SubTel Forum Issue #32 - Regional Systems by Submarine Telelecoms Forum

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Welcome to the 32nd issue of Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine, our Regional Systems edition with a special emphasis on the upcoming SubOptic 2007.

I’m a youngster. My first SubOptic was only in 1993 in Versailles, when our exhibition was a large carnival tent on the grounds across from the palace. We exhibitors counted maybe a dozen or so, and we had only a few feet between us and the guy across the walkway. As the token Yank with then BT Marine, the feel was very fresh and new; excitement was everywhere, as if we were on the cusp of something quite unique. And we were.

As our industry grew, so, too, did our conference, and each time cost became less of an issue, and the conference became more and more grand, as if each regional sponsor wanted to out-do his predecessor. From Versailles to San Francisco to Kyoto to Monaco, we grew from plastic pyramids to filled sake boxes and more. Even in the direst of days did the grandness of the conference excel.

But with the cost ever climbing, is SubOptic bringing in today’s new kinds of customers? Will we see the traditional mingling with the emerging submarine cable players? Next week we shall see.

In the meantime, we have some excellent articles to fuel your interest in attending.

John Horne outlines the week ahead at SubOptic, while John Manock details a rising number of upcoming submarine cable projects. Stewart Ash illustrates issues affecting oil & gas cables, as Tom Davis and David Mazzarese highlight specifying fibers. Jose Andres describes a cable installation software tool, and Julian Rawle discusses Africa connectivity. Jean Devos returns with his ever insightful observations, and of course, our ever popular, “where in the world are all those pesky cableships” is included as well.

I must admit – I miss the tent…

Good reading, and see you in B’more,

A synopsis of current news items from NewsNow, the weekly news feed available on the Submarine Telecoms Forum website.

Alcatel-Lucent Lands Atlas Offshore in Marseille

Alcatel-Lucent has completed for Maroc Telecom, the leading telecommunication operator in Morocco, the manufacturing and installation of the Atlas Offshore submarine cable network, linking the cities of Asilah in Morocco, to Marseille in France.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

AT&T to Invest $750 Million-Plus Globally in 2007

AT&T Inc. has announced that it will invest more than $750 million in 2007 to accelerate the delivery of global IP services and solutions to businesses and multinational companies in key markets worldwide.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/25_march _2007.htm

Azea Networks Secures $20 Million

Azea Networks, maker of equipment for upgrading submarine cable systems, has secured a Series D funding round of more than $20 million led by TVM Capital and supported by its existing investors.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/15_april _2007.htm

Cable Laid for New Deep-Sea Observatory

On April 1, 2007 researchers completed an important step in constructing the first deep-sea cabled observatory in the continental United States. In a multi-institution effort managed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and funded by the National Science Foundation, 52 kilometers (of cable were laid along the seafloor of Monterey Bay.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

Corning Optical Fiber Selected for SHEFA-2

Corning Incorporated has announced that Corning® Vascade® EX1000 optical fiber has been specified for the submarine cable that will be supplied to Faroese Telecom for the SHEFA-2 network. NSW GmbH, a Corning Cable Systems company and a provider of repeaterless submarine cable systems, will be supplying the cable.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

General Cable to Acquire NSW

General Cable Corporation has announced that it has agreed to acquire Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH & Co. KG (NSW), located in Nordenham, Germany, from Corning Incorporated.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/6_may _2007.htm

Global Marine Announces 100-Day Canyon Offshore Charter

Canyon Offshore, part of the Helix Energy Solutions Group, has selected Global Marine Systems Limited for a groundbreaking charter to Papua New Guinea.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

Infrastructure Trust Fund for Africa Launched

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel, the representatives of Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Greece, and the President of the European Investment Bank, Philippe Maystadt, have signed a memorandum of understanding setting up a trust fund to finance infrastructure in Africa.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

Maldives President Inaugurates WARF Cable

The President of the Maldives said that increasing public access to telecommunications at an affordable rate was an important policy of the Government.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/25_march _2007.htm

Mediterranean Nautilus selects Alcatel-Lucent for

Upgrade and Extension

Alcatel-Lucent and Mediterranean Nautilus Limited, a broadband network service provider owned by Telecom Italia Sparkle, have further strengthened their cooperation, after successfully inaugurating the first regional dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) submarine network in the Mediterranean Sea.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_april _2007.htm

Mermaid Offshore order a SMD Hydrovision Quasar Compact ROV system

SMD Hydrovision (SMDH) announced that Mermaid Offshore Services Ltd has purchased a Quasar Compact workclass ROV system for delivery in the third quarter of 2007.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_april _2007.htm

MTEM Partners with Global Marine in First North Sea Oil

Finder Project

MTEM (Multi-Transient Electromagnetic), the Edinburgh-based pioneering company in electromagnetic surveying for the oil and gas industry has selected Global Marine Systems Limited to provide the cable installation for a groundbreaking North Sea oil finder project, for Venture Production Plc.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

NEC and Alcatel-Lucent Win Contract to Supply AAG Submarine Cable

NEC Corporation and Alcatel-Lucent will jointly deploy the Asia America Gateway (AAG), the first direct Terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the United States.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/6_may _2007.htm

New Digs for IT International Telecom

Exciting things continue to happen at IT International Telecom and a new headquarters is one of them.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

Phoenix Announces Completion of Crane Installation

Ocean Cable Technologies Ltd and Alcatel Lucent introduce the first mobile In Service Repair System for use on beach jointing and mobile cable operations.

Over the past year Ocean Cable Technologies Ltd and Alcatel Lucent Ltd have worked jointly to overcome some unique engineering barriers to introduce the industries first mobile In Service Repair System engineered specifically for use in terrestrial and mobile locations. The system has been successfully proven in recent beach jointing operations in the Middle East. Andrew Thomas (Ocean Cable Technologies Ltd) and Franck Tortey (Alcatel Lucent) will be presenting the IRSystem Mobile at the forth coming SubOptic Conference.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/6_may _2007.htm

Ocean Cable Technologies Ltd and Blue Ocean Projects Ltd gain funding to implement new Deep

Sea Grapnel

technology

British technology company Ocean Cable Technologies Ltd and partner Blue Ocean Projects have for the past two years researched the possibility of introducing new deep sea grapnel technology. Having developed new technology towards achieving this objective the companies have been awarded funding to conclude the work and implement the first of a new generation of deep sea grapnels. Andrew Thomas (Ocean Cable Technologies) and Jeremy Featherstone (Blue Ocean Projects) will be presenting their achievement at the forthcoming SubOptic conference.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/6_may _2007.htm

Phoenix International, Inc. announced the completion of the installation of a 40-ton knuckle-boom crane on the M/V KIMBERLY CANDIES, a key element of the company’s planned improvements to the vessel’s subsea construction support capabilities.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_april _2007.htm

SBSS Completes Marine Installation of BP Tangguh Subsea Cable

SBSS’ cable ship Fu Hai, equipped with the Hi-plough and ROV Sea Lion, has successfully completed the marine installation of the BP Tangguh Subsea Cable.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

Science Cable to Be Laid in Monterey Bay

The cable ship Global Sentinel will be laying cable along the seafloor of Monterey Bay by the end of March.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/25_march _2007.htm

Service Established on Maldives’ First Domestic Submarine Cable

Dhiraagu has announced that the Maldives’ first domestic submarine cable connecting two atolls has been fully completed by Dhiraagu and put into service.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/6_may _2007.htm

Southern Cross Now on Major Upgrade Path

Southern Cross has announced new sales of US$310 million for the last six months of 2006 and plans for a major network upgrade to cope with a continuing upsurge in the demand for capacity.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_april _2007.htm

Telstra Formally Unveils New Submarine Cable

Telstra has formally unveiled the beginning of its aggressive international connectivity strategy with the announcement of a new wholly owned submarine cable connecting Australia to the United States.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/15_april _2007.htm

TRAI Releases Draft Regulation on Access to Landing Stations

Tyco Awarded Contract to Complete

13,000 KM Sea

Cable System (SEACOM) Marine Survey

Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services, announced it was awarded the SEACOM marine survey by Herakles Telecom, LLC.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/15_april _2007.htm

World Bank to Fund Africa Infrastructure Program

Telstra Awards Alcatel-Lucent Contract for Sydney- Hawaii Cable

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a turnkey contract with Telstra to lay a new submarine cable network directly linking Sydney, Australia, to Hawaii.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_april _2007.htm

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a Consultation Paper entitled Access to Essential Facilities (including Landing Facilities for Submarine Cables) at Cable Landing Stations along-with draft regulation that mandates the nondiscriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/29_april _2007.htm

The World Bank Board of Directors has approved an International Development Association (IDA) financing package of US$164.5 million for Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar as the first tranche of the US$424 million Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) for high-speed connectivity in East and Southern Africa.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/15_april _2007.htm

SubOptic 2007: “The Event and Beyond”

By John Horne

By the time you read this article I suspect you will be just about to board your flight to Baltimore MD, to attend SubOptic 2007, which is being held there from May 14-17th, 2007.

If so I look forward to seeing you there, but if you have decided to give it a miss, I will give you a very short preview on what you are missing, and you really will regret this. But then remembering we also have to PULL as well as PUSH, I will give you a view of the work SubOptic will be doing over the next 6 months or so to ensure you do not repeat this mistake for the next event.

So as you can guess the first part of the article is a little promotional, but the second part reflects my view about the vision for the future of this great conference series.

Firstly SubOptic 2007 - the SubOptic Executive Committee (EC) and Tyco Telecommunications, the Host Organisation have been repeatedly saying that this is the MUST ATTEND event for anyone associated with the undersea communications business – and by associated we mean this in the broadest possible sense, from the purchasers and suppliers of systems and capacity, marine service providers, financiers, regulatory and environmental specialists to the organisations interfacing with the end customer who uses international capacity to help deliver their product set.

Why is this, well with over 500 registered attendees from over 150 different companies, over 50 booths in our Exhibition Hall, and a range of networking opportunities, some organised by SubOptic and others by major companies in the industry, where else can you find a meeting place like this within our industry.

If you want to meet with your peers, customers, suppliers, competitors, etc, no other conference comes anywhere near assembling this critical mass of people and organisations associated with our industry.

And that’s before we even talk about the programme.

Previous articles in Subtelforum have talked in some detail about the oral presentation sessions, the oral spotlight session, the poster session, the tutorials and our Keynote Speakers, and the Program outlining these is available on our website www.suboptic.org.

Here I would only like to talk a little bit about the three Roundtables we will be presenting.

Many non-attendees think that SubOptic is a Technical based conference, inward looking and focussed principally on the engineering and implementation of undersea systems. This has never been solely true and over the past couple of events has been completely untrue.

True there is a technical side to our conference, which makes it unique amongst conferences in our industry, but there has always been a large and growing strategic, business, financial and marketing element to our program. This can be demonstrated just by looking at our Roundtables, which cover the following topics:

Roundtable 1 to be held on Tuesday, May 15 is entitled “Demand Drivers and the Global Bandwidth Supply Chain”. It will be moderated by Stephen McClelland and preceded by a presentation from Alan Mauldin, Research Director of TeleGeography on supply, demand and pricing trends.

Roundtable 2 to be held on Wednesday, May 16 is entitled “Finding Economic Equilibrium: Impossible Dream or Worthwhile Pursuit”. It will be moderated by Howard Kidorf of pioneer Consulting and preceded by a paper from Geoffrey Thornton from Don Quixote, well known for his thought provoking views.

Roundtable 3 to be held on Thursday, May 17 is entitled “The Future of Marine Maintenance”. It will be moderated by Frank Cuccio from Tyco Telecommunications and preceded by a number of short papers designed to stimulate the debate.

Lets now talk a little about the principles behind SubOptic, its evolution and what our thoughts are for the future.

SubOptic 2007 is the sixth in the series of events, which started in Versailles in 1986. Each event has had its own character, but over time they have evolved from being a quasi-technical engineering conference with some commercial and marketing content, into something nearer a convention. They now have a well-rounded programme, covering in full the commercial as well as the technical and include a varied exhibition as well as an extensive networking programme.

The periodicity between conferences has not been fixed, varying from 7 years at the start, through 4 years to 3 years for the last three events including Baltimore. The key to the timing has been the need to have a gathering at a time, which will give most value to the industry as a whole and to make it a true event in the calendar, rather than a routine annual or bi-annual affair.

The first conference in 1986 coincided with the introduction of optical regenerative systems, the second in 1993 optical amplifiers, the third in 1997 the change in the dynamics of the industry with the introduction of private systems, the fourth in 2001 coincided with the period of maximum system growth just before the end of the boom, the fifth in 2004 told the survivors stories and lastly Baltimore is timed as our industry is once more on a growth path, hopefully learning from past exuberances, but still with many uncertainties. It’s the exploration of those uncertainties and the discussions around the best practise in resolving them, which has been the driver for and will provide we feel the value at Baltimore.

SubOptic is the only event in our industry, which is organised by the industry for the industry, on a nonprofit making basis. The members of the EC, who hold ultimate strategic and financial responsibility for the event, come from within the industry and one of them volunteers to organise the event. It is their collective commitment, which shapes the event, the programme and all the associated activities. Coming from within the industry they know what is likely to be of most value, in a way that no outside commercial conference organising body can.

There is a high degree of altruism at work here, part of the co-operative versus competitive dichotomy that is traditional in our industry, but of course there is also an element of self-interest. By helping to define the conference programme, the EC Members have contributed towards setting an agenda that allows the industries problems to be openly discussed and best practise solutions identified.

Historically this process has worked well and at Baltimore we will celebrate the 21st year of this successful conference series.

So what is my vision for the future and what are the problems we are likely to face.

My vision is for SubOptic to remain the conference of choice for all in and associated with our industry, by providing a conference programme that provides real value to an evolving and growing global communications community, who are dependant upon undersea communications systems.

these into the organisational and the programme content drivers for future events.

One problem will be how to maintain and support the essentially volunteer base of SubOptic at a time when resources and finances are tight and many newcomers to the industry do not have the tradition or experience associated with our history. Without a representative base that reflects our industry and is committed to SubOptic we will have difficulty in maintaining the “for the industry by the industry” ethos, which underpins our history and is the basis for our success.

A second problem will be how to continue to develop a value add programme, which is the true purpose of our event, representative of the real challenges our evolving industry faces in the future. We will endeavour to use a similar SubOptic based process as in the past, but in a changing world with some sections of the industry perhaps not being represented in our membership, we will need to do more. We have never for instance approached such sections, prior to a conference, to make sure that we fully understand all their problems and use this to help add value to our programme and attract their attendance.

How have these timings been achieved? Well not just by chance.

The problems we are likely to face stem from the changes that have and are taking place in the global communications industry and the need to reflect

A possible way forward is to increase the amount of professional outsourced resource available in marketing, event implementation and programme development, to help deliver a future SubOptic. Care will be needed however in how this approach is developed, in order to retain the linkage and support of our membership and avoid being just another commercially organised event. SubOptic will also need to ensure that any costs involved are sensible and do not cause a substantial increase in either registration fees, which our “non-profit

status” has allowed us to keep at a generally low level, or to increase drastically the financial liability that EC Members are required to hold.

Another approach will be to market the benefits of SubOptic membership more clearly. With our history we have perhaps felt that an invitation to become a member is all that is required. That is obviously now incorrect and the benefits of joining SubOptic need to be properly marketed to new members, requiring as it does manpower resource and a financial commitment.

Whilst the above gives a flavour of my vision and identifies some of the problems SubOptic will face for the future, this work can only be completed after the formal review of SubOptic 2007, is undertaken. A programme of activity is therefore being put in place within SubOptic, scheduled to be complete by the end of 2007, to confirm the vision and implementation process for the next event, which will be held in the Asian Region.

As part of this process I would welcome any comments that attendees at SubOptic 2007 care to make about the event or the SubOptic organisation. I would also particularly welcome any comments from non-attendees as to why they did not attend.

I hope to be able to write a further article early next year, letting you know how we intend to proceed to ensure our future events are as successful as our past.

John Horne joined BT in 969 and left them in 996. During that period he worked on the planning, implementation and development of both analogue and early optical fibre undersea systems. He also was responsible for project managing the implementation of BT’s major international digital transmission centres and worked on some of their major joint venture projects. He was a Vice Chairman of the Papers Committee for SubOptic 200, held in Kyoto and has been Secretary to the SubOptic Executive Committee since then.

Global Marine Systems Limited at SubOptic2007

Global Marine Systems Limited (Global Marine), the independent market leading provider of submarine cable installation and maintenance services, is delighted to announce that at SubOptic2007 not only will they be a key exhibitor and gold sponsor, but will be fielding a number of speakers hosting presentations, roundtable discussions and poster sessions for the conventions’ comprehensive conference programme.

SubOptic, the premier international convention for the undersea telecommunications industry, takes place from May 14th -17th at Inner Harbor, Balitmore, Maryland, USA. This years event promises to be one which will be talked about within the industry for months to come, with leaders from premier companies such as 3U Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, CTC Marine Projects, Fujitsu, Tyco and of course Global Marine, networking throughout the four days of the conference.

The programme for the conference is built around content provided by professionals of the submarine cabling industry. As part of the TuA1 ‘Going Deep : Marine Services and Operations’ presentations, Joel Whitman, Director of Corporate Strategy, Marketing and Communications, has been invited by Sub Optic to present his views on ‘The future of the Universal Joint Consortium’. This presentation will take place on May 15th between 2pm – 3:30pm and will give a nonpartisan status of the UJC, propose some concrete suggestions for change and provide examples of how an improved UJC might restore some significant cooperation and accountability to the industry.

Representatives of Global Marine are also presenting a number of papers which have been peer-reviewed and submitted as poster displays within the ‘Poster Sessions’ organized to take place on May 16th from

3.30pm - 6.00pm. Phil Hart (Engineering Director) will present his views on “JADE: A Universal Tool for Consistent Jointing Performance and Data Recording Throughout the Submarine Cable Industry?”; Tim Thornett “Power Safety - A Global Standard?”; Craig Beech – “What next for the universal joint?” and Steve Searle will present “Marine crew training and competence - raising the standard”. These poster sessions have been designed to provide insight into key industry issues within an interactive and social environment.

Also featured within the conference are a number of panel sessions. The topics for discussion have been carefully chosen to stimulate debate within the Sub Optic audience around areas of greatest interest to the industry, allowing all members of the community a chance to have their voices heard. Stephen Scott, Commercial Director of Global Marine will represent the company in the TuA2 panel session on NonTelecom Applications taking place on May 15th: 4:306:30 PM and on May 16th from 10:30 Joel Whitman is participating in a Round Table event, moderated by Howard Kidorf of Pioneer Consulting entitled “Finding Economic Equilibrium: Impossible Dream or Worthwhile Pursuit?”

Global Marine is a key exhibitor at SubOptic and will be found in booth numbers 106, 108, 110, and 112; visitors to the booths can also meet senior company representatives who will be happy to answer any questions about the companys’ products and services and discuss their views on current industry issues. Present from Global Marine will be Gabriel Ruhan (CEO, Global Marine); Ian Douglas (Asia Pacific Director); John Neal (Sales Director); Jonathan Annals (Strategic Accounts Director); John Pattison (Customer Operations Director) and from SBSS: Dick Borwick and Cai Haimin; and from NTTWE Marine: Martin Hutchings.

Industry Update

By John Manock

In January 2007, T Soja & Associates published its annual review and forecast of the submarine cable market. In that report, the TSA Radar Screen Report™, we predicted that 2007 would be an extremely strong year for the submarine cable industry – not just part of a continued recovery, but potentially a return to “boom” times for suppliers.

Well, during the first four months of 2007, we have seen nothing to throw cold water onto that optimism. 2007 is already, only through April, a better year in terms of the volume of supply contracts that have been awarded than the industry has seen in the previous six years.

How much better? Check out these numbers. In just the first four months of 2007, contracts have been awarded for more kilometers of submarine cable than in the last three years (the “recovery” years of 2004-2006) combined and total well over ten times the amount of cable-kilometers contracted for during the previous three years (the dreadful “drought” years of 2001-2003). And combining the six years of “recovery” and “drought,” the contracts awarded in 2007 through April come within a few hundred kilometers of the combined total from 2001-2006 (see figure below).

Before we at the numbers in more detail, let’s take a quick look at TSA’s methodology. First, we are looking only at commercial telecom projects, not energy-related projects that have a telecom component. Second, we are looking at the dates in which the contracts are “formally” announced by the participants. For example, it was widely reported as early as the summer of 2006 that the EASSy consortium had picked Alcatel (now AlcatelLucent) as its supplier based on verbal statements made to journalists, but it was not until March 2007 that Alcatel-Lucent made an official announcement, so we use the March 2007 date. There are always exceptions to rules, and we have made one in the case of a contract that has been signed in 2007 but is under a strict NDA from the client. This project is included in our calculations as we have it from an impeccable source and construction of the project is well underway. Other than this one exception, all of the project dates referred to in this article are from the first official announcement in the form of a press release or website posting from the customer and/or supplier.

Now getting back to the numbers, in January, TSA projected that in 2007, on average, the industry would see at least two submarine cable contracts awarded per month, totaling between 100,000 and 150,000 cable-kilometers. The first four months of 2007 have seen a slightly higher pace of awards, with 10 contracts announced totaling just over 60,000 cable-kilometers. These include two transoceanic (18,000-20,000 kilometer) systems, two large (9,00010,000 kilometer) regional systems and

2001 through 2003 2004 through 2006 Jan-April 2007

Figure Contracts Awarded 200-2007 by Cable-km

Even tiny, landlocked Luxembourg is making waves. P&T Luxembourg, the national carrier, announced during 2006 that it had built, using capacity on existing fiber networks, a 4,000kilometer, 6-country, 13 PoP European network. This network includes cross-channel submarine cable capacity to the United Kingdom. The network, known as TERALINK, has a capacity of 3.5 Tbps (3,500 Gbps!).

Like Iceland, P&T’s TERALINK is an effort to make Luxembourg an important location for data centers in Europe. P&T says that its data centers, run by a subsidiary known as eBRC, make Luxembourg a unique and reliable place to be for worldwide operating ICT companies, carriers and corporate customers. P&T has invested 75 million euros in its network to support the effort.

So if there is all this activity in the smaller markets, what are the big markets doing? Well, in the United Kingdom, broadband take-up has exceeded expectations in a big way.

BT announced in December that it would break through the ten million broadband barrier, smashing its initial target of five million connections by the end of 2006. That target was viewed as highly ambitious at the time it was set in April 2002, when there were fewer than 150,000 DSL connections. Broadband availability at that time was 66 percent whereas it is now more than 99.8 percent.

In Germany, there is a fear that the country is falling behind, in spite of the growth that caused T-Com to invest in 150 Gbps of transatlantic capacity. Germany held its first national IT summit in December, in which the government

announced a euro 1.2 billion strategy to advance communications and technology to keep the country at the forefront of the ICT revolution.

In France, broadband subscribers surpassed 11 million by the middle of 2006, an increase in 40 percent from the year before. The revenue generated by the service is approximately threequarters of a billion euros, according to regulator ART.

The uptake is so great that France Telecom has begun investing heavily in fiber-to-the-home so that it can deploy very-high-speed broadband services – up to 100 Mbps per home.

France Telecom is targeting 150,000-200,000 very-high-speed users in select cities by the end of 2008, out of a potential one million customers in the areas in which the services will be offered initially. The carrier envisions massmarket deployment of very-high-speed services beginning in 2009.

In summary, broadband is booming throughout Northern and Western Europe and there is no slowdown in sight. Subscriber numbers and usage in the big markets are skyrocketing and the smaller markets are showing great potential and provide opportunities for innovative operators and suppliers. And although there may not be any announced new transatlantic cable projects right now, given the broadband growth that the region is seeing, will it be much longer before there is a new wave in investment in cables to meet this demand?

John Manock is the Director of Information Services at T Soja & Associates, Inc. He is responsible for creating and maintaining TSA’s databases on fiber optic submarine cable systems. He is also the editor of TSA NewsFeed, a daily information services exclusively for TSA clients focusing on news and events affecting the submarine cable industry. Mr. Manock specializes in the development of information services for carriers, developers, and suppliers. He has over 18 years of experience in the fiber optics and telecommunications consulting business during which he has participated in numerous studies on submarine cable systems. He has also published numerous articles for the industry and is a frequent contributor to industry publications including SubTelForum and Soundings Magazine.

Mr. Manock received a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Rhode Island and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Providence College.

Optical Systems for Offshore Platforms

By Stewart Ash

Introduction

It may surprise some people to learn that, despite the sophisticated engineering involved in the exploration and production of the oil and gas, the leading companies in the industry have taken a conservative approach to the use of telecommunications systems. This is particularly true when it comes to their offshore exploration

and production facilities (Platforms). On the whole they have treated these systems as necessary overheads that have little or no relationship with the cost of bringing oil out of the ground, and therefore investment has been kept to a minimum. However, in order to satisfy ongoing demand, oil and gas production is being forced to move further offshore and attitudes are changing. Given the multi-billion

dollar investments required to establish viable production fields in deep water, companies have been forced to consider seriously the potential operating efficiencies that can be gained from high capacity digital connectivity. This new outlook presents the submarine cable industry with the opportunity to build closer relationships with an influential sea bed user group; and for the system suppliers in particular, the chance to establish a new client base, as long as they can overcome the design challenges that the oil and gas companies are now laying down. Oil and Gas is a major topic at SubOptic 2007, and this emerging market will be addressed in some detail through, poster sessions, presentations and tutorials. Therefore, this article is intended to share some of the author’s recent experiences in this market sector, as a precursor to the forthcoming discussions.

Connectivity

The requirements for telecommunication systems between the shore and offshore oil and gas production Platforms have, in the past, been dominated by the need to provide medium quality voice communication, and the occasional use of video conferencing and or video surveillance. Typically this requirement would be met by systems operating at 2Mbit/s data rates with daily throughputs of < 20Gbits. Where Platforms are close inshore, line of site digital microwave systems were the preferred option. For Platforms, further offshore, satellite systems have traditionally provided the connectivity. Not unless pipelines and or umbilical cables were required to be run ashore, for operational purposes, were fibre connections implemented. As is well known, microwave and satellite systems have their drawbacks; both are weather dependent, particularly in hurricane areas, satellite connections are expensive and both have

limited capacity compared to fibre. Also, as the dominating traffic requirements move from voice to data, the high latency of satellite systems becomes a major problem. For Platforms < 100km offshore, where there is a need for high capacity data transfer, fibre optic cable is becoming the only realistic solution.

Capacity Requirements

I believe that the oil & gas industry now finds itself in the same position that the telecommunications industry was around ten years ago, at the advent of wave division multiplex systems. Back then, despite system designs being based on the best forecasts available for capacity take up, invariably they were grossly underestimated. Twenty five year design capacities could be filled within two years of implementation and in some cases the subsequent system upgrades were pre-funded by customers wanting more. The problem has always been that it is difficult to predict what additional capacity may be used for, or to justify the design of bandwidth hungry applications when the capacity is not available. People tend to think within the existing limits, they will find ways to uses the available capacity but few will see beyond the current constraints. The old adage “You will never be able to predict the number of people who will use a bridge by counting the number of people that swim across the river” always seems to apply.

Today, forward thinking managers in the oil and gas industry are beginning to see the potential benefits that can be achieved from the high capacities that fibre optic cables can deliver, but the vast majority have yet to be convinced. From our experience in the telecommunications market it is easy to predict that even the best “blue sky” forecasts of these managers will fall short of the demand that

will materialise once systems are implemented. New applications and services will almost certainly be developed to improve operating efficiencies, reduce the numbers of personnel offshore and enable the centralisation of support expertise into onshore operations centres. For those of you going to SubOptic and interested in this subject, it will be covered in a lot more detail in Greg Otto and Wayne Nielsen’s presentation “Drivers and Technologies for Next Generation Digital Connectivity in Exploration & Production”.

The detail of what this capacity is to be used for is perhaps secondary to understanding that, whatever the initial equipped capacity of systems to Platforms; capacity upgrades will be required over their operating life. Fortunately this requirement is something that the submarine cable systems industry has already developed solutions for and so upgrades can readily be specified and delivered. A more significant point for the system purchaser to consider is that as capacity demands, over a single optical fibre link, increase they will quickly outstrip the ability of alternative technologies to provide

back up restoration in the event of failures. In an environment where manning levels and operating systems for an individual Platform are likely to become based on full 24 hour digital connectivity, availability and alternative routing will become a basic design issue and so network designs rather than point to point connections will almost certainly be required.

Network Designs

As stated above, whilst a single optical fibre cable link between an offshore Platform and the shore offers virtually unlimited capacity, it is vulnerable to a single cable break. One approach to solving this problem would be to install a duplicate cable on a different geographical route to a separate landing. The success of such an approach will be dependent on the geographical separation that can be achieved between the two routes, but this approach would, of course, burden a single Platform with significant additional cost.

Platforms rarely exist in isolation; therefore, a more realistic approach would be to consider a multi-node network based on a ring topology i.e. building a network that connects a number of Platforms in the same geographical area to the shore. Because of the high capital cost of establishing these offshore production facilities, the vast majority are funded by co-ventures between several companies, with the highest percentage investor being designated as the Platform operator. Each of these co-ventures tends to be operated as an individual business unit, with their own operating budgets. This being the case, it would appear the type of collaboration that is already established for building and operating the Platform should lend itself to procuring and operating a network. Such a collaborative agreement would be very similar to the traditional

Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) model used in the telecommunications industry, with each Platform operator becoming a “landing party” and a signatory to the C&MA. Whether this commercial approach could be implemented in the oil and gas industry remains to be seen.

The first network designs for offshore Platforms have been based upon unrepeatered or repeaterless point to point connections, mainly driven by the perceived low cost. However, there are a number of limitations to this approach. Firstly, the Platforms to be connected have to be geographically positioned relative to each other and the shore such that repeaterless transmission is achievable. This limits the distance between nodes to around 400km. Secondly, if long spans are involved custom designed solutions will be required for each span, these designs may include high launch powers, Raman gain and even ROPAs. This reduces the number of common components in the Network, increases the complexity of sparing and operation and maintenance. Also, because the engineering designs for each span are customised solutions, it is probable that there will be very few people, even within the network supplier’s

organisation, that can fully understand and support them. However, perhaps the most important issue is that in this type of festoon design, the Platforms in the centre of the chain will be reliant on the Platforms at the end of the chain for connectivity ashore. Therefore, in the event of failures or shut downs under severe weather conditions of two or more Platforms other Platforms that are still operational can become isolated. This is unlikely to be acceptable to independent business units.

For the oil and gas industry there is a further unique requirement for these networks. Investment in offshore oil production in a particular basin is a multi-decade business, oil reserves are identified well in advance and brought on stream as and when the economics are right. As a result, companies investing in such a network must, during the life of the network, have the ability to add additional Platforms and even be able to extend the network into new geographical areas, without disruption to existing traffic. For conventional telecommunications systems, geographic extensions and or configuration changes to submerged plant do not tend to be requirements. Changes to these systems are normally limited to capacity and wavelength upgrades over the existing submerged plant. The repeaterless network is limited in its ability to accommodate this type of flexibility and it certainly cannot be built into the initial design specification.

To address the three issues of Platform independence, the need to add additional Platforms and the ability to extend the network into different geographical areas, WFN Strategies conceived and specified a new network design for BP’s Gulf of Mexico fibre network. The basis of this design is a repeatered backbone cable between two geographically separate shore stations. Each

Platform is connected to the backbone via an optical add drop multiplexing branching unit (BU). Each Platform is allocated separate wave lengths to transmit and receive between each of the two shore stations. The ring is completed by terrestrial backhaul between the shore stations. This network design will allow 32 Platforms to be connected to each fibre pair in the backbone cable, each operating with a minimum of 10Gbit/s protected capacity or 20Gbit/s unprotected capacity. Depending on the number of Platforms connected to the backbone, additional wavelengths can be added to increase the capacity available to existing Platforms at the expense of reducing the number of new Platforms that can be connected to the fibre pair. In the initial network design, allowance can be made for extensions to the length of the backbone cable. The BUs are specified to be electrically switched by optical command signals form the shore stations. This allows the isolation of sections of the backbone cable to conduct “in service” repair operations, i.e. without taking the network out of service. This isolation capability also allows the planned insertion of additional BUs with spurs to new Platforms and or geographical extensions to the backbone without taking the network out of service.

This network design achieves the additional requirements necessary and is now a standard offering from the major system suppliers. Subject to the economics of a particular situation, the system suppliers now have a portfolio of network solutions to offer the oil and gas market and so appropriate designs based on proven technologies can specified, tendered and procured with a high level of confidence.

The Last Mile

With the overall network design issues resolved, the major technical and operational challenges facing the specification writer and the system supplier are those related to connectivity between the sea bed below the Platform and the equipment room on the Platform; the last mile connection.

The last mile connection involves a number of overriding requirements that are not relevant in a conventional telecommunications system and so are worthy of some explanation. The first thing to recognise is that the primary function of these Platforms is to generate revenue from the production of oil and or gas. Therefore, all the activities related to the installation of the cable system, though important, will always be secondary to activities related to oil and gas production. Whether this is during the commissioning of the Platform or when it is operational, the principle will be the same. Even when this is clearly specified, this priority can come as shock to the submarine system supplier. Under a conventional telecommunications contract nothing is more important than getting the cable installed as soon as possible, and generally the only factor beyond the supplier’s control is the weather. In a similar vein, all space on and below the Platform is at a premium and will be prioritised for oil and gas production. The needs of the cable system will have to fit around the primary functions of the Platform. Finally, installation activities on or around Platforms and the associated seabed assets will be covered by restrictive operating procedures designed to protect the assets and personnel. Not surprisingly, a great deal of emphasis is placed on safety, especially related to fire and explosion risks, particularly when the Platform is operational. Procedures are slightly less stringent when the Platform is being commissioned but the system

supplier should plan for a detailed and time consuming review and approval of draft installation procedures when relating to activities on or around Platforms.

Specific engineering design requirements will vary based on the design, location and status of the Platform concerned. Platform designs can include jack up types in shallow water, floating Platforms in water depths out to 2000m and for larger fields Floating Production and Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facilities. Apart from providing all the production controls the FPSO provides a reservoir of oil pumped from the wells on the sea floor, which it offloads to oil tankers. Two forms of FPSO have been encountered by the author to date. The first type is an FPSO that is set up in a mooring pattern alongside a static riser tower. The tower supports the pipelines and umbilical systems from the well heads on the sea floor. The FPSO and the tower are then interconnected by a dynamic riser system. The second type of FPSO is based on a floating turret that supports the well head pipelines and umbilical systems. The turret is moored in position and the FPSO is free to rotate around it. FPSOs are known to operate in water depths between 80m and 2000m.

The first technical problem to resolve is how to get fibre and electrical connectivity from the end of the spur cable on the sea bed to the topside on the Platform. From a submarine system perspective, the ideal solution is for the system supplier to provide a custom designed riser that is compatible with the submarine cable. This will allow fusion splice connections throughout the complete optical path. However, to achieve this sufficient space has to be available on the sea floor to allow a separate approach to the Platform as well as room topside

for installation, possibly through an existing I or J tube, to a unique hang off point. As long as space is available, the design of a static riser for shallow water is fairly simple to accomplish, however, things become more complex when the Platform is in deep water. Dynamic riser designs for water depths up to 2000m are now required and while submarine cable suppliers design their cables to be suspended from cable ships for relatively short periods of time, they have far less experience of the long term affects of dynamic suspension. To ensure the reliability of deep water risers, thorough engineering analysis will be carried out, which should embrace all available purchaser and supplier experience. It should be noted that each deep water riser will be a unique design and will form part of a new product range with a limited track record. If, for some unforeseen reason, a fibre in the riser does fail during the life of the network, this separately installed riser can be replaced without any disruption to the other operations on the Platform.

Where a custom designed riser is installed a fusible link needs to be included in the cable, close to the riser anchor point, on the sea floor. This protects the submarine system from the Platform drifting and dragging the cable, or protects the Platform from an anchor drag on the submarine cable applying any undue forces to the Platform.

Where insufficient space is available to provide a separate riser cable, the obvious solution is to include suitable fibres and an electrical conductor as part of one of the Platform umbilical systems. There are a number of issues to consider when adopting this approach; firstly the fibres that form part of the umbilical will form part of the main transmission path and will have to be specified to be compatible with the transmission requirements of the network. Secondly, as the fibres are part of an umbilical they cannot be readily replaced if a fibre in the riser fails. This being the case, it would be prudent to include additional reserve or redundant fibres in the umbilical. This will allow broken fibres to be by-passed by cross patching at the top and bottom of the riser. However, in order to take advantage of these additional fibres, optical wet mate connectors must be introduced on the sea floor at the end of the umbilical. All the fibres and the electrical conductor in the umbilical will have to be terminated in wet mate connectors and mounted on what is called an Underwater Terminating Assembly (UTA). These wet mate connectors introduce a new set of performance and reliability issues. Finally, if the optical and electrical paths from the sea floor to topside form part of an umbilical it is probably impractical that they can be provided by the submarine system supplier. The submarine system supplier will, therefore be required to take responsibility for the optical and electrical performance of the fibres and conductor

in the umbilical, and warrant the performance of the network through them, even though this part of the transmission and electrical paths was supplied by a third party.

To interface with the UTA at the bottom of the umbilical the supplier will be required to terminate the spur cable in a similar UTA and devise a method of inter-connecting the two that will allow later cross connection, in the event of a fibre failure in the umbilical. These UTAs present some interesting design challenges, not least maintaining the overall system reliability requirements.

Marine Operations

As previously discussed oil and gas companies place very stringent controls on operations that take place on or close to their Platforms. Marine operations under a system supply contract will include installation activities and may include survey work. However, the system purchasers will have already carried out detailed sea bed surveys as part of its exploration for and construction of the production facilities. This data may be sufficient to negate the need for system supplier to carry out additional survey work close to the Platform. All

Platforms will have an exclusion zone around them; this is often 500m but can be larger. Vessels are not allowed within the exclusion zone unless there are detailed plans and procedures agreed with the operator relating to vessel’s activities. All vessels operating within the exclusion zone general have to be DP2 classification or better. Activities for the submarine system within the exclusion zone will include installation of a riser cable or deployment of a UTA close to the base of the umbilical and the initial part of laying the spur cable out to the BU location. Below the Platform the sea bed will have a complex array of assets related to production operations and the system supplier will be required to place the spur cable, UTA or riser very accurately. Typically this will require placement accuracies to within ±10m of the planned position. For shallow water Platforms this is not too difficult but for Platforms in 2000m of water, meeting these requirements becomes much more challenging.

Topside Connections

This part of the system can be compared with the beach joint to terminal station connection on a conventional system. However, once again there are some unique aspects for installations on Platforms.

Where the Platform owner has provided fibres and an electrical conductor in the umbilical it is most probably that it will also provide the topside connection from the riser hang off termination to the equipment room. Ideally, all connections in this route should be fusion splices for the fibres and brazed or soldered joints for the electrical conductor. For reliability and safety reasons plugs and sockets, of any form, should be avoided if at all possible.

Where the system supplier is providing its own riser cable under the contract, it should also supply (but not necessarily install) the topside cables. Under these circumstances the system supplier should carry out a tri-port joint (equivalent of a beach joint) to connect the topside electrical and optical cables to the riser. However, once again the restrictive operating procedures will need to be managed for this jointing operation, especial if the Platform is operation.

If the Platform operating procedures are taken into account in planning these connections, they are relatively easy to either specify or install. The connections will be fairly similar for most Platforms and moored FPSOs and once mastered can be become standard offerings. However, when it comes to turret type FPSOs there is a further complication. For these FPSOs the separate riser cable or umbilical will terminate on the turret and the equipment room will almost certainly be on the FPSO. Therefore the optical transmission and electrical paths will have to cross the rotating interface between the FPSO and the turret. This, of course, is not particularly difficult for the electrical

path since high reliability slip ring technology is well proven. However, for the optical path the only viable solution appears to be Fibre Optic Rotating Joints (FORJ). There are a number of manufacturers of these devices but they have not been used for anything like this application. Their performance could be a major limiting factor in the network design capability. Also, FORJs, if used, would almost certainly have to be supplied by the contractor providing the overall turret FPSO interface and so would be outside the control of the system supplier. This represents a very interesting challenge, both to specify and implement. It is one that I believe deserves a fair amount of air time at SubOptic 2007.

Hopefully this article has highlighted a few areas that will stimulate further thought and discussion among the delegates at SubOptic 2007. The forthcoming conference offers the ideal opportunity for submarine system owners, suppliers and service providers to engage in dialogue with representatives of the oil and gas industry and build or improve relationships. I look forward to seeing you there to hear and discuss your views.

Stewart Ash has worked in the submarine cable industry for 35 years. After graduating from Kings College London, he joined STC Submarine Systems as a development engineer, designing terminal equipment. By 1980, he was their senior field installation manager responsible for all major loading and laying operations. With the advent of optical technology he headed up the Installation division responsible for all turn key installation, delivering 12 major international systems. In 1993, he joined C&W Marine focusing on the development of cost effective installation solutions for the repeaterless systems market. In 1999, he was appointed General Manager of Global Marine’s Cable Services division, running their engineering and training facility at Boreham and becoming their senior representative in the Universal Jointing Consortium. He joined WFN Strategies in 2005 as Project Manager, and has supported telecom projects in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa.

Avoiding the “Bends” by Specifying the Correct Fiber

by Tom Davis and David Mazzarese

Fiber has become an integral part of the world’s submarine cabling infrastructure over the last twenty years. These optical systems primarily support the international voice, data, and video networks of the world’s leading service providers, but there are numerous applications for optical connectivity that go far beyond the traditional undersea networks. Performance enhancements from fiber manufacturers, optical electronics manufacturers, and fiber cablers have enabled the market for undersea optical applications to grow beyond standard telecom usages.

These technology developments, coupled with cost reductions, have made optical fiber practical and beneficial for many undersea applications ranging from large private networks connecting offshore energy platforms, to remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that can fit in a suitcase. The U.S. military has also been aggressive in the deployment of submarine fiber in command and control networks and surveillance systems, as well as in tactical weapons designs. Fiber’s small size, light weight, and high bandwidth characteristics are some of the driving factors in the growth of fiber

in this market. Another major benefit of optical cables over copper-based cables is they eliminate concerns about Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).

This article addresses some of the current leading applications for fiber optic cables in various harsh undersea environments, along with key factors associated with fiber performance.

Demands on Undersea Fiber

As the title of this article implies, the performance of fiber is impacted by the amount of bending stress imposed on an undersea cable. This is not a great concern with traditional large transcontinental undersea cabling networks, because they use very robust cables that are protected by multiple layers of armor, with cable diameters approaching two inches. Today, however, more cable is being deployed in coastal areas where the shallow waters increase the chance that a cable will be snagged or pinched by boat anchors or commercial fishing rigs. Many of these cables serve less traditional undersea applications that require smaller, lighter, and more flexible designs. Such designs could subject the fiber to more stress than usual from the cable being bent, twisted, or pulled in an excessive manner.

The consequences of these adverse cable conditions could eventually impact the performance of the fiber(s) within the cable by limiting the amount of light traveling through the fiber. The induced “macrobending” (too tight a bend radius) and “microbending” (pinching or squeezing the fiber) can increase the attenuation of the optical cable, resulting in a reduction of the optical power traveling down the cable. This in turn could cause the deterioration of the optical signal. Sensitivity to macrobending and microbending can limit the performance of an optical cable, especially

demanding applications.

Bending loss is measured by wrapping a fiber a certain number of times around a mandrel of a specified diameter. For example, a fiber can be tested to determine how much “bend induced” loss occurred after being wrapped around a 20 mm diameter mandrel. Performance must be measured over the entire operating wavelength range since higher wavelengths are more sensitive to bending loss. In high-speed transport systems where there are multiple channels (wavelengths) running in a single fiber, it is important that the fiber exhibit minimal bend loss at the highest wavelengths of operation.

With the older OC-48/2.5 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) systems, there was a greater tolerance of fluctuations in optical power. With the introduction of 10 and 40 Gb/s systems, fiber performance becomes much more critical. This has placed much higher demand on the bend performance of the optical fibers deployed.

The ability of an optical cable to continue to perform well after being exposed to extreme operating conditions can broaden the range of applications for optical fiber. Furthermore, fiber performance in these demanding environments can be greatly improved by using a new “bend-optimized fiber” like OFS’ AllWave® FLEX single-mode fiber. AllWave FLEX fiber is fully compliant with existing single-mode specifications, has excellent splice performance, ultra-low PMD and outstanding long-term reliability, all with much improved bend performance. This type of fiber is an excellent choice for (or addition to) an optical network in a harsh environment.

The following are a few of the key parameters where a bend-optimized fiber will provide major operational improvements for attenuation/loss (when compared to industry standard single-mode fibers):

• Crush – How stable is the performance of the optical fibers within a cable that has been crushed for a period of time?

• Bend – How small of a circular wrap (diameter) can be made with a cable before the fiber starts to lose power?

• Low Temperature – How cold of an environment can you expose the cable to (for an extended period of time) before the loss of optical power starts to increase?

• Tensile – How stable is the performance of the optical fiber(s) when a load is being applied to the cable?

There are numerous other tests that are conducted on optical cables, but the ones identified above highlight some of the more critical.

Cable Requirements and Cost Considerations

For this report the term “cable” refers to any jacketing material used to cover and protect the optical fiber. The designs can run from a thin jacket of 600 micron PVC or nylon, to larger, more robust cables with armored layers. There are small sensor applications currently being deployed where fibers with no jacketing material are utilized in “short term” testing scenarios, with the entire package being disposable. Other undersea systems being deployed are far from disposable and need to operate for 25 years.

One of the differences between these specialized applications and a standard undersea deployment (transoceanic submarine cable laid on/under the ocean floor) is that the cables used in these special applications are subject to some level of movement in their environment. The motion induced on a cable

may be as subtle as the movement of an offshore energy platform or as extreme as a tether controlling a shortrange surveillance/weapons system. “High-speed” not only refers to the data transmission rates of the optical cables, but also the speed of the actual remote device being controlled by the fiber(s). As with many materials used in the engineering of these systems, some problems will be experienced if the cable is exposed to enough bending, crushing, pulling, or temperature extremes. The cable or tether is an area of vulnerability that cab be overcome by using new bend-optimized fibers.

In addition to the operational side of the system, there are costs associated with the various components within the system. The optical fiber impacts the cost of a cable; in fact, it is the primary cost component in many of the designs. Using standard transmission fibers in lieu of expensive specialty offerings is critical if these projects are to be competitive and meet very aggressive cost targets. Based on the large numbers being projected for actual deployment, it is clear that some of the current military systems would not be financially feasible without the availability of a mass produced bendoptimized “transmission” fiber such as AllWave FLEX fiber.

The strong price performance of these new fibers will help accelerate the migration of systems away from copper-based transmission methods. Valid concerns over the impact of EMI and RFI on copperbased technologies are also driving the migration to optical fiber. As mentioned, the inherent benefits of fiber over copper include its lighter weight, smaller size, higher bandwidth, and immunity to EMI/RFI. And with the availability of inexpensive, bend-insensitive fibers like AllWave FLEX fiber, the use of fiber optics becomes an excellent choice in far more applications than ever before.

NEW TOOLS FOR CABLE ROUTE PLANNING

by Dr. Jose Andres, Dr. M. Nedbal, & David Lipp - Makai Ocean Engineering,

Inc., Hawaii, USA

1. CABLE ROUTE PLANNING

The application of digital technology to planning, installation and maintenance of submarine cables has steadily improved in recent years. The introduction of PC-based route planning software seven years ago replaced paper charts and spreadsheet-based tools with geographic information system (GIS) databases that efficiently store all data critical to route planning. Technological advancements in recent years have included tools for the incorporation of bathymetric survey data, detailed analysis of in-line and side slopes, and the capability of automatically detecting and analyzing cable suspensions.

The GIS platform, and subsequent software development, has greatly enhanced collaborative cable planning efforts by providing a common data set for inputting, storing, retrieving, manipulating, analyzing and viewing geographically referenced data (e.g., bathymetry, side-scan imagery, soil types, aerial

photos, etc). The introduction of the GIS platform into cable route planning has resulted in an efficient design process, minimizing errors and time.

Before the introduction of GIS planning software, the planner did not have the tools to properly make use of the bathymetric data collected by the surveyor. Instead, the planner simply estimated the bottom profile along the selected preliminary route and made use of marine charts to detect the presence of large features and determine slopes along the route. With the introduction of GIS planning software, a more complete and automated use of the bathymetric data was partially achieved. Using the collected point data, surveyors are able to provide the planner with bottom contours along the entire surveyed swath. With these contour data, GIS planning software is able to automatically generate the bottom profile and slopes along the selected route.

As the cable planner makes modifications to the cable route to avoid large slopes and hazardous areas, the GIS planning software computes a new bottom profile and slopes along the entire route. This iterative procedure is facilitated by properly linking the plan view and the profile graphs, such that any changes in one of the views are immediately reflected in the other view (Figure 1). Following this procedure, an optimal cable route can be identified.

Figure 1. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE) Cable route planners can now link plan and profile views to efficiently manage the cable route design process. Routes are edited using click and drag techniques and precise RPL and cable assembly lists and diagrams are created automatically.

Despite these important advances in cable route planning, which have allowed users to decrease planning time by five to ten-fold, until recently, current GIS software could not make optimum use of all the bathymetric data collected by the surveyor. Bottom contours do not always provide the planner with the most accurate representation of the true bottom features and the lateral slopes between adjacent contours.

High resolution bathymetry is particularly important when planning for plow operations and power cable routes. In the last few years, several cases have been reported where plows have been damaged and even lost at-sea as a result of hazardous seafloor features not

detected when using bathymetric contour lines to define the cable route. These incidents could have been avoided by making use of the high resolution bathymetric data (i.e. point data collected by the surveyor) during the route planning process. In addition, contour data do not provide the level of accuracy required to conduct effective cable suspension analyses along the seabed (power cables are particularly vulnerable to suspensions which can shorten the life expectancy of the cable). Therefore, new methods of processing bathymetry data are required to generate the highest possible resolution that is needed for these sensitive cable planning operations.

1.1 INCORPORATING DIGITAL TERRAIN DATA IN THE ROUTE PLANNING PROCESS

Bathymetric data are usually provided by surveyors in N-E gridded files that cover the entire surveyed area. The size of the grid cells (dx,dy) in each file depends on the resolution of the data acquired (mainly determined by the footprint of a single echo-sounder beam). For a typical multibeam echo sounder with single acoustic beams of 0.5o, resolutions of 0.5 meter and 4.5 meters can be expected at echo sounder to seabed distances of 60 m and 500 m, respectively. To decrease the footprint and improve seabed resolution in deep waters, the multibeam echo sounder can be flown closer to the seabed on a tow fish during the data acquisition process.

In order to maintain the accuracy of the data collected by the surveyor, the resolution of the original survey data must be preserved. This can be achieved by creating data blocks (or pages) along the entire surveyed route, in order to minimize variations in water depths (and therefore, footprint size) within each page. Existing software provides automated tools for selecting the appropriate grid size for each block in order to match the smallest footprint of the survey data. The goal is to accurately present the shape of the seabed features detected by the survey, while avoiding the creation of high frequency, non-existent features.

Once the data blocks have been defined, the software automatically redistributes the raw data into a grid

formation, using one of the several available gridding methods. After grid creation, shaded relief images (Geotiffs) are automatically generated from the gridded data. Custom controls, such as the shading method, color selection, and light position angles allow users to target areas of concern for evaluation during cable path planning.

The generation of all the pages along the surveyed route, including reading the raw data files, generating the gridded data, and creating shaded relief images for each page, is usually completed in a batch process. Thus, this process does not have to be labor intensive. For a typical survey with 80 million data points, the entire process can take one hour. A sample of a single page generated along a route which includes a shaded relief image created during batch processing and several smaller pages of soil type data are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE) Geotiffs can easily be created from the survey data and inserted into the GIS database, thereby enhancing the quality of the information available on any given site.

1.2 SLOPE ANALYSIS TOOLS

The use of detailed geo-referenced images (usually provided by surveyors) to gain a better understanding of seafloor conditions is sometimes sufficient to select a proper route. In many cases, however, further in-depth analysis is required to gain confidence that the hazards

to plowing and/or cable suspensions have been revealed and addressed. The problem the planner faces when simply using Geotiff images provided by the surveyor is that he has no access to the underlying data used to create those images, so he cannot accurately estimate the slopes and sizes of seabed features that can affect his route planning process.

To avoid this problem, current GIS software already includes engineering tools that help the route planner identify potential hazards by carefully analyzing seafloor slopes (magnitude and direction) and seabed roughness along the proposed route. As an example, a slope graph can be calculated by superimposing a cable route on gridded bathymetry data so that side slopes and directions can be calculated at any point along the route (Figure 3). Using these tools interactively while designing a cable path, the planner will obtain further confidence in the safety of the selected cable route.

Figure 3. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE) User can interactively create and modify the routes and reference lines, and depth profiles and slope graphs are automatically generated.

In addition to slope, current software applications can provide high resolution depth profiles along the route. This, in turn, allows for the computation of the

cable length required to achieve the desired seabed slack with accuracy greater than that computed using the conventional method of intersecting bathymetric contours. Such accurate seabed profiles are also essential to the complete analyses of cable suspensions along the route.

2.2 ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR CABLE SUSPENSIONS

With the growing number of power cables and umbilicals being planned and installed, it has become necessary to incorporate suspension analysis as one of the key elements of route and installation planning. Even suspensions that can be considered not critical for a typical telecommunication cable can be unacceptable for power cables.

New tools have been incorporated into GIS planning software that allow users to quickly calculate the location, length of expected spans, and bend radii at cable touchdown points. These tools can provide detailed engineering data, including the shear forces and bending moments acting on the suspended cable or umbilical. The additional information necessary to perform these analyses can be readily obtained from the cable manufacturer’s data (e.g., wet weight and bending stiffness of the cable). With this knowledge, the user can estimate suspensions for a variety of tension values used during the installation.

Figure 4. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE) Example of cable suspension analysis for two different tensions.

Figure 4 shows a profile of the seabed route (in black) and two different cable solutions obtained along the route. Both solutions analyze the same cable with the only difference being that the solution in red has a horizontal tension equal to half of that used to obtain the solution in blue. The Kp marker (shown above as a vertical red line with associated distance) can be used to scroll along the solutions and obtain specific information regarding any point along the suspended cable. These data are shown in the information bar at the bottom of the window. The Kp marker is also linked to the route and to the solution window. As the Kp is moved along the profile window (by clicking and dragging the mouse), the solution and route windows automatically scroll to the specific Kp row allowing the user to focus on problem areas.

Sections of cable where the length of the spans exceeds the critical span length defined by the user are highlighted in red in the solution window, (see Figure 4). The same applies if the bend radius is smaller than the critical value of bend radius defined by the user.

These same cable suspension analysis tools can also be used during survey operations associated with the selection of cable and pipeline routes. As the survey takes place, computations of cable suspensions along the pre-selected route can be completed on the “fly”, and adjustments to the RPL (and to the survey coverage area) can be completed, considerably reducing the time required to select an appropriate route and leading to lower survey costs.

2. CONCLUSIONS

New digital terrain mapping tools and suspension analysis tools are further improving the quality and efficiency of the route planning process by providing hard engineering data the planner can use to make decisions.

These planning tools already exist, and they are designed to work in conjunction with each other and share information in a common GIS database. When changes are made in one application (e.g., a change to

the RPL), the changes are automatically updated in the other applications.

Using a single software platform that contains all the tools required to complete the desired cable path analyses increases the efficiency of the cable planning process and presents fewer possibilities for critical errors.

Jose Andres, Ph.D., P.E., Ocean Engineering. Dr. Jose Andres has been involved with software development for the last 16 years. He has lead the group developing state-of-the-art software for cable planning, simulation and installation control currently used by the military and commercial industry. He has managed and actively participated in many at-sea deployments of several record setting precision cable lays.

David Lipp, M.S., Ocean Engineering. David Lipp has 20 years of experience related to the design, operation and testing of ocean related software. He has been in charge of developing Makai’s software, MakaiPlan and MakaiPlan Pro. This software is now the standard submarine cable planning and simulation software used by multiple DoD agencies and by the commercial Telecom industry.

Michael Nedbal, Ph.D.. Dr. Nedbal has been Makai’s Chief Information Officer for the past 6 years. He is the lead technical writer for Makai’s cable software, oversees the test labs for product testing, and supports new product development.

At submarine depths, Nexans goes deeper

Nexans was the first to manufacture and install a 384 fibre submarine cable. Nexans has qualified and installed their URC-1 cable family for fibre counts up to 384 fibres.

For further information please contact:

Nexans Norway AS P.O. Box 6450 Etterstad

N-0605 Oslo Norway

Phone: +47 22 88 61 00

Fax: +47 22 88 61 01

Erik Rynning Sales & Project Manager Offshore:

“We produced the so far world’s deepest umbilical which was installed at 2350 metre in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Telecom: Rolf Bøe

Phone: +47 22 88 62 23

E-mail: rolf.boe@nexans.com

Oil & Gas: Jon Seip

Phone: +47 22 88 62 22

E-mail: jon.seip@nexans.com

AFRICANS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES

(WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS)

“The wind of change is blowing through this continent and, whether we like it or not, this growth of [African] national consciousness is a political fact”

I had the privilege to go to Togo in West Africa last year at the invitation of Togo Telecom, a member of the West Africa Festoon System consortium. Finding that there was no direct flight from the U.S. to Togo did nothing to dispel my qualms about going there, nor did the doctor’s advice which ran to ten pages. However, the sixteen hour flight punctuated by a stop in Paris was not unpleasant and, as we touched down at Lome airport, I remarked to myself on how lush this sub-Saharan strip of territory is.

The passport stamping process was disappointingly efficient and conducted in a very relaxed atmosphere, transport was laid on, and soon I found myself in the hotel lobby. A room in noticeably pristine condition was waiting for me and all the amenities worked. “Aha!” I thought, “I bet there’s no international telephone line.” Shortly thereafter, I was talking to my wife on a line that was considerably clearer than the one I get from Verizon Wireless in Massachusetts and the tariff was similar!

The point of my anecdotal ramblings is to highlight how we, representatives of the developed world, have preconceptions and prejudices about the developing world which create a sense of reality ranging from rabidly delusional to just a little skewed. These stereotypes prevent us from seeing a continent, a people, an economy, and a business environment with its fair share of problems and some potential.

So I say that it is time to look at Africa with a fresh perspective and clearly I am not alone. Yes, of course Bono and Bob Geldof are with me and maybe also, for the time being at least, Paul Wolfowitz. But there seem to be a lot of less prominent entities that are also sensing the wind of change. Among these entities are the telecom investors, some entrepreneurs and some blue chip incumbents, who have suddenly developed the nerve to suggest that a submarine cable system connecting a region of well over 800 million albeit mainly impoverished people to the rest of the world might actually make economic sense.

The quotation at the top of this article is from a speech made by Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister, in Cape Town in 1960. Yes, that’s right. His words appear to be relevant today, almost fifty years after they were uttered. Things take a long time to develop in Africa. In the last fifteen years, only ten submarine projects which included landings on the African continent outside of the Mediterranean were proposed. Interestingly, of these ten seemingly risky projects, only one crazy notion to encircle the entire continent with a single cable system was actually abandoned!

By Julian Rawle

And it is not just about Africa that I make these comments. Sitting down to dinner with the family of a former Foreign Minister of Cyprus, I was quizzed by a couple of glamorous aunts about my experiences of living and working in Russia. Having explained to them that not everything you see in the Media is what it appears to be, one of these fine educated ladies asked, “But do they have television?”

Now, the revival of the worldwide submarine fiber optic market has touched even the shores of Africa. Suddenly, we have fourteen domestic and international projects with African content at various stages of development (see Exhibit 1). For sure, there is a lot of posturing and competition for the same limited amounts of available capital so this time round, the percentage of “drop-outs” will be higher but it is clear that Africa is finally going to become better connected to the rest of the world and maybe also at lower prices.

There are a number of reasons to think that this time the prospects for an African submarine fiber optic market are real. First of all, I go back to Macmillan’s words and focus on the premonition of a developing national consciousness. In today’s parlance, I think this means that “Africans are doing it for themselves”. Until recently, African

Exhibit : African Cable Systems – Existing, Planned, & Proposed

Cable Name Owners Status RFS Year

Glo-1 Globacom

Planned TBA

Europe-South Africa Infraco, Eskom, Tata/Neotel Proposed TBA

Madagascar-South Africa MTPC (Madagascar) Proposed TBA

Mozambique-South Africa Telkom SA, TDM Proposed TBA

Namibia Festoon Namibia Telecom Proposed ?

Neptune (Nigeria Festoon) Unknown Proposed ?

FLAG NGN System 2 Reliance/FLAG Telecom Planned 2009

SEACOM Sithe, Herakles Telecom Proposed 2009

WAFS Consortium Planned 2008

EASSy Consortium Proposed 2008

Kenya Data Network Kenya Data Networks, FLAG/Reliance? Proposed 2008

TEAMS (East African Marine System) Telkom Kenya, Etisalat Proposed 2008

Adonis (Angola Festoon) Angola Telecom Planned 2007

West Africa Consortium Proposed 2007

MNBTN TDM In service 2002

Africa ONE Africa One Project abandoned 2002

SAFE Consortium In service 2001

SAT-3/WASC Consortium In service 2001

Libya Fiber Optic Network (LFON) GPTC Libya In service 1999

Cape Verde Domestic Cabo Verde Telecom In service 1998

Nigerian Domestic Nitel In service 1997

APC Consortium In service 1993

SAT-2 Consortium In service 1993

Eurafrica FT, Portugal Telecom, C&W, and IAM In service 1992

Source: Pioneer Consulting Submarine Fiber Optic Cable Database

submarine cable projects have been driven to a large extent by external non-African investors who have this skewed view of African risk and an imperfect understanding of the market. But now we are seeing African nations asserting themselves. At least one generation of Africans have benefited from student exchange programs and migrant visas enabling them both to learn and earn capital which they are now plowing back into their home countries. I am not suggesting for a minute that Africa is yet selfsufficient in either know-how or capital but I do think that the tide has turned.

The second driver of growth in the African submarine fiber optic market is the mobile phone. While traditional measures of fixed line teledensity remain pitiful in many African countries, mobile penetration, thanks to cheap handsets and innovative marketing schemes, has gone through the roof. I have heard naysayers who point out that the infrastructure has been obliterated by civil war, or that people cannot afford to feed themselves let alone own a phone, and yet mobile penetration in Africa continues to rise. Over the past 10 years mobile ownership across Africa has grown by an average of nearly 60% per year. While low

ownership of personal computers in the African continent is an impediment to bandwidth demand growth, thanks to Internet Cafes and other shared terminal arrangements, African Internet user penetration has grown by a compound average of almost 50% p.a. over the last 10 years.

Exhibit 2 shows how Pioneer Consulting is forecasting trends in these key traffic streams over the next 15 years. Note that Voice and Corporate Data (IPLC) traffic become swamped by IP traffic from fixed and mobile terminals.

Exhibit 2: (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Forecast African International Submarine Capacity Demand Profile 2007-2020

For obvious reasons, broadband has yet to really make an impact on the African market but ownership of digital mobile phones is increasing rapidly, 3G technology is already prevalent, and even Wi-MAX is beginning to appear in the continent. By 2020, Pioneer Consulting is forecasting that more than 50% of mobile users in leading African economies will be using 3G technology and almost 10% will be 4G users. Even 2.5G technology allows for some IP data transfer and the content is coming, not from within Africa, but from North America, France, Spain, Portugal, and Germany, hence the need for new connectivity to Europe.

Another major driver is the desire among African nations to be more connected with each other. While some might argue that the soap opera which has characterized the EASSy project highlights the fractiousness of intra-African relations, particularly when South Africa is viewed as a threat, the West Africa Festoon System is proceeding with far less rancor and therefore less publicity. A number of domestic festoon systems, such as Angola’s “Adonis” project, highlight the fact that submarine infrastructure with the minimum of terrestrial backhaul can be an attractive economic alternative to building terrestrial networks which are more vulnerable to theft and damage from conflict.

Of course there are also many demand constraints to be addressed in this market, not least of which is political stability. It seems that as soon as one conflict dies down in one part of Africa another takes hold elsewhere in the continent. This will have a serious impact on the outcome of the recent spate of African submarine cable announcements, especially if trouble comes to some of the leading economic powers. Exhibit 3 highlights the potential growth that Pioneer is forecasting in some of these leading states, IF political stability can be achieved / maintained.

Exhibit 3: (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Forecast African CAGR’s in Submarine Capacity Demand 2005-2020

Although the transition to black majority rule has been achieved relatively smoothly in South Africa, the government is facing increasing pressure to deliver on its promises of a better future. On the one hand, Telkom South Africa provides a healthy revenue stream but, on the other, TSA has been accused by ministers of being anti-competitive. Some have gone as far as to suggest using government assets to construct a new system to compete with SAT-3.

Nigeria is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in Africa but the recent elections have caused unrest and dissatisfaction with President Obasanjo’s administration. Also, strikes in the telecom sector are common. Nevertheless, Globacom has resurrected its “Glo-1” cable project from Nigeria to UK via Spain although it remains to be seen whether an ongoing marine survey turns into an actual installation.

Morocco is a shining example of a forwardlooking African state which privatized its telecom incumbent, introduced competition, and now benefits from above average growth.

Kenya should also be a driving force in African telecom but the government’s current preoccupation with resisting South Africa / NEPAD’s real or imagined push for hegemony is leaving investors and partners uncertain whether to commit.

“Africa always brings something new” wrote Pliny nearly 2,000 years ago. Like Macmillan’s quote, Pliny’s words still seem to be reverberating: new opportunities, new uncertainties but this author at least is optimistic (or is it pessimistic?) that the next generation of Africans will know who Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are and will be fluent in Swahili text messaging.

RAWLE, MBA Managing Partner

Julian is well-known throughout the submarine fiber optic industry for his insightful market analysis and project management skills. He has worked in emerging and developed international markets for nearly 20 years with blue-chip companies such as Global Marine, NTT, Cable & Wireless, Chevron, and BP. Since joining Pioneer in 2001, Julian has led projects for clients from all segments of the submarine fiber optic industry and continues to publish his research on submarine fiber optic markets around the world. In addition to regular quotes in the Press and articles for industry publications, he regularly chairs industry conferences.

JULIAN

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Letter to a friend from Jean Devos

My dear Friend,

Let’s pray.

My Dear Friend

“Botany Bay”

We are going to meet very soon at SubOptic 2007 in Baltimore. I look forward to this and let’s be frank; I am even excited about seeing you again after all these years. We are both quite old guys in this industry. We are so linked to it, so attached to it, that the idea to not attend this event just never came to our minds. We are members of this family! It is an essential element of our own identity.

I published recently a modest novel, whose title is Botany Bay. It is the place in Australia where Alcatel established a submarine cable factory in 1989 as part of its contract for the Tasman 2 link. In this same bay, where two centuries before the French expedition

might think we are crazy, that this is just about business practices, bottom lines, fierce competition, bloody battles, tricky ways, posturing, bravado etc.

and l’Astrolabe, landed in 1788 to discover that Captain Cook was already around bearing the British flag. So Botany Bay is now for me the symbol of a dream which becomes a reality!

They are wrong.

Warrior event was still in everyone’s memory. It is for these reasons among others that STC (UK) rejected the Alcatel‘s suggestion to come with a joint bid, to offer a “European” solution.

One of the winning factors has been the Port-Botany cable factory. Such a factory was a strong requirement from OTC (now Telstra) and the Australian Government.

Alcatel was the most motivated. Such a factory could expand its influence in the Pacific where the three other players were historically well established in this region, which represents a large part of their market. They saw this factory as a risk for their existing facilities!

putting our capabilities at serving the real need of human beings, that we are proud of doing what we do, the way we do, that the future will be brighter for everyone. We need to sense a taste, an appetite for cooperation. We need to feel the blowing winds of adventure and enterprise.

SubOptic ‘87 in Versailles came at the right time. It is where the Australian teams discovered the French model, a close cooperation between Alcatel and FT, exactly what they wanted to establish in their country.

But let’s make no mistake. What really counts for us is faith not religion, not dogma. We have no problem to see the language evolving, the rules changing, the subjects of the sermons being new, the style of the preaching friars being different as long as we can sense the faith, the trust, the loyalty, the belief, the conviction.

Tasman 2 has been yet another chapter in this long Anglo-French competition! The award to Alcatel came out as a big surprise to many, including inside Alcatel. Everybody was naturally expecting the British to win that battle, and such an expectation was at that time very logical.

What we expect also is to hear and meet the real leaders of our community. We expect them to bring the food we need to invigorate, revitalize, and rejuvenate our faith. We need back the enthusiasm! They need to be mystic and prophetic.

My friend, things are changed since, but one thing stays true: When you offer something, the reader can see between the lines if you are or not genuinely motivated and sincere. Then your offer becomes really attractive and this opens the route to “Botany Bay.”

See you soon.

More than that, we are going to attend a ritual, a practice, a ceremony, a service and even a sacrament. Yes, we are in that mood, in such disposition! Some people

“La Pérouse” made of two ships, La Boussole

We hope to feel in the atmosphere of this gathering the conviction that we are all working for a better world; that we enjoy

There were so many difficulties and misunderstanding between Australia and France, the main one being the French presence in the Pacific area, the worse being the nuclear bomb experiment in Tahiti! The sad Rainbow

Jean Devos

Let’s pray, my brother! Amen!

Submarcom Consulting

Jean Devos

Figure 1. (CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN) Cable route planners can now link plan and profile views to efficiently manage the cable route design process. Routes are edited using click and drag techniques and precise RPL and cable assembly lists and diagrams are created automatically.

2. (CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN) Geotiffs can easily be created from the survey data and inserted into the GIS database, thereby enhancing the quality of the information available on any given site.

Figure

Figure 3. (CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN) User can interactively create and modify the routes and reference lines, and depth profiles and slope graphs are automatically generated.

Figure 4. (CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN) Example of cable suspension analysis for two different tensions.

Exhibit 2: (CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN) Forecast African International Submarine Capacity Demand

SubTel Forum Issue #32 - Regional Systems

Alcatel-Lucent Lands Atlas Offshore in Marseille

AT&T to Invest $750 Million-Plus Globally in 2007

Azea Networks Secures $20 Million

Cable Laid for New Deep-Sea Observatory

Corning Optical Fiber Selected for SHEFA-2

General Cable to Acquire NSW

Global Marine Announces 100-Day Canyon Offshore Charter

Maldives President Inaugurates WARF Cable

Upgrade and Extension

Mermaid Offshore order a SMD Hydrovision Quasar Compact ROV system

Finder Project

NEC and Alcatel-Lucent Win Contract to Supply AAG Submarine Cable

New Digs for IT International Telecom

Phoenix Announces Completion of Crane Installation

Sea Grapnel

SBSS Completes Marine Installation of BP Tangguh Subsea Cable

Science Cable to Be Laid in Monterey Bay

Telstra Formally Unveils New Submarine Cable

TRAI Releases Draft Regulation on Access to Landing Stations

Tyco Awarded Contract to Complete

Cable System (SEACOM) Marine Survey

World Bank to Fund Africa Infrastructure Program

SubOptic 2007: “The Event and Beyond”

Global Marine Systems Limited at SubOptic2007

Industry Update

Optical Systems for Offshore Platforms

Introduction

Connectivity

Capacity Requirements

Network Designs

The Last Mile

Marine Operations

Topside Connections

Avoiding the “Bends” by Specifying the Correct Fiber

Demands on Undersea Fiber

Cable Requirements and Cost Considerations

NEW TOOLS FOR CABLE ROUTE PLANNING

Inc., Hawaii, USA

1. CABLE ROUTE PLANNING

1.1 INCORPORATING DIGITAL TERRAIN DATA IN THE ROUTE PLANNING PROCESS

1.2 SLOPE ANALYSIS TOOLS

2.2 ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR CABLE SUSPENSIONS

2. CONCLUSIONS

At submarine depths, Nexans goes deeper

AFRICANS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES

Exhibit : African Cable Systems – Existing, Planned, & Proposed

Exhibit 2: (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Exhibit 3: (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

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Letter to a friend from Jean Devos

My Dear Friend

Exhibit : African Cable Systems – Existing, Planned, & Proposed