North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption

  • From: Steven M. Bellovin
  • Date: Thu Jan 31 12:05:26 2008

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:20:07 -0000
"Rod Beck" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Cables are mostly damaged by fishing in coastal areas (continental
> shelf) or by deep undersea currents that erode the polyurethane
> jacket that protects them. So it is crucial that the cable be buried
> at least one meter and preferably two meters in coastal waters. The
> big fishing boats scrape sea floor -  the ecological equivalent of
> surface or 'strip' mining. These boats scrap the ocean floor and can
> hit the cables or even sever them.  
> 
In some areas, shark bites are a threat, too -- see
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel1/48/1267/00029600.pdf
(subscription required for the full text), or
http://www.tscm.com/phone/oceanic_cable.html


		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb