being laid all the time and today as of the release of this video there are 443 cables that's over six hundred and twenty-one thousand miles or a million kilometers of cable laying on the ocean floor capable of 10 gigabytes per second for single fibre or thin the entire cable a hundred to 160 terabits of traffic can be transferred which is around 70 million high-definition videos being streamed at once with an average depth of 11,000 feet or 3352 meters below the ocean's surface coral reefs shipwrecks earthquake zones and active volcanoes and as mentioned earlier underwater mountain ranges have to be planned for when laying the cable today advanced 3d layouts and real-time metrics software called Makela are used when laying a cable which account for the cables properties and force applied on it within the location contour of the ocean floor with real-time ocean currents as the cable goes out the software can precisely control the retrieval of the cable for repairs there a handful of hotspots where many cables converge New York Southern Florida Porto Rico US Virgin Islands Panama Fortaleza Brazil Rio Sao Paulo Lagos Nigeria Spain assai France southern England Alexandria Egypt Oman Mumbai India Singapore Hong Kong South Korea Japan Hawaii and the western coast of the United States not only are internet cables hitting the ocean floor but so are power cables transferring power from offshore renewable energy sources was predominantly from wind farms technology is increasing at a rapid rate it's been 25 years since the internet was available in households what technology do you think will rise in the next 25 hope you enjoyed this episode if you're interested in having your data backed up and secured automatically check out our sponsor backways with the link in the description below and until the next one good one

Channel: Earth Titan

Views: 833,434

Rating: 4.8311577 out of 5

Keywords: deep sea internet cables, deep sea internet cable map, subsea internet cables, internet cables ocean floor, internet cables ocean, internet cables sea, internet cables under the ocean documentary, internet cables around the world, internet cables under the ocean, fiber optics, fiber optic internet cables, undersea fiber optic cable laying, undersea fibre optic cable, undersea fiber optic cable documentary, titan top list, titantoplist

Id: kx3qwqtZvs4

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Kubrick_Fan]

And, the cables are faster than sattelite internet

[u/Styleofdoggy]

imagine... the animals eating the plastic of these cables all for better connections....