[admin] Re: Fourth cable damaged in Middle Eest (Qatar to UAE)

Mon Feb 4 18:53:21 UTC 2008

On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, Brandon Galbraith wrote:

> While reading the hacker tourist article someone posted from Wired many
> years ago, it mentioned that as the FO cable comes closer to shore, more
> extreme measures are taken to protect it, including fluidizing the sand
> underneath the cable to cause the cable to sink under, and then stopping the
> fluidizing process so the sand compacts above it. I'm unsure how practical
> this would be along a substantial link of cable though. (Although, burying
> the cable under compact sand seems like it would protect it from a whole
> host of dangers).
>
> -brandon

I have spent a few hours on a cable repair ship in the Med.  Fascinating - 
highly recommended.  This ship was sent to repair multiple spots of a 
cable that was cut about 1km from the shore.  There was a gas pipeline 
that was laid across it and they built special concrete bridges in the 
water that were laid on top the fiber cable so that the fiber cable would 
be in the tunnel under the mini-bridge and the pipeline was laid on top. 
Worked well for the first few months.  But the weight kept bearing down 
and the concrete bridge sunk deeper and deeper into the sand - and 
eventually the bridge tunnel acted as a guillotine and severed the 
underlying fiber.

So much for the best laid plans of fish and men.

-Hank