On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 23:07:16 -0000 "Rod Beck" <Rod.Beck@hiberniaatlantic.com> wrote:
Hi Steve,
TransAtlantic cables average three repairs a year. That's the industry average. So given 7 high capacity cable systems, that's 21 repairs a year.
Now, not all damaged cables go out of service. In fact, most stay in service until the repair begins.
But the public rarely hears about a TransAtlantic cable going dark. Yet it does happen quite regularly in the business.
Why? Because there are seven very high capacity (multi-terabit) systems to route traffic across! There is no need to announce to the public that a cable been cut.
That is not the case in the Midterranean or the Persian Gulf.
You have only a few systems (relatively low capacity) serving a huge population. In fact, I suspect Flag is probably the sole provider for many of these countries.
So yes, when the only guy in town falls down, it's going to be noticed.
I hope you're right. As I noted, by profession I'm paranoid. I've even contemplated the uses of deliberate cable cuts; see http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/papers/reroute.pdf for some thoughts from five years ago. But I hope you're right. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb